Good point Philip, but once you cut the stems at the top and the bottom, that lets water in. I suppose you could try to just seal the ends, but I like to have a colour on my floats, so in order for the paint to stick, I remove the outer coating. If you like the idea of keeping the float its natural colour, you could always try to seal the ends and just paint the tip. I would be very interested to see if it lasted, so please keep me posted.
I still have some that I made with peacock quills and bamboo skewers inserted into either end! Theyre not perfectly straight but they work well enough and more satisfying to see your own handiwork functioning. I hope to make some neater ones following this advice.
Den, I fished a new lake the other day and there were numerous dead reeds in the margins so I took several home to make floats BUT out of about 30' of reeds I only found around 3' of reeds that didn't crush under a light squeeze. I assume these aren't really a suitable type. The hole in the centre doesn't need drilling out to take the inserts, in fact it is too big. I think I need a different reed. These were the ones with the furry tops.
Interesting twist John. I assume you added a ring to the base of the float to attach the split ring? It's a pity RU-vid doesn't allow images to be added to comments so we can see what you did.
I used the same idea as John, when making your wagglers Den. Split pins are available on Ebay in diameters from 1mm up and lengths from 15mm up. I used 2.5mm and 40mm long (10pence ea) and cut them to size to get the required weight. Great channel, I’m going to have a go at the box next, have started with all the accessories first and will use them on my old box.
Hi. If you collect them in the Winter, they will be completely brown, (presumably due to a lack of chlorophyll). The walls will also be pretty solid unlike in Summer when they are green and pliant. (Winter here is not as cold as the UK, but the same type of reeds are available).
