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| Zephyr Antenna float |
In 1919, according to Keith Harwood in "The History of the Float", a Mr E Talbot took out the first of two patents for a float made of paper. Zephyr floats, as they were named were manufactured in a wide range of patterns and sizes by Zephyr Angler's Supplies Ltd of Lowestoft. Given the materials used and that they ceased manufacture in the early 60's, making any remaining examples at the very least 50 years old, they're quite sought after by collectors.
Their passing was much lamented by Bill Watson in his book "the Floatmakers Manual", after trying unsuccessfully to recreate the patterns, although there seems to be some differences of opinion on a manufacturing process. In "History of the Float" Keith Harwood refers to Kenneth Mansfield's "Fly Tying, Rod and Tackle Making" should the reader wish to try their hand. The author suggests winding a triangular shaped sheet of paper around 'appropriate sticks' (his words, not mine) to build a body, with different ratio of sides of the triangle and different thicknesses of paper producing different body shapes. I've seen similar suggestions on a couple of forums too. Another suggestion found was to use the stick/dowel as a mandrel, removing it after the paper is wound and glued/varnished to maintain it's shape, with balsa used to plug each end to form a tip and stem.
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| Apparently the 5B size refers to 5 inch/'broad' body |
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| Zephyr float patent drawing |
Other forum posts also suggest 'the right sort of paper just isn't available any more' to get the right size/weight ratio, the posters having tried all sorts including cartridge, brown wrapping paper etc. Apparently tissue paper is the answer, preferably high quality such as that used by aero modellers.
Something to maybe try out when I really do have time on my hands, which at the moment isn't going to be soon. Still the genuine example shown on the float winder will be much treasured and probably not fished with for fear of loss. Mrs Avid admits to paying far too much than she though she should for this particular example, so if anyone was watching it on a certain well-known auction site and wondered who it was, then now you know.
In the meantime I had a couple of hours out on the river yesterday, with plenty of roach, dace, perch and juvenile chub to show for it but nothing of any size. I blame the conditions of very clear water, lots of weed and low water levels (of course it wasn't the angler or his skill). There's was a match on the same stretch later in the day, so I chose a minimalist roving approach and made sure to only stay a short while in each swim so as to not favour any particular peg with my loose feed/groundbait or the lucky angler picking it later, but it'll be interesting to see the results.
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| The first peg |
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| A damselfly resting on the tip of my (home-made of course) crow-quill Avon |
