If you can get floats “off the shelf” that you’re happy with, then thats the way to go because you’ve got no problem with supply.

In my view (as a guy who makes hand-made floats), the advantage all of give is:

– quality and robustness
– floats made to individual requirements
– hopefully, much better performance
– my selling point to the “cracks” who use my floats, is that if they help you see one more bite per match, then that could be the difference between coming second or winning.

However, the acknowledged problem with hand made floats is supply. I’ve currently got a backlog of about 6 weeks.

Handmade floats do have there advantages of commercially made ones.

They’re more durable
They last longer
Theres no need to varnish them
No eyes pulling out
No taking on water

Disadvantages
Waiting for them which isn’t as bad a it was
There isn’t many that do out an out silver fish floats. It’s all mainly commercial fishery floats.

Apart from some Kc carpa range and maybe a couple of Rive scotthornes thats alls i use.

Hand made floats are much more robust and last a lot longer.

You can get as much pleasure making floats as you can using them which is why I now make my own brillient when you also pick up coin with them. just made myself 15 diamond floats with side eyes and spring eyes.at least I’m in charge of my own quality control ~hand

any good?

sorry lads I have resized the picture lol

one last go Doh

not three of your invissi floats are they fred.lol~sick ~sick

~clap thats a lift n drop float cos i dont see it.~think

Sorry but i have to disagree with some of what is being suggested here.

Most of the top match anglers dont usually use hand made floats. Some have them but most dont use them out of choice.

Have a walk around any festival at White Acres as an example and you will see very few hand made floats being used by the top quality match anglers on quiet a few different venues/lakes.

Also, hand made floats will never give anglers more bites. In fact, i would suggest in most cases. Anglers are missing out on potential bites because they are not using the right float for the job. Commercial floats offer much more choice than the hand made floats.

The main plus with most hand made floats is the strength and durability. Some are very good for specific jobs but are no better as a float than a commercially made float that is designed to do the same specific job. Add a coat of hard as nails. Then you have a very strong and durable float.

The hand made floats have gained quite a cult following on this and some of the other forums. This does not mean that they are better than a quality commercial float!

Sorry about the pictures lads but I’ll post one when the site is revamped sometime next week,I in the main use all my own floats except when fishing squatt or bloodworm on canals, even the caster floats for canals I now make myself as they are far more robust than shop bought models don’t take on water, are sensitive and more importantly sit right in the water,I don’t add or subtract shot unless I switch to a bigger heavier bait, the float I start with is normally still on the pole kit at the end of the match a rarerity prior to making my own, I also make models/patterns that arn’t available in the shops, trouble is a lot of my postal mates also use them so I am having to remake them, the down side is floatmaking can be extremely boring, however I used a particular pattern at barston lakes and thought it was absolutely spot on, picked up some coin on the day so it can’t have been half bad, the problem with shop bought floats is they break too easily when carp fishing, on one match I quite liked the carpa chimp pattern and trashed four floats in 10 minutes at around £2 a float that was my lot, I then thought nothing to lose I’ll make my own,rest assured the quality you can acheive can be far superior to shop bought floats.