Body, stem and tip of a float

A float is made of three parts, and each answers for its own: the body gives buoyancy, the stem holds it upright, the tip shows the bite. Changing one without touching the others does not work.

The body: where its widest part sits

The body displaces water — its volume sets the shotting capacity. But what matters more is where the widest part sits: at the top, in the middle or at the bottom. The jobs a float does are covered separately.

A body with its widest part at the top leans on the flow and holds the rig in a current. A body widest at the bottom gives stability in still water and on a wave. That is what lies behind the words “a float for flowing water” and “a float for a pond”.

The stem: an axis, not decoration

The stem shifts weight downwards and gives the float its vertical. Without it the body would lie over at the first breath of wind. A metal stem is heavier and cocks the float faster; a carbon one is lighter and takes less off the reserve of buoyancy.

A long stem steadies the float on a wave, a short one lets it react faster. So “the float takes ages to cock” is almost always about the stem, not about the weight.

The tip: visibility against resistance

A thick tip is visible far off and against the sun, but it has buoyancy of its own: to sink it the fish has to apply more force. A fine tip shows the slightest touch, but is lost on a wave at ten metres.

There is a straight conflict here, and there is no getting round it — you settle it for today’s water. The order of shotting does not change because of it: the shotting capacity is printed on the float and does not depend on the tip.

What they are made of

Bodies — balsa, foam, plastic, quill. Stems — carbon, glass fibre, metal. Tips — plastic, a hollow tube or a fibre insert, sometimes glow-in-the-dark.

The material changes not the shotting capacity but the size of the part at the same shotting capacity — and that is exactly what the difference in price is for.

What goes wrong and how to see it

Varnish cracks, the body takes on water — the float sits lower than it did last year under the same weight. The stem works loose in its socket and starts to move. The tip fades and stops reading.

There is one check: stand it in water at home with its working weight. If it sits differently, the part has changed, not the fish.

What we do not write here

Exact sizes and proportions of the “right” float. There are dozens of shapes on the market, made for different disciplines, and we have not found a source for general proportions. What can be checked is described above.