STICK FLOAT FISHING - THE MAIDEN VOYAGE OF AN IRWELL STICK FLOAT.

A REVIEW OF MIKES STICK FLOATS BY THE CASTERMAN.

After all the hard work Mike had put in making his stick floats I thought it only right to join him in giving them there first maiden voyage on the Irwell. Mikes latest addition was a lovely crafted wired steamed stick float, which I was keen to try out. Mike had aptly name them Irwell stick floats and they look the business nicely balanced, mine having a very bright pink top ideal for long range trotting. I don't usually fish the Irwell in the mornings, preferring an evening session as I've had my best catches as the lights going.


From left to right. Irwell Stick Float , Alloy StickFloat.

I gave Mike the choice of swims and I fished next peg up within shouting distance should one of us get in to a fish. The river had about 10inchs on it and know doubt full of melt water, not the best of conditions but at least it was on its way down. We had a pint wagered on the first to catch, and it wasn't long before Mike was into a lovely big Trout, not a bad fish but not what we where after.

40 minutes into it and not a sniff, which I wasn't surprised at as it was quit boilly making it difficult to control the float. Then a chap stopped to enquire how I was doing, turned out he was a fellow anger, mentioning he'd seen flock of 8 Cormorants in my swim on the Saturday not what I'd wanted to hear. It was time for a move and see if I could salvage the day, that's the benefit of travelling light, your more mobile rather that hawking lots of kit your unlikely to use. When I mentioned it to Mike he was more than keen as I offered to take him to a couple of swims he'd not fished before which I'd had some good Chub out of a couple of summers ago, but had not fished in the winter.

As expected the flow was slightly steadier, hopefully this would be enough to tempt the Old Rubber Lips. Again I give Mike the choice of swims and I fish next one up, with both of us opting for the Waggler as the Chub are usually along the far bank under the tree's. Yet again Mike showed the way landing a lovely big Trout around 2.8lb which put up a cracking fight, two nil to the stick float maker. Not put off I carried on feeding maggots up stream and playing around with the depth and shotting pattern. I'd not had much experience of fishing the waggler on the Irwell but decided to give it a go. I was quite pleased with the presentation but as usually in fast water I was having difficulty in mending my line and holding the float on a straight course, when I careless cast my float in the opposite tree's. Just what I needed. With it being very calm I decided to give the Irwell Stick Float another go, and try and draw a Chub or two out of the Tree's. First chuck my float hardly had time to settle when Mike shouted he, was into another Trout, would it be three nil! Thankfully right on cue my float dipped under and I was also in to a nice fish, a lovely 3lb Chub, just what the doctor ordered (-: and on my new Purple Peanut Irwell Stick Float as well. Feed, cast, mend I began to get a feel for the swim  but finding my float two light I change to one of Mikes bigger Cane Stick Floats but that proved even worse so I changed back over and played around with the shotting pattern instead. Over the next hour I landed two more Chub to 3.14 and LOST another three, not a bad session for a winters day and breaking a run of blanks.

As for the Stick floats Courtesy of Purple Peanut Productions I can report that I was very pleased with how they performed. I found that as expected the Alloy Steamed Stick Floats cast a lot better and I found them very stable. The one I was using only took around 4 No4 shot due to the thickness of the stem, but I was still able to fish it 4 rods lengths out, not quite heavy enough for the swim.

One the day I found tapered shotting pattern the best due to the float not needing to much weight, if you like fishing deep pegs or faster flows where you need bulk down you'll need to fish a bigger float.

Looks like I will have to put an order in for a few heavier stick floats to complete the set.

Heavy Irwell Sticks 10 - 12 no4s

All in all a cracking session, thanks to Mike.

Kind regards

CasterMan.

P.S I owe you a pint Mr Cootes.