FLOATMAN

Go on Pirate... get it off your chest!

Hi Guys... Not a lot has been happening so I thought I would try something different and that could be amusing to us ALL as I'm sure we ALL have a "One that got away... " tale, so here goes my best one to kick it off. About 20+ years ago I was fishing with an "old" girlfriend of mine at Qualco near lock 2 on the Murray, in my very distinctive Canadian Canoe "GOODOO". We decided under the cover of dusk to paddle to the lock and sneak past the bouys into the NO FISHING ZONE to catch some Callop for supper. I had a short cheap rod loaded with 6lb line and a 14 hook tipped with a single worm,

Is her name GLADYS, if not then I don't know her!!!!!

Great video Adrian, so lucky to have water like that nearby.

Hi fellas... As you know I am a float fisherman predominately, but not always, whenever I use a float and the majority of the times that I do, I fish the bait just touching bottom, but not too much over depth, so I need to know exactly how deep my swim is.To measure this I use a PLUMMET , of course I make my own, as they are so easy and cost virtually nothing. As you can see by the photo I start with a sinker/bomb with a swivel in the end, the end is cut off with a hacksaw. I grab hold of a champagne cork (which I obtain from an alcoholic friend of ours) and cut a small section off from the r

Well done Doobie, love to see people have a go, it's good fun and even better when you catch a fish on your OWN gear. When I make floats with cork and I do sometimes as they have built in casting weight. I try to use the reconstituted cork (Cork particleboard) if you like. It sands down better, you don't get lumps flying off.... the hardest bit as you have discovered is too get a reliable source of good corks from someone who's NOT an alcoholic!!! Champagne corks do seem to be the best...

Great fishing there LL, had your clutch set perfectly, that second fish just didn't want to come in, but they were all rippers especially the catfish. If you were above the weir, which I think you were, that is quite unusual to get a cattie there. Don't think you will forget that session in a hurry... WELL DONE great to see!

Hi Tinker, yep they do work better under a float but if you can't do that, you can, as I said before, use bigger "cookies" on a sinker, the leather punch sets give you a good range of bigger sizes. I have heard of anglers flavouring their bread with custard powder, curry powder, cumin.... but I always use mine 'natural' especially near to where people feed the ducks.... is that cheating? My ground bait mix is...90% white or brown bread (stale is best as it whizzes up better in a blender) then I add a small amount of chook pellets and cracked oats/wheat to the blender to give it a bit of b

What I did forget to mention, is that you don't want the bread to dry out, so keep it in a small flattish container, they sell them in the supermarkets, with the blue (or whatever colour) clamps on each side, then if it's sunny keep them in the shade.

Hi Guys, it's a bit quiet out there so I thought I would post the second instalment of my DIY tackle.... as you've heard me say before I get a lot of success with using Bread Punch on the hook, all my bread punches cost me nothing so here's how you can make some for your own tackle box. Firstly obtain some empty bullet casings of different sizes and cut the open ends off with a fine blade hacksaw, get some wooden dowel or any suitable solid tube and make the ends fit the bullet casings snugly. I glue mine in with Araldite but make sure the glue doesn't comeup past the flat face of the dowel

You don't need corrupting... us poms were brought up MATCH FISHING.... sometimes hundreds of anglers in a match, light lines, small hooks, burley/ground bait essential and small hooks. when we all invaded here, we kept to the same methods but because the fish had never been caught before you could go heavier with line , bigger with hooks and simpler ground bait, I remember my first match on the Torrens I fished 2lb line 14 hook and small straight wagglers... I got smashed up about 10 times, didn't take me long to wise up, I can tell you. At intervals I will let the guys know how to m

Looking at it again... maybe swap the burley cage to the base of the float and have the lighter cork ball down the line a bit, once the burley has dispersed, the small ball will still be an initial indicator after disappearing for a few seconds, I think that will stop the tangles!

Hi again DOOBIE, As you say lighter line can cause tangles, with my floats if I DON'T keep the shot bunched under the float, instead of going out like a dart it will cartwheel, then you get the tangles. So you need the bits of that rig spaced as is, otherwise it won't work, maybe you will have to work on a different cast, something gentler, under arm cast or sideways or let the tide/flow take it away from the boat. I have caught lots of Gar but I'm not an expert by any means... like your set up, you've obviously put a lot of thought into that, I hope you can cure the problem? Regards

Hi DOOBIE What you do is put a split shot either side of the ring to stop it sliding and set the depth (just touching bottom) and then load line with more split shot below ring to cock float so only the red is showing.... sounds complicated but when you've been doing it for as long as me it isn't... I have tried teaching non-float anglers and it takes a bit of time to twig-it.... but when you do, under the right circumstances, it will out fish most other methods. Hope that explains it a bit.... by the way where do you get your Fish and Chips , they look great!

As a keen COARSE/FRESHWATER angler I find I can't get some of my prefered tackle in Australia so I have to buy it online from the UK or make it myself, so as promised I will share some of my favourites over time in this set of posts... FLOATS... I am addicted to making floats, I love giving them away to people who fish like I do and HATE losing them. Most of my floats are wagglers, straight or bodied, as you can see from the photo they are all slightly different depending on what they are for, or where I am fishing, some can be used in saltwater for Gar and Tommies etc as well as in