Purplepeanut007 PP007 FLOAT MAKING & FISHING ADVENTURES - THE RIVER IRWELL AND BEYOND.

A long over due trip on the  Lower River Irwell  to test out my new stepped stick floats was tonight's mission. Many in our club would like to know where all the silvers and small barbel have gone ? So tonight was a scouting session to try and find them !!!!!!!!!! I opted for my Abu 704 closed faced reel tonight as the wind was a little gusty coupled with my 14 foot Acolyte Plus. Bait was two pints of white maggots, a pint of hemp. Two stepped stick float rigs were knocked up at home and stored on line winders. All was ready for my little experimental session. 😁 It took around 30 minutes or my first bite and fish, a lovely chunky dace of around 5 ounces.  I shallowed my rig a little and placed a No 4s back shot on about 15 centimetres from the float to aid my presentation and got and instant response, small but very welcome. 😁 Felling a little more confident I steadily upped my feed of hemp and maggots hoping to attracted the larger fish.  Incr

Closed face reels are not for everyone. As a float angler however like them immensely. 😁 These reels are great for catching silvers with on the float but they have a reputation of being poor for specimen fish due to the poor drag associated with the design. This model may change all that though. We shall see! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! All my other closed face reels are Abu's. I have a 506 M for finer fishing ( up to 3 lb line ) A 704 for medium fishing ( up to 5 lb line ) & I have just splashed out on an  Abu 507 Mk2. ( 5 lb plus . . . ) It's for barbel and big chub really and for just £45 new with three spare spools it was just to good a bargain for me to miss out on. 😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉 I much prefer a closed face reel for trotting in the wind. Casting is much quicker and easier using this type of reel and it is easier to strike when stick fishing, for me anyway. A couple of my pals have 507 MK2 and have landed double figure barbel and 5 lb plus chub on

The reason I felt guilty regarding the purchase of the Abu 506 was because of this beauty below. 😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲 This is the Abu704. For less than £20.00 including postage on ebay I just could not resist this with 3 spools supplied to.  😲  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just goes to show if you look hard enough there are still some bargains out there on ebay. 😉 I have one of these already. 😈 It cost me £30.00 second hand with one spare spool so this is a bargain. I had dropped my older reel on the floor at home. The floor is solid oak so it was like dropping in on a slab of concrete.  !!!!!!!!!!! The reel was fine apart from a small dent in the cowl but just a small dent altered the cylindrical shape of the spool slightly. It also made it very difficult to remove and replace which is a must with these reels. It also hindered the line release from the spool. I have no doubt one of the friendly engineers at work could re- shape it fo