Do the Floats work ?

Brown - put back

lots of Perch - put back

Tiger Trout - put back

Rainbow Trout - put in freezer

Yes !

Avons Painted

Following on from the last post ;-)
Tip 1" and stem 2" and I decided to whip a smaller eye (than the Reed floats) on, then painted with Acrylic paint

then x3 coats of Yacht varnish with 24 hours between coats, hung over stove to dry

***** Gone Fishing

Teddys' Avons

The 'Whipping' tool turns into a Lathe

cutting 2" of 1/2" Balsa wood dowel and drilling from either end

then super gluing a BBQ skewer through

 before sanding with a Nail file sandpaper board

 just to descide tip and stem length then seal, paint and varnish don't think I'll whip an eye on but use a thin silicone rubber top and bottom to hold it on the line.
Work in progress.

Reed Floats part 2

Thought I'd have a play with my new 'Whipping' tool

but first I made some Bobbin holders rather than keep swaping cotton

 then I had the idea to make them semi self cocking to save shotting on the line

Here's the first batch

Just thought I'd share

Reed Fishing Floats

Decided to make a batch of Reed and BBQ Bamboo (skewer) Floats
So an Expedition for some Reeds

Think I've enough

needed a holder to keep them organised so while Mrs QDanT was out took over the Kitchen

then back to the front room

the Bamboo tips and stem glued in with Super glue

came up with a Mk2 mod for the holder

used thin Brass picture wire wrapped round a nail to form an eye before whipping on

painted the tip with Acrylic white then x2 coats of Fluorescent Orange then painted the whole Float with clear two part Epoxy,

it said 30 minutes working time but after 5 minutes it was like trying to paint Snot so I only mixed a little
and painted them x4 at a time any left over, painted on the next eye whippings to give me somewhere to hold when dry

While making these I found an Oak gall and made one out of it, it turned out well so :-
I went out on an ‘Oak Apple’ expedition and managed to find some down the old disused railway line and seen as this was near the ‘Punchbowl Inn’ sat out in the sunshine for a few pints and a pipe thinking about making the eye whipping easier. Back home and down to the Shed and a route in my ‘scrap (it’ll come in handy one day) bin’ then out with the welder to make :-

 lots of control being hand turned

and the Oak apple lends itself to beeing drilled through by already having one hole in where the Wasp came out

 with it threaded through the Oak apple I used the 'tail stock width of 2" to cut the extra Bamboo off then a drop of Super glue, a coat of white Acrylic and two Orange, it was then coated with two part clear Epoxy, as the Reed Floats

It lends it's self to doing some fancy whipping to re-enforce the Reed floats, here's one waiting to be painted orange then this time I'm going to try Yatch varnish as the top coat instead of Epoxy