Sheffield's Fishy 'Little Mester'

Thinking angler and float builder extraordinaire -
David Offler with his hardwood bodied pole floats

Fishery owner Rex Ward first introduced me to Totley custom float-maker - David Offler, whilst David was fishing the Cabin Pond at Barlow - and what a fortuitous meeting it turned out to be.

I reckon every serious angler has, at some time, had a go at making the ultimate float, one that money can't buy or that tackle shops don't stock - come on - admit it, you all have! Well, David's taken things a little further, by producing some of the loveliest floats I've set my eyes on.

Construction
The black stems of these pole floats are made from Styrene, a tough plastic material that has a little 'give' in it - and will bend if necessary, but it springs back to shape straight away.
The float bodies are really something else, the classic 'rugby ball' shape, but made of proper hardwood, such as cherry, black walnut, yew, pear or beech, all beautifully finished with an extremely hard glossy lacquer, which enhances the natural grain in the wood. I know, this is starting to sound like an article for dining furniture - but there are not many pieces of furniture made to these high standards.

David went on to show me some of his pole floats made with exotic Mexican hardwood bodies - absolutely beautiful. If you are going to stare at a float all day, why not have something special to look at?

These floats are definitely in that 'nice to have' bracket, but even better and close to all anglers hearts - they aren't expensive.
They really are tough and will survive being trapped in the float-box or dragged through the weeds by an enraged carp or two.

David uses four pieces of silicon tubing to attach his float to the main line, three on the main body and one on the tip. The float tip itself is finished in fluorescent orange, again protected by a hard lacquer. The tip is quite thick by today's standards, as David explained - he had trouble seeing a thin bristle at distance, something I sympathise with.

In the water, the hardwood bodies make these floats extremely sensitive, I use tiny Stotz to finely balance my rigs, which results in an excellent presentation and is well worth the effort.

A great tackle-tip passed onto me by David - thread your line through the silicon bands whilst you hold them open with the tip of a cocktail stick, it makes threading up a doddle. Why didn't I think of that?

Yorkshire Lemons
David also makes the 'Yorkshire Lemon' controller floats, these are terrific hardwood floats that I've used to catch all manner of species, from rudd and roach through to double figure carp. No tackle-box should be without them. David told me that Dick Clegg now produces them under the name of CATS - (controller air to surface). Well if they are good enough for Dick Clegg…

The pole floats, priced at £1.50 +pp are available direct from David, telephone 0114 2368854 for more information.