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So I’ve got a little range of bolo floats.

Wayne Botley said:
They look great, Richard. What sort of depth are these mainly used for ? I fish the lower Itchen , a fast river but not very deep in places . What would happen if you was to shorten the wire stem on them ?
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Wayne, could you not just shorten the distance of line between the float and the hook, to fish shallower ?
 
Wayne Botley said:
They look great, Richard. What sort of depth are these mainly used for ? I fish the lower Itchen , a fast river but not very deep in places . What would happen if you was to shorten the wire stem on them ?
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All manner of depths and flow speeds I’m hoping Wayne.

I have shortened the stems on a lot of floats over the years where the intended use is to run through fast shallow water. I think some are just too long anyway and need a bit chopped off to be better more useable floats.

There’s definitely a limit you can go to before you start to effect stability and I don’t know what that limit is with these as i haven’t done enough with them to know.

Ian is right that by taking them down off the wire, you are increasing the amount of weight required to set them.
The stems are aluminum and pretty light still so you’d get away with an inch or so before seeing the weight difference effect the stick out

I’m going to fish a backwater at the weekend below a weir and I’ll be taking the floats. It’s very shallow and pacy down there. I’ll cut a couple stems down and see how they go.

Holding them back is what they are very very good at I’m finding and that is definitely helped by the addition of the weight in the stem so i wouldn’t want to go too mad chopping them up

Took them out for another short afternoon trip today to the nene main river
First cast…. Straight into a tree 🤦🏻‍♂️ they fly like arrows btw 😂

When i eventually did decide to stop pissing about in trees and start putting them in the river the action wasn’t great and I pressed on into darkness for 7 decent chub and a load of scratty bits.
Floats were great I’m really enjoying them.
Cant half see the things for miles.
IMG_7328.jpeg
IMG_7330.jpeg
 
Richard Isaacs said:
All manner of depths and flow speeds I’m hoping Wayne.

I have shortened the stems on a lot of floats over the years where the intended use is to run through fast shallow water. I think some are just too long anyway and need a bit chopped off to be better more useable floats.

There’s definitely a limit you can go to before you start to effect stability and I don’t know what that limit is with these as i haven’t done enough with them to know.

Ian is right that by taking them down off the wire, you are increasing the amount of weight required to set them.
The stems are aluminum and pretty light still so you’d get away with an inch or so before seeing the weight difference effect the stick out

I’m going to fish a backwater at the weekend below a weir and I’ll be taking the floats. It’s very shallow and pacy down there. I’ll cut a couple stems down and see how they go.

Holding them back is what they are very very good at I’m finding and that is definitely helped by the addition of the weight in the stem so i wouldn’t want to go too mad chopping them up

Took them out for another short afternoon trip today to the nene main river
First cast…. Straight into a tree 🤦🏻‍♂️ they fly like arrows btw 😂

When i eventually did decide to stop pissing about in trees and start putting them in the river the action wasn’t great and I pressed on into darkness for 7 decent chub and a load of scratty bits.
Floats were great I’m really enjoying them.
Cant half see the things for miles. View attachment 32652View attachment 32653
Click to expand...
Sounds good Richard I will have some when you are ready, the thickness of the top is a great idea, i struggle to see some of the shop brought floats,
 
Derek Funcks said:
Wayne, could you not just shorten the distance of line between the float and the hook, to fish shallower ?
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Yeh, it's just much prefer a shorter float . I find I get a lot more tangles with larger stem floats, when using olivette's for some reason. I end up just fishing chubber floats most of the time.
 
Wayne Botley said:
Yeh, it's just much prefer a shorter float . I find I get a lot more tangles with larger stem floats, when using olivette's for some reason. I end up just fishing chubber floats most of the time.
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Must admit it’s rare I ever get tangles with any stemmed float. I mostly use a centrepin with them and always feather or slow the rig down prior to it hitting the water so that it’s hitting the river in a straight line.
If you order some and don’t get on with them I’m happy to have them back, Last thing I want is for someone to be unhappy with something they’ve bought off me.
 
Wayne Botley said:
Yeh, it's just much prefer a shorter float . I find I get a lot more tangles with larger stem floats, when using olivette's for some reason. I end up just fishing chubber floats most of the time.
Click to expand...

Thats a strange senario Wayne, I always found a longer stem negates tangles round the float. You do need to use at least three rubbers, one pushed right down the sight tip to the body and two or three on the stem, the top one pushed right up to the bottom of the float body, one half on, half off the bottom of the stem and if using three rubbers the third on half way up the stem.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
Must admit it’s rare I ever get tangles with any stemmed float. I mostly use a centrepin with them and always feather or slow the rig down prior to it hitting the water so that it’s hitting the river in a straight line.
If you order some and don’t get on with them I’m happy to have them back, Last thing I want is for someone to be unhappy with something they’ve bought off me.
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To be honest it's probably user error, I'm still getting used to trotting rivers , always ledgered before, but there's nothing quite like it when you get it right, and the float goes under.
 
Ian Woods said:
Thats a strange senario Wayne, I always found a longer stem negates tangles round the float. You do need to use at least three rubbers, one pushed right down the sight tip to the body and two or three on the stem, the top one pushed right up to the bottom of the float body, one half on, half off the bottom of the stem and if using three rubbers the third on half way up the stem.
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I do use three rubbers , like I said to Richard, probably my error , I will try feathering the line more thou
 
Made little bit of an error here with the setting weight of the biggest float. It’s not 8g it’s actually 10g

Personally I think that’s better as it’s a size I use frequently on the big rivers like the Trent
The 6g is spot on at 6g

I’m also going to offer one more size down which I’m hoping is around 4g
 
Richard Isaacs said:
All manner of depths and flow speeds I’m hoping Wayne.

I have shortened the stems on a lot of floats over the years where the intended use is to run through fast shallow water. I think some are just too long anyway and need a bit chopped off to be better more useable floats.

There’s definitely a limit you can go to before you start to effect stability and I don’t know what that limit is with these as i haven’t done enough with them to know.

Ian is right that by taking them down off the wire, you are increasing the amount of weight required to set them.
The stems are aluminum and pretty light still so you’d get away with an inch or so before seeing the weight difference effect the stick out

I’m going to fish a backwater at the weekend below a weir and I’ll be taking the floats. It’s very shallow and pacy down there. I’ll cut a couple stems down and see how they go.

Holding them back is what they are very very good at I’m finding and that is definitely helped by the addition of the weight in the stem so i wouldn’t want to go too mad chopping them up

Took them out for another short afternoon trip today to the nene main river
First cast…. Straight into a tree 🤦🏻‍♂️ they fly like arrows btw 😂

When i eventually did decide to stop pissing about in trees and start putting them in the river the action wasn’t great and I pressed on into darkness for 7 decent chub and a load of scratty bits.
Floats were great I’m really enjoying them.
Cant half see the things for miles. View attachment 32652View attachment 32653
Click to expand...


Kinell !....is that mesh deep enough 😮.

I think out of the floats I fancy the 6 and 4 gram'ers and prolly the thicker sight tips 🙂.
 
It’s important I Just make people wanting some of these aware,

It needs to be said to avoid any expectation confusion.

these are hand made floats and the bodies are modified by me by hand and eye to suit the way I want the floats.
They are made at speed so they can be priced to sell and compete with mass produced floats.
Please don’t expect 2 to be identical in every way. If you do,….. please buy just machine made floats instead.

Examples of hand made cosmetic flaws would be
A little varnish run, a slightly longer stem, a slightly off set tip, slightly longer and shorter tips

None of the above effects the floats performance at all, and any discrepancies are going to be small or I would reject them.
I could spend hours on them getting every single one mm perfect and true but no one would buy them if I factored in that amount of time into the cost.

I’m positive people taking them will love them as much as I do, it just needs to be said so you know what your getting. Like the feeders I make, as I do more and more the cosmetic flaws will be less and less and things will flow faster too.

I’ll be ready to sell some next week
The floats in stock must go first then I’ll make to order. 👍🏻
 
Are you selling them in batches Rich, if so, what's the minimum order ?

I,ll take a dozen of 4 and 6 gram please ( 6 of each, 3 of each colour ) with the thicker stems please.
 
Derek Funcks said:
Are you selling them in batches Rich, if so, what's the minimum order ?

I,ll take a dozen of 4 and 6 gram please ( 6 of each, 3 of each colour ) with the thicker stems please.
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I’ll be clearing the stock I’ve built up first Derek, but probably do a minimum order of 6 which makes the postage costs more viable than say 2-3
 
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