Tackle, "Haddock's Rig"

Component parts of Haddock's Rig.

If you have arrived here from a search site looking to set up a standard float rig then click here, this post concerns a cheaper home-made rig that you will no doubt try when you have lost a few shop bought rigs. I found that when float fishing near to piers and rocks, you will almost always lose floats. The cost of a float is not a lot but alternatives to a shop-bought rig cost a few pence to make and, as it turned out, are more versatile. I quite often want to change from float fishing to bottom fishing and the rig shown allows this change to be made in seconds; un-clip the float and put back in your tackle box, un-clip the weight and re-clip to the snap swivel you have taken the float from and you have a simple running ledger. The float is made some of the spongy foam packing pieces that come with many packaged items.  Use a sharp knife to cut the foam to about five inches long and about an inch octagonal cross section, round the ends and insert a nylon cable tie, clip up the tie and trim off the end. The float you have just made will take a standard one ounce weight. Obviously if you make the float longer and leave it almost square the float will take more weight, up to two ounces. If you are fishing lighter weights then you can scale down the size of the float accordingly.

 Another source of material is a foam kid's swimming aid, called, for some reason a 'noodle', 

I picked up one for a couple of pounds from Lidl, it is about 5'6" long and nearly 3" diameter so there are lots of floats in that ! update: Even cheaper.... I notice Poundland were selling them, they were smaller but priced, as you would expect, at a pound.

The sequence for tackling up is thread up a bead, snap swivel, bead and then tie on another snap swivel. The float goes on the snap swivel that is free to run up and down the line and the weight and hook length loop go on the tied snap swivel.... as easy as that.

A rig set up for float fishing a sand eel.

The depth that the bait will be fished at is determined by the elastic band stop knot; just thread one end of the elastic band around the line, back through the band; pull up very tight and snip off ends, like so..........

The float ( like a traditional a sliding float set-up) can then be set to fish at any depth. If I am fishing a regular spot I will tie a permanent knot as a stop at the known catching depth. Any minor adjustment, a foot or two, can be made simple by changing the hook length which is attached to the same snap swivel as the lead by a double overhand loop. The cunning part of this setup comes when dark falls, snap a starlight ( a small chemical light stick) to activate it and just push it firmly through the foam at the top of the float . The light will protrude at either side of the float and give plenty of light to track your float in the dark. Pollack, bass, scad and mackerel can be taken after dark.  revised June 2021