How many different types of float do you keep in your armory?

[BoldBear]

On another forum someone said (with their tongue in cheek) that they wondered if the so called specialized floats were all that they where made out to be, and that they had often thought that as long as a float is dotted down very fine then surely the smallest of fish would show an indication or even submerse it to indicate a bite.

I think the answer to his query is that if a smallish float is dotted down and was shotted correctly then 'yes' it should indicate a bite from the smallest of fish but only as long as the bait is presented in the way the fish wanted it; and the different types of float help you to do this.

If you find that you only fish Canals and Comercials then I doubt if you would need more than four or five different types of float, but if you tend to fish a lot of different types of water then you may need a greater range of float types; unless you prefer legering on most of the other types of water of course.

I float fish on Commercials, Lakes, Gravel Pits, Ponds, Streams, Rivers and even the very occasional large Loch; and In my float armoury I have:

For fishing Stillwaters & Canals:
• Short peacock quills: for fishing the lift method for Tench.
• Straight Wagglers: for light sensitive waggler work within a couple of rod lengths out or when I need the float to drift along with a surface drag.
• Bodied long stemmed Wagglers for using when there is a lot of surface drag and I want to prevent my float from moving with the surface drag (the body helps to catch the undertow moving in the opposite direction to the surface tow)
• Loaded small Darts: for when I want to fish a little bit further out for very sensitive bites.
• Loaded Onions: for when I want to fish at range and when I want to fish tight against beds of lillies or the far bank, (they fly straighter, without the characteristic waggle that wagglers originally got their name from) and are great for fishing tight against obstacles at range if you don’t feather the line in flight so that the hook flies behind the float as it lands.
• Tiny tapered wagglers and Canal Greys for use when speed-fishing with a Whip.
• Pole floats for fishing under the Pole tip.
• Surface controllers: mainly for surface fishing for Carp.
• Pike floats (sunken and surface floats plus a few vaned floats for drifting)

Flowing Rivers:
• Sticks, Balsas and Avons: for differing bait presentations and differing current speeds and levels of turbulence.
• Slightly shorter stemmed bodied wagglers: for use if I am ever fishing in a strong downstream wind.

That’s about thirteen different types of float that I occasionally use although most of the time I may use just three or four different types and keep most of the others back home.

How about you? How many different types of float do you find yourself using and in what situations do you use them?

[chazyboi]

i have bodid waglers straight wagglers ,quills ,sticks wire and lig stemd perch bobbers in fact i have a lot of vintage ones of variouse shapes ,,,clear wagglers as well and variety of pike and sea floats

[chris.oldgit]

one of my favourite floats of all time is the porqupine quill.

light, various lengths, bouyant for size, very sensitive, more or less useable for any occasion.

still have a dozen or so.