The Coach Pole floats explained

THIS WEEK: Choosing the right pole float for stillwaters

IT CAN be a bit confusing when it comes to picking the right pole float for the fishing you’re doing.

There are so many different patterns in varying sizes and different materials, with thick and thin tips – how do you know you’re making the right choice?

To help clear the waters, I’ve detailed here the common choices you have to make when buying a pole float. Remember that floats for carp must be much stronger than those aimed at roach.

As a result, they’ll be constructed in a very different way.

Float size is another area that catches many anglers out, mainly in terms of them using a float that’s too heavy. The lightest float that you can get away with will always produce more, so just because you’re going to be fishing for skimmers doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll need a 2g float!

BODY MATERIALS

There are two choices here, namely balsa wood (left) or high-density foam. Foam floats are heavy duty and really come into their own for carp fishing, whereas balsa is very buoyant, for natural-venue silver fish.

TIP THICKNESS

It doesn’t take a genius to see the differences here. As a rule, a thick tip lends itself to big baits for carp, while the thinnest tip is great for dotting down to a speck for when the fishing is hard in winter.

Thick-tipped floats offer more resistance to fish than those with thin tips, so for species other than carp it pays to use the most sensitive float you can get away with, given the prevailing conditions.

FLOAT SIZES

The size you pick is down to conditions. In calm weather a 4x10 float will be fine, but the same swim on a windy day may need a 4x14. I use heavier floats for shallow water when carp may waft things about.