page_title: Fishing float
section_title: History of floats
hierarchical_section_title: Fishing float / History of floats
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Fishing rod float. Lake Baikal. Eastern Siberia
context_page_description: A fishing float is an item of angling equipment. Usually attached to a fishing line, it can serve several purposes. Firstly, it can suspend the bait at a predetermined depth; secondly, due to its buoyancy, it can carry the baited hook to otherwise inaccessible areas of water by allowing the float to drift in the prevailing current; and thirdly, a float also serves as a visual bite indicator. Fishing with a float is sometimes called float fishing.
context_section_description: It is impossible to say with any degree of accuracy who first used a float for indicating that a fish had taken the bait, but it can be said with some certainty that people used pieces of twig, bird feather quills or rolled leaves as bite indicators, many years before any documented evidence. The first known mention of using a float appears in the book "Treatyse of fysshynge wyth an Angle"  written by Juliana Berners in 1496.
  "All maner lynes that be not for the grounde must haue flotes, and the rennyng ground lyne must haue a flote, the lyeng ground lyne must haue a flote."
  The method described, involved boring a hole through a cork so the line could be passed through and trapped with a quill. Later books such as "the Art of Angling"by Gerald Eades Bentley in 1577 and the classic work "The Compleat Angler" first published in 1653, written by Isaak Walton gave greater detail on fishing and using floats.
  Prior to about 1800, anglers made their own floats, a practice that many still carry on today. As angling became more popular, companies started to make floats in different styles to supply the growing demand. By 1921, companies such as Wadhams had at least 250 mainly celluloid floats in their catalog.
  Since those early days, the fishing float has become the subject of much practical and theoretical change. English anglers such as Peter Drennan (Drennan International) and Kenneth Middleton (Middy Tackle) and American fishermen like Chicago's ex World Champion Mick Thill (Thill Floats)  have built up large companies designing and marketing fishing floats. The English companies have been supported by major league anglers such as Ivan Marks, Benny Ashurst and Billy Lane.
caption: Fishing rod float. Lake Baikal. Eastern Siberia
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