Foamy small/shallow water drifter.

[davelumb]

The construction is dead simple. The only tools required are a pair of scissors, a craft knife, a heat source, and possibly a fine saw. For the illustrations here I am using orange foam sheet. The materials are the EVA sheet in a colour of your choice, a foam egg, a bamboo skewer, a swivel, some 3mm glued heat shrink tube and a line clip (I used a Tackle Box own brand). The only glue I used was some Gorilla Glue Clear to fix the line clip in place, although I'm not sure it was required. I coloured the foam egg and skewer using a UniPaint marker pen. Less hassle than a brush or spray can!



There's not much to the construction. Colour up the skewer, or not, and push it through the pre-drilled foam egg to get the dimensions you fancy and cut it to length. Attach the swivel to one end of the skewer using the shrink tube. This is a surprisingly strong connection and I'm sure would work for making leger stems, provided long casting wasn't required.



The line clip is screwed into the foam egg just above the waterline. I didn't bother to make it adjustable but set it to a tension that I thought would unclip under a bit of pressure before screwing and glueing. If you did want to retain the adjustability then you'd have to keep the glue off the mechanism.



The egg can either be glued to the skewer, or wedged by building up the stem with more shrink tube. I opted for the latter approach on the prototype. Finally cut the vane to your preferred size from the sheet of EVA. Use the sharp end of the skewer to poke a couple of holes in it for the float stem to go through. The vane will hold in place.



That's it. This photo shows Prototype 1 in use and should explain how it is set up. A one ounce weigh is just right to c*ck the float and a bomb clipped to slide on the line as for a float leger might look a bit uncouth but works well enough. I'm sure the pike won't care as that's what I used to do when float trolling! The float's swivel is attached to a snap link on the lone as for a flat leger rig. If you're paranoid and use an uptrace for drifting the lead can be clipped to the mid-trace swivel using a paper clip which will open out should the lead snag up. Alternatively use monster split shot squeezed round an open loop of weak nylon in link leger style.



Variations on the theme are, of course, possible. The same design will work at a more usual size but will require a different longer stem, probably using a different material. There's no need to use orange eggs, drab coloured ones will also work. The only concern I have is how long lasting the vanes will be. I wonder if too much abuse will see them split where they are pierced. If they do then I have a cunning plan to overcome that drawback. But given the price of the EVA sheet, it's probably easier to cut a load of spares.



Full write up here - https://lumbland2.blogspot.com/2022/02/ ... ifter.html

I've more foam eggs on order with ET for some other float ideas I'm playing with. Watch this space!

[John Milford]

[JoeNickel]

Brilliant!

[davelumb]

Thanks chaps. All I have to do now is catch using it!

[Sean Roberts]

Would the sail be better off round the other way so the wind blows it away from the line/ clip and not over it. Only asking not criticising

[martin(rockape)]

Nice I've got most of these bits. Hobby craft will have egg shaped poly balls of different sizes and maybe something to use as a Vane if not a bit of plastic cut from a milk carton or similar household empty plastic carton.

Regards

Martin

[davelumb]

Would the sail be better off round the other way so the wind blows it away from the line/ clip and not over it. Only asking not criticising

But does it? I remember reading that the wind doesn't act on a stiff curved vane the way it does on a sail. Sails curve the way they do because the wind fills them out. Wind on a stiff curve will follow the line of least resistance - over the curved surface. That's the theory.

In practice I don't think it matters much.

[davelumb]

Update:

White foam sheet takes car sprays well if you want something different.

And a 'bacon box' makes a nice float box to keep the drifter and vanes together. Plus other floats.

_DSC6908.jpg

[Nige Johns]

Update:

White foam sheet takes car sprays well if you want something different.

And a 'bacon box' makes a nice float box to keep the drifter and vanes together. Plus other floats.
_DSC6908.jpg

I know it sounds a bit streaky but you could market it as the “Danish Drifter”

[davelumb]

Update:

White foam sheet takes car sprays well if you want something different.

And a 'bacon box' makes a nice float box to keep the drifter and vanes together. Plus other floats.
_DSC6908.jpg

I know it sounds a bit streaky but you could market it as the “Danish Drifter”

[John Milford]

Update:

White foam sheet takes car sprays well if you want something different.

And a 'bacon box' makes a nice float box to keep the drifter and vanes together. Plus other floats.
_DSC6908.jpg

I know it sounds a bit streaky but you could market it as the “Danish Drifter”

I'm not one to pass up any opportunity for a cringe-worthy quip Nige, but it seems you are even 'rasher' than me!

[davelumb]

Update:

White foam sheet takes car sprays well if you want something different.

And a 'bacon box' makes a nice float box to keep the drifter and vanes together. Plus other floats.
_DSC6908.jpg

I know it sounds a bit streaky but you could market it as the “Danish Drifter”

I'm not one to pass up any opportunity for a cringe-worthy quip Nige, but it seems you are even 'rasher' than me!

[Nige Johns]

Update:

White foam sheet takes car sprays well if you want something different.

And a 'bacon box' makes a nice float box to keep the drifter and vanes together. Plus other floats.
_DSC6908.jpg

I know it sounds a bit streaky but you could market it as the “Danish Drifter”

I'm not one to pass up any opportunity for a cringe-worthy quip Nige, but it seems you are even 'rasher' than me!

I’m not one to ham-bush a topic John
but I’ve been to the doctors about my bacon addiction.he says I can be cured

[davelumb]

You two are smokin' with your puns.

[John Milford]

You two are smokin' with your puns.

Porky puns aside, bacon boxes are very useful for all sorts of tackle storage, especially fragile floats.

I find they utilise space in a bag better than more cube-like containers too.

My problem is that I carry drifters nearly all the time, but hardly ever use them! Every time I do, I can almost guarantee the wind will suddenly change direction or disappear!

[davelumb]

You two are smokin' with your puns.

Porky puns aside, bacon boxes are very useful for all sorts of tackle storage, especially fragile floats.

I find they utilise space in a bag better than more cube-like containers too.

My problem is that I carry drifters nearly all the time, but hardly ever use them! Every time I do, I can almost guarantee the wind will suddenly change direction or disappear!

One advantage of small waters is that it's not usually much of a walk round to get the wind off your back when it changes.

However, yesterday I fished into the wind all afternoon because I knew there were active pike in the swim (had a follow to a retrieved bait, missed two and landed two). Walking round would have let me cover the area with the drifter but the static baits would have been in less favourable spots.

These LocknLock boxes are really handy. There's one with lift-out compartments which I use a pair of for my pike tackle - trace stuff in one, rig stuff in the other.

DSC_2410.JPG

[martin(rockape)]

20220301_203339.jpg

Not as neat as Daves.

I got the poly balls from "The Works" £1 for a pack of 8 and the foam sheets from "Hobby Craft" costing £1 per sheet. I bought the smaller corrugated sheets. From each sheet you'll get 6 vanes.
That's all I needed to buy.
I opted to cut one end off a small safety pin and whipped it on the bamboo stem for the eye sealed with clear nail varnish.

Not sure if I will need to varnish over the paint work but as a test I've got a painted poly ball sitting in some water to see if it damages it over a few hours.

I've used acrylic paint purely because it only takes 1 hour to dry and the paint brush is cleaned in water.

Cheers Dave

Regards

Martin

[davelumb]

20220301_203339.jpg

Not as neat as Daves.

I got the poly balls from "The Works" £1 for a pack of 8 and the foam sheets from "Hobby Craft" costing £1 per sheet. I bought the smaller corrugated sheets. From each sheet you'll get 6 vanes.
That's all I needed to buy.
I opted to cut one end off a small safety pin and whipped it on the bamboo stem for the eye sealed with clear nail varnish.

Not sure if I will need to varnish over the paint work but as a test I've got a painted poly ball sitting in some water to see if it damages it over a few hours.

I've used acrylic paint purely because it only takes 1 hour to dry and the paint brush is cleaned in water.

Cheers Dave

Regards

Martin

It's like stepping back in time to when we had to make all our own pike tackle!

[martin(rockape)]

20220301_203339.jpg

Not as neat as Daves.

I got the poly balls from "The Works" £1 for a pack of 8 and the foam sheets from "Hobby Craft" costing £1 per sheet. I bought the smaller corrugated sheets. From each sheet you'll get 6 vanes.
That's all I needed to buy.
I opted to cut one end off a small safety pin and whipped it on the bamboo stem for the eye sealed with clear nail varnish.

Not sure if I will need to varnish over the paint work but as a test I've got a painted poly ball sitting in some water to see if it damages it over a few hours.

I've used acrylic paint purely because it only takes 1 hour to dry and the paint brush is cleaned in water.

Cheers Dave

Regards

Martin

It's like stepping back in time to when we had to make all our own pike tackle!

Probably cheaper to buy some of the stuff we might make but on the plus side its fun to do and catch using it.

My homemade floats and this drifter won't win any beauty contests but if they work then job done.
I haven't got a complex I'm just realistic

Regards

Martin

[davelumb]

They look fine to me. I always used to use cut down safety pins for float eyes when I was a teenager.

[martin(rockape)]

I think I've used too much glue or too strong a glue as the polystyrene has reacted/melted pushing the line clips out. So I'm going to see if I can fashion a paper clip to do the same job and not use any glue.

Regards

Martin

[davelumb]

I think I've used too much glue or too strong a glue as the polystyrene has reacted/melted pushing the line clips out. So I'm going to see if I can fashion a paper clip to do the same job and not use any glue.

Regards

Martin

I screwed the clips into the foam ball and used very little glue.

[ChrisWales]

Update:

White foam sheet takes car sprays well if you want something different.

And a 'bacon box' makes a nice float box to keep the drifter and vanes together. Plus other floats.
_DSC6908.jpg

I know it sounds a bit streaky but you could market it as the “Danish Drifter”

I'm not one to pass up any opportunity for a cringe-worthy quip Nige, but it seems you are even 'rasher' than me!

I’m not one to ham-bush a topic John
but I’ve been to the doctors about my bacon addiction.he says I can be cured

Maybe you need to give him the "chop"?

[ChrisWales]

Update:

White foam sheet takes car sprays well if you want something different.

And a 'bacon box' makes a nice float box to keep the drifter and vanes together. Plus other floats.
_DSC6908.jpg

I know it sounds a bit streaky but you could market it as the “Danish Drifter”

Or.......


"The Hambuster"

[JoeNickel]

Are drifter float bodies round because they're more stable?

I made a couple with fairly chunky plastic sails & regular inline sliders. I had to upgrade to absolutely ENORMOUS floats to keep them upright.

The vane's like a lever acting against the bouyancy of the float, I think. And the roundness of the float kind of provides another lever essentially acting on another axis. But then my brain melted trying to work out what that all means and I had to have a cup of tea.

[davelumb]

Are drifter float bodies round because they're more stable?

I made a couple with fairly chunky plastic sails & regular inline sliders. I had to upgrade to absolutely ENORMOUS floats to keep them upright.

The vane's like a lever acting against the bouyancy of the float, I think. And the roundness of the float kind of provides another lever essentially acting on another axis. But then my brain melted trying to work out what that all means and I had to have a cup of tea.

I think they're just made the way they are for convenience. But the lack of buoyancy in the stem might help overcome the tipping effect of the wind on the vane?

[JoeNickel]

Are drifter float bodies round because they're more stable?

I made a couple with fairly chunky plastic sails & regular inline sliders. I had to upgrade to absolutely ENORMOUS floats to keep them upright.

The vane's like a lever acting against the bouyancy of the float, I think. And the roundness of the float kind of provides another lever essentially acting on another axis. But then my brain melted trying to work out what that all means and I had to have a cup of tea.

I think they're just made the way they are for convenience. But the lack of buoyancy in the stem might help overcome the tipping effect of the wind on the vane?

Aaaah, yeah, that's it. My floats work fine in the end, but they're like enormous great Volvos. I wanted something less fragile than the Fox ones, which broke on its maiden voyage. I'm away for a couple of weeks, will post a pic when I'm home...

[Mike F]

Where do you get your foam eggs from Dave?

[davelumb]

Where do you get your foam eggs from Dave?

Eddie Turner or Catfish Pro. Depending on what else I might want and which has them in stock. They're the same eggs.

[Mike F]

Where do you get your foam eggs from Dave?

Eddie Turner or Catfish Pro. Depending on what else I might want and which has them in stock. They're the same eggs.