floats

[ctom]

For years I have favored the #2 or #3 Thill Mini-Stealth float for crappie fishing but they've been totally unavailable for the last three years so I started making my own version of the floats. These are very close to the size three and work great with 1/24 and 1/16 jigs with plastics up to 2-1/2". I laminate different sizes of balsa to get a 5/8" thick slab with a 1/8" hollow between two 1/4" wide pieces so I end up with square pieces of laminated balsa that are 1-1/2" in length. I cut off two inch 10-32 bolts and thread the threaded portion into the hollow about 3/4" then chuck the butt end in my dremel and shape the pieces using coarse sheet rock sanding screen and finish them with 400 grit sandpaper. A couple dips in thinned lacquer then the white, yellow and orange dips are done. 1/8"acrylic rod cut to 1-1/2" with a 3/64" hole drilled in one end make the stems which then get glued in the bodies about 3/4". A couple dips in CS Seal Coat and they're ready to rock. The red silicone tubing is placed on the stems so changing from a slip type float to a static float is quick and uncomplicated.

These floats without anything attached to them lay flat on the water. With as little as 1/64 ounce they stand upright in the water and will support up to 1/16 ounce easily. ANY upward hit, crappies are notorious for upward hits, and the float will instantly flop over flat on the water. For shallow water up to about 4 feet I rig these as a static float which can be adjusted for depth by simply holding the float body in one hand and the line above in the other and sliding the float to the depth wanted. AS a slip float for deeper water they really work slick. When I drill the stems I also use a small tapered cutting bit from my dremel collection and hand turn the bit to put a tapered on the hole on both sides of the stem. This makes line contact thru the stem minimal and in very deep water the jigs sail right down and the floats go upright very quickly even with light jig rigs.

With the recurrence of much cooler weather my air brushing ideas got slabbed so I have been making floats the last couple days to bide my time. I have enough for my buddy and I now.

 

[Fishermanbt]

Superb craftsmanship. Those are very nice.

[Shaunm81]

Looks good great job  I like them.  Yeah it's hard finding good bobbers these days or atleast here it is.

[Apdriver]

Tom those look great and the craftsmanship is beyond nice. The other day I was looking for a Gene Larew bait and ran across the Pradco website. Didn’t know they had purchased so many old bait company’s. Thill is one of their products and certainly one of my all time favorite slip floats. Anyway, they still make many designs for those of us that aren’t nearly as skilled as you. Taking nothing away from your work, it’s wonderful.

https://www.lurenet.com/brands/thill-floats

[ctom]

Thanks guys.

AP....lurenet has been sold out of the Mini-Stealth float for three years now. Several others listed under thills page are also sold out and have been a couple years. While Thill is an English company, or was, they were made in-country. I'm thinking China is making the floats now and that may have something to do with the unavailability.

[21xdc]

Those are too nice to use.

[ctom]

I doin't know 21. I usually stick with the idea that nothing is too nice to use. If such a critter exits, I sure don't own it. lol BVut thanks for the compliment!

[ctom]

Here I've done something a bit different in that I am using a black stem that I have salvaged from my hearing aid filter applicator sticks. The black plastic sticks is free, but I am not certain on durability. I did up ten floats using them to check out. The white acrylic stems are somewhat resilient and offer a bit of flex if they bounce off something, just not sure how the black will pan out. In all ways other than the toughness they are handled the same. I drill the 3/64s hole and use the small high speed reamer by hand to internally taper the holes on each side. The stems are identical in length and diameter and are handled the same so the benefit, it they work, seems a no brainer. Gotta try.

In the picture if one looks at the black stem on the right and above the floats you can see a slight taper, from 1/8" at the stick's center to about 1/16" at the end, which along with the tapering of the holes makes for a very small degree of surface area for the line to drag on when the jig is dropping down so the drop shop be fairly quick. All of the floats I've shown have the beveled holes just for this purpose and trials using holes not tapered show that the line drop is somewhat slower. Its noticeable but not by a lot.

I'm hoping that the black stems will make the cut but if not the acrylic stock isn't too terribly expensive, $3.00 to make about 36 stems.

Being retired allows me plenty of free time and I get to thinking about things. These floats are no exception. The only part I don't like is the dust while shaping the bodies. I wear a mask and so far haven't had much for issues other than the dust that gets brought in the house even after hitting my carcass with the vacuum. I may rig up the shop vac to the bench edge to try to pull the dust away from me when shaping but so far the rotation of the dremel pust the dust on me first so that'll take a little more though. I do love the floats though.

[ctom]

For those who may not understand how these floats get rigged as a fixed float I will post this picture to try and help out.



The float on the left is fully rigged, the float on the right shows the sequence of the parts to get one rigged. Once the float has been slipped up on the line the first silicone sleeve is pushed up the line and over the end of the stem including the line. Then the second sleeve is slipped into place, spaced about like you see here. I run the top sleeve right to the base of the float body. Once the float has been rigged on the line simply tie on your choice if hook options, in this case the jig. For depth adjustment the float will slide up or down fairly easy, yet there is enough tension from the two bands to keep the float at that depth setting. Even very vigorous casting will not move it. Rigged as a fixed float they are easy and effective to fish to depths around 4 feet. Regardless of the depth set, if ANY upward lift is applied the float immediately lays over on its side signaling the hit.

[Les Young]

Outstanding floats Tom.