I quite enjoy using and accumulating fishing tackle from the same era as when I was a young lad, but at the age of ten or eleven most of the tackle I owned was hand-me-down rubbish, a pink solid glass rod paired with an Intrepid Black Prince reel was my only kit. With my inadequate tackle and limited funds the only ‘good’ items I could afford in my local tackle shop, Penfolds of Cuckfield were fishing floats.
When entering the narrow shop illuminated only by artificial light, carded displays in glass cabinets from various manufacturers covered one wall, it was always the Ultra range of floats that caught my eye. Neat rows of floats organised into models and then graded into sizes lined up like church organ pipes standing to attention as if on parade. To a novice angler the range was beweildering, I mean how many ‘onion’ floats do you really need, and how different are they from a ‘Ducker’? To understand the range was an education in how to fish, although attractive they all had a utilitarian purpose.
Thirty years on I still have a few remaining Ultra floats, a band of brothers that managed to avoid the pitfalls of being cast into overly optomistic situations, less lucky comrades were lost in battle, eventually washed away by the ebb and flow. Today though I was most pleased to find that good friend and dealer in nostalgia John Andrews of Arcadia had located a lost battalion of Ultras, locked away in a box for decades but now released, dressed in black (as I remember them) and the earlier olive-green version.
Still got a few of mine from 1982 including a slider and avon . Floats have a real attraction , quite unlike any other tackle . Never quite worked out what a ducker was for … Then again did I really need to …cheers Nick
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Td,
The ‘Ducker’ at a guess I would say for casting out some distance in slightly choppy/windy conditions, not as sensitive as the ‘Onion’ though with it’s slim stem.
Hope you are well and heading to the Lea soon?
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We used bodied floats a lot . Never do these days …. Lea …hope so soon . Time permitting . Caught me first fish on the Roding though. ATB. TD
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TD,
Pray tell about the Roding capture?
N
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Busy week … Small river , wild small fish ,,trotting a float in and out of snags. 8 ft telescopic rod mobile fishing …. It’s a gem of a river . I’m going for a dabble tomorrow early doors till noon ish …could pick you up ? Drive past your place( me thinks) on the way there ?
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Hi TD, Im off to a wedding, but good luck
N
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Cheers … Ill let you know how it goes
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I have loads of Ultra floats/Denton/ Ivan Marks etc
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