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, what could go wrong! After a while (and you know what's coming) I got a good bite which resulted in the rod bending double under the canoe.... F#*@K what the hell is this? I was so careful as this thing was BIG (I reckoned over 20lb easily from my carp catching experience) but this wasn't a carp... no way. It didn't run off like a carp just went round in lumbering circles, I got back a metre of line now and again, edging it closer and closer to the surface then it would dive again in the deep water under the spillway (I reckon 20ft deep at least). This went on for over 25 minutes... my girlfriend said "I hope you don't lose it"... shhhhhh don't bloody say that you'll put the mockers on it!!! Any way carefully and slowly I got this THING closer and closer to the surface until I was sure another turn of the handle and I would see it.... the net is ready.... THEN the line broke at the hook.... F#@$**&%@$#!....

Gutted, never caught a Murray Cod before or since, couldn't sleep in the tent that night and I often think of that fateful evening... the longest paddle back to camp, got rid of the girlfriend, still got the canoe and have never really got over it... ALL TRUE!

Would love to hear similar tales, as we all have them, probably most of us have more than one...

MERRY XMAS TO ALL DRIVE SAFE AND DON'T DRINK TOO MUCH... tight lines F.T.

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 reconstituted cork end (you can use the natural cork end but it's not so resilient). I stick this centrally to the end of the bomb with two part epoxy glue and wait till it goes off. Then it is a simple job to sand the cork to the contour of the bomb with sand paper or on the grinding wheel. Job finished... to use the PLUMMET go through the swivel ring with the hook and float (already attached to the line) and simply stick the hook into the cork, cast out and adjust the float until you get the required depth, take the PLUMMET off and add the final weights to the rig to make the float "cock" properly. Never seen them sold in Australia, but why would you buy one when they are so easy to make.

If any one wants to know how to set a float to 25mm to the depth of the water let me know and I will explain...

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 body. In the summer I add a bit of that proprietary ground bait for sea fishing that is orange... can't remember what it is called but it has very strong tuna scent. The secret to ground baiting in WINTER, little and often (half golf ball size), don't feed them off, SUMMER three big cricket ball lumps in then smaller balls regularly. I was at Walker Flat the other week Kayaking in the lagoon and had 2 hours in front of the service station with a rod, while my partner supplied me with a hot pie and coffee. lobbed in lots of ground bait and no bites for 3/4hour then they turned up and it was a bite a cast, biggest just over 10lb, great little session. Costs nothing and DEFINTELY makes a difference to catch rates.

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 (it will taint the bread as it is a 2 part chemical) also VERY IMPORTANT have the flat face-off the wood  a 5-7mm  shy of the end of the brass tube ( see bottom punch.) This is because when you push this (and it is only a mini biscuit cutter after all) into the bread it will automatically compress the bread and that will stay on the hook for longer.  You can put two different diameter casings on each end which gives you options for punch size... the size variants are endless (I have used a leather punch on occasions too!)... Lastly as an optional finish, varnish the handle and you're ready to go.

Last week Mr. Crabtree and myself wanted to get some carp for crab bait and we are also going to try and catch some small sharks with them too, so we thought if we could catch 10 - 15 carp around the 1/2-3/4kg size and freeze them, next time we go to "Yorks" we can play around. So we fished exclusively with bread punch on 12 hooks and got 15 fish quite quickly. I always buy the cheapest, freshest white, thick sliced bread, I get two or three slices and flatten it between fingers and thumb ( you can use a rolling pin) and discard the crusts... 10 seconds in the microwave also makes the flattened bread a bit rubbery ... just what you want. Then like a biscuit cutter, 'punch' the flattened bread and put the hook into the middle of the bread whilst still in the punch and lever it out. If you have never fished punch before ( it does work best with a float) you will be surprised how well compressed bread will stay on a hook, once you have a bite though, you will have to check to make sure you still have bait on.

I reckon one day, I caught about 40 fish on two slices of bread, can't get any cheaper than that.... any questions please don't hesitate to ask!

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 make bank sticks, keep nets, plummets, cage feeders, bite indicators for use with bite alarms, disgorgers, bread punches, sit on tackle boxes, tackle box carrier, rod tube holder and what ever else I find in my tackle box that I have made!

All the best mate...

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 freshwater. The bodies are made from balsa wood which I turn on a small lathe, but you can also easily whittle then to shape with a sharp knife or stick them in a drill chuck, I always finish with fine sandpaper and fine wire wool. Carefully one end needs to be drilled to accept the stem, which I make from peacock quill or even better native reed stem (I always use the type of reeds that have the fluffy top and the stems are like mini bamboo, there's masses on most river banks (must be dry and brown not green) Always cut at a node so the tube is buoyant.   I superglue this into the balsa body. At the other end I glue in a short piece of bamboo skewer ready to have a safety pin eye whipped on and the whipping superglued.

To strengthen the main shaft, as you can see from the photo I do some decorative whipping nearly to the top, this does strengthen it considerably, we are now ready to  apply a base white top (cheapest way is to get some flat white acrylic paint, a sample pot from Bunnings is ideal) The florescent top is just a can of that Hi Vis stuff they spray on the road to mark where they are going to dig holes etc. I shake it well and spray some on a bit of paper or the like a use a small brush and paint over the flat white base down to almost the end of the white.. it dries very quickly!

Now all you need to do is varnish the whole thing, any varnish will do as they are not exposed to the weather much, I use a stain varnish (walnut) as this gives me an attractive brown effect.

As you can see all the floats are different, it's good to experiment and see what suits the type of fishing you want to do, they are so cheap to make and work much better than bought ones.

Hope you like that.... have a go, it's great to catch a fish on home crafted gear as I did today a 17+lb carp... any questions please don't hesitate to ask, and if you ever meet me on the bank please ask for a FREE float I will be only too willing to let you have one.