Making your skittle

However a chat with Pat and a closer look at the float reveals that this is a well thought out very functional specialist float that works exceptionally well in specific roles. Pat is in my opinion a revolutionary float designer with a stroke of genius showing at times. The “skittle” is an example of Pat possibly at his best.The “skittle” is designed for fishing shallow for surface feeders or trotting shallow water. Being short it is easily fished shallow without the bottom of the float being at the same depth as the fish. It has a dumpy base so that it does not impact too deeply through the surface and scare the fish.Although made of an all balsa wood structure, this float is fished as a waggler when fishing for sub surface feeders. The float is locked in position by the bulk shot placed either side of the adapter fixed on the base. The maximum shot down the line is a single number eight but my preference is for either no shot or a number 10 shot.The skittle can also be used to trot shallow swims in much the same way as the older Billy Lane “Trent trotter”. Although it fishes well in this role it is entirely a different float to the old “Trent trotter” as it is of an all balsa wood construction as against a cane stemmed balsa float. The skittle has therefore a far more buoyant top that makes it more suitable for trotting faster-flowing shallow water. The shapes of the two floats are entirely different with the “skittle” being skittle shaped whilst the “Trent trotter” is pear shaped. The “skittle” is also a much larger float.The “skittle” is not available commercially so you have to make your own or twist Pat Tarrant’s arm into making them for you. Pat can be contacted by phoning him on 01322 337628. If he has the time he’ll make a brilliant job of them.

Making your skittle

1. Select a short length of round balsa wood dowl. The length and diameter that you select will depend on the shot carrying capacity that you require of the finished article. I have made them up to 5 inches long made from 5/8 inch balsa dowl.When selecting your balsa wood make sure it is not too soft as, if like me, you are going to use an electric drill to turn your float you do not want to break it.2. In turning the float it is important to work in reverse order starting with the stem of the float first. This should avoid breaking the float whilst turning it.3. Place the balsa wood in the drill chuck. Use a biro to make a line about one inch from the end of the balsa wood. Just place the pencil on the wood and let the drill turn. A perfect line will be produced.4. Starting with very coarse grade glasspaper remove most of the wood from the one inch mark to the end. This will leave a one inch spike for the adapter to fit.5. Working towards the chuck and the tip, the float is shaped starting with coarse glasspaper and finishing off in a fine grade.6. You will then remove a float from the drill chuck that still has the float tip attached to thicker balsa wood that was the drill chuck. The float is cut free at the tip from the thick wood used for turning. The final point on the tip is hand finished.7. The whole float is then given two coats of cellulose sealer and smoothed over with flour grade glasspaper.8. The tip is then painted with matt white paint.9. Pat uses a waterproof acrylic paint on his floats. These act as a sealant and saves weight compared to the more traditional paints that I normally use. In either case the body is now painted.10. The body is then stippled with a sponge soaked in black paint to give the body a mottled effect. In this example we have used light blue with black stipple but I prefer to use a green background paint with black stippling.11. The float top is then given a coat of bright orange paint to finish it.

Fishing with the skittle

As stated earlier, the “skittle” can be fished in two distinct roles, firstly for sub surface tactics on both rivers and still waters and also for trotting shallow water swims.Shallow water trottingBy shallow I mean under 2ft deep down to a fraction under six inches deep. Most of my experience of this type of trotting has been on fast flowing clear southern rivers like the Kennet, Test and Hampshire Avon.These fast moving shallow water swims often contain fish of specimen proportions. However, being clear they are not easily fished and any sign of an angler will instantly cause the fish to disperse. To avoid being visible to the fish we are forced to long trot a bait down to the fish. Just as we have to take care not to be visible to the fish, care has also got to be taken to avoid the float being too visible. I have seen anglers trotting shallow swims on the Kennet with long balsa floats whose bottom must have nearly hit the fish as the over depth tackle was worked through the swim. This is avoided with the much shorter “skittle”.Although the Skittle can be trotted through shallow water attached double rubber, I normally fish it bottom end only. As it is such a short float, line control is not that affected by the bottom only attachment and less splash is created by fishing the float in this manner. This obviously means that there is less disturbance and the chances of spooking the fish is greatly reduced.In this role, a number 4 shot is placed on the line at the required depth. The float is then threaded on to the line up to the shot. The float is then locked in position by the bulk shot with the heavier shot closest to the float. Smaller shot are spaced out between the skittle and the hook.If during the session, I feel more weight is needed down the line, shot can be moved down from the locking bulk shot towards the hook. This is often necessary on the fast flowing waters that I regularly fish. The final shotting pattern will be determined by the conditions on the day. I once walked down a shallow section of the Upper Kennet. The river was low and clear with good light making everything clearly visible. As I saw fish they also saw me and quickly dispersed. This was of no concern as I not going to fish at that time or on that section. Then I came to a small pool just below a side weir. I could count the stones on the bottom – it was that clear. Then I saw it, a monstrous great roach in less than 2ft of water. I did not move and the roach had not seen me as I was viewing it through a small break in the trees. I very carefully backed off and returned to my car to collect and set up my tackle before returning to that pool.The tackle was simple, a 12ft float rod, centre pin loaded with 3lb b.s. line, with a skittle set at 2ft with two number 6 shot spaced down the line between the float and a number 10 hook. The bait was going to be wet bread so there was no danger of it floating up in the water.As I walked back, I was convinced that the roach would have gone or alternatively would ignore all bait. As I arrived and looked through the trees, my heart sunk. I was right, the roach had gone, but having gone to all that trouble I was determined to have a cast. The float landed perfectly well above where I had seen the roach and I started to work the bait down the stream passing a large weed bed near the end of the swim. Then, out of the back of the weed, the roach appeared as if it had followed the bait down, and then decided to overtake the bait to take it in clear water and that’s exactly what it did. I actually saw it take the bait. The float flew under and I struck in to solid resistance. This was no small fish – my reel screamed as the fish tore off. I took great care playing the fish firmly giving line when it was necessary. After several minutes the roach tired and was eventually netted. It looked monstrous in the net and I was shaking as other anglers turned up apparently out of nowhere to watch me weigh the specimen. At 31b 2oz it was the biggest roach recorded from that venue in living memory.I still believe that the “skittle” was a major contributory factor in catching that specimen.Since then I have used the “skittle” in this role to catch other good roach, chub, specimen dace and the odd big barbel. I have in fact had barbel from water that was barely deep enough to cover them on this float. I never saw these barbel before catching them which is even more surprising as when I hooked them they soon became very clearly visible. Perhaps they had quickly moved in to the swim from nearby weed cover and taken the bait almost immediately. Obviously when hooked your line under tension draws your eyes to the fish which no doubt accounts for it becoming so visible after hooking. As the float has proved so successful for me it now appears regularly in my float box. I believe that it has at times given me that all important edge.

Fishing up in the water

In the Summer, the “mag and wag” method is very popular on commercial still waters for carp. This style of fishing uses a waggler to present a bait well up in the water. Maggots or casters are continually sprayed on the water to bring the fish up high up in water competing for the feed. This method can be deadly and on the right water can produce some very big bags of carp.I rarely use a waggler in this role, preferring to use a skittle. This, as I said earlier, is because it is shorter allowing me to fish even shallower and does not impact so deeply on the surface. These factors, I believe, give me an edge over those using a waggler.When fishing this style I use a powerful 13ft float rod with a fixed spool reel loaded with about 3lb b.s. line. The skittle is locked in position by the bulk shot with a number 8 shot down the line. The size 16 or 18 hooks are baited with two maggots.Normally I do not start fishing straight away. Instead I feed the swim continually for about 15 minutes to get them feeding confidently high up in the water. When I do start fishing, the rod is at about 30 degrees from the bank. This is to stop any fish making a smash hit getting a direct pull to the reel, resulting in a smash up. By placing the rod at 30 degrees to the bank, the rod tip will move around to absorb most of the energy of the smash take. When the fish are in a real frenzy and I am getting a lot of line bites, I will often wait for the rod top to go round before lifting the rod. The skittle in this role is an excellent tool.The major drawback with this method is the cost and it is for this reason that I do not use it as much as I should. It has often been called the “spray and pay” approach as up to ten pints of maggots can be used in a session. A good alternative is to use a banded trout pellet as hook bait and feed with trout pellets. These are much cheaper than maggots and can produce excellent results on the right day. My friend, Roger Baker has had plenty a lot of 1001b plus bags from White Acres using this method. Again the “Skittle” is a good float for this type of fishing. Fishing up in the water using plenty of feed is not just limited to still water fishing for carp. It can work for other species and on the rivers. Big bags of both chub and dace can be taken using a similar approach on rivers with a skittle float.

I hope that in the space of this article, I have justified my faith in the “skittle” as a specialist float. It is a very functional and effective float when used in these roles. However it is not a general purpose trotting float or a simple waggler substitute.