It’s not often nowadays that we are able to sing the praises of a British designed and British built product, so I was delighted to receive a set of these fantastic fishing floats for review. The floats are the brainchild of a Burton-on-Trent based engineer who decided enough was enough after studying fish behaviour for many years where it seemed easy to get fish feeding confidently up in the water, but when a traditional style float was introduced into the feeding area, the fish would spook and become more cautious.
A prototype clear and see through float was designed which although a little ugly, proved immensely successfully for several seasons (winning the inventor top angler on local waters for three years on the trot) with the much anticipated sale item hitting the market during the summer of 2005.
What I like about the floats is their strength. Whilst I’m a keen specimen carp angler at heart, I always keep a selection of floats handy for stalking and tackling other species when the situation arises, but because my gear gets quite a bit of stick, such floats are always getting broke. This is not a problem with the Spectre floats as the weighted ends are solid plastic and the hollow cones are also quite durable.
The floats cock perfectly and require no shot at all, not even for fixing depth. Instead they have a soft clear friction locking collar which has the added benefit of not pinching and weakening the line as shot sometimes does. All you have to do is pass the line through the hole at the base of the float, loop and pass it through again, and then slide down the locking collar, which means it only takes a couple of seconds to rig up or change depth.
Priced at £11.99 for a set of three, these certainly aren’t the cheapest floats on the market, but then again, these aren’t your average floats! They come in two types, either the original long bodied tear-drop Spectre Float, with a set of three comprising a 7g, 8g, and 9g casting body, or as the new smaller Alchemy float, which is designed for fishing very shallow water or for when fishing close up to features. The 3 float Alchemy pack contains 4g, 5g, and 6g floats, all three of which have already been tucked away neatly in my tackle pouch – I have no doubt they are going to catch me a serious amount of carp this season!
If only every product I bought was as good as this!
For more information on these innovative British floats, and to buy online, visit http://www.spectrefloats.co.uk
Julian Grattidge
April 2006
