Well first of all my apologies for there not being a Newsletter in May. Truth is that I have just been so busy that by the time I had the chance to pen one it was so late that I decided to do a combined May/June edition.
Some of you with outstanding orders will have received them in the last couple of days and there will be lots more going out in the next two weeks. The way I have to work with orders is simply to make good sized batches of all the patterns and then use them to make up orders as I work down the list until I almost run out of floats at which point the process starts over again. This approach is beginning to pay dividends and I am making some headway into reducing waiting times.
As Chris is still very busy at home he has not as yet been able to update the photographs on my website and add the new Ratcatchers, Pikeys and F1 Guzzunders. However these floats are all now available to order and I am sure Chris will update the site just as soon as he can.
I have had a major re think about the long promised X range of Rednecks, Grizzlys and Critters with a view to making them extremely strong floats suitable for “bagging” waters. They will now be of the “line through” variety and after a lot of enquiries I have at last managed to find a supplier of suitable tube for inside the float bodies. I now need to sort out painting equipment as well as body sizes and shapes but I am at last happy to be making some progress and will get them sorted just as soon as I can. These floats will be as strong as they come and will accommodate lines of 0.25 through the body making them a true bagging float.

Hillbillys angling month.......The last couple of months has seen me become a regular at my local Blake Hall where I have been attending the Thursday and Sunday opens whenever I could spare the time and the coming of summer has seen a big change in the fishing there.
During the cooler months the fishery is dominated by anglers fishing the method and tea bag and whilst both methods are effective success has been more a case of drawing the right peg than how you fished on the day. This has now come to an end as the pole and pellet waggler have also come into the reckoning and made for some interesting matches of late.
On my favourite Capriceous pool I have managed two wins and two fourth places with weights between 28 and 52lb.  Three of these “pick ups” have been gained by fishing small pieces of paste at the maximum allowed 14.5 metres on the pole but on one match I won with 52lb fishing  a tiny method feeder to the island because it was too windy to fish long with the pole.
My visits to the Peninsular lake have been rather less productive mainly because of my preference of fishing the pole rather than the method or tea bag even though the latter two approaches have until recently been the way to win. I go fishing to enjoy it and frankly I find tip fishing quite boring as often on this lake there is nothing you can do to make your tip go round other than wait. My last couple of matches there have seen some improvement in my fortunes as I managed a pick up for fourth fishing pole and paste for a weight of 56lb caught mainly down the edge in three feet of water. This was followed last Thursday by a second place earned on the pellet waggler with a weight of 99lb 4oz so just maybe the advent of the higher temperatures is going to see my fortunes continue to improve as the tip methods become less dominant.

Ratcatcher fan club is growing fast......

Hi Neil,
Just a quick Email to tell you that the “rat catchers” are now a FIRM favourite of mine!!!!!!
I fished Pines lake on the Tuesday and they were fantastic for fishing tight across in 18” of water fishing a bit of worm, I ended up weighing 86lb of quality silvers made up of tench crucians and perch as well as some clonking skimmers all about 2lb.
 I love the way they instantly cocked thanks to the glass stem this was vital as some fish snapped the worm before it made it to the bottom!!  A few of the lads had a look at them also and I gave them your website address so I hope this brings u some additional business mate,
 Anyway once I get myself sorted I’ll be in contact again as I think I’m going to need a few more!!
 All the best
 Chris G.O. T Baits

Owen Lowe wrote in to say...... Hi Neil,
I had every intention of simplifying my floats down to just a few patterns but I am afraid that when you are making floats of this quality I have little or no chance of doing that
Rednecks do it again.

Neil are you using cheese wire in your Rednecks? I went through a set of lilypads the other day and thought here we go another trashed rig. I was well surprised when the rig cut through them with no problems.  Had it been a shop bought float it would have trashed easily as I have found out to my cost many times. Well done mate excellent floats. Put this in your newsletter if you like. Credit where credits due.
Cheers Colin

Don’t try this at home folks...... I used my Shady Shallows for the first time on a club match at my local pool. I drew a tench peg that is a 2ft deep snag pit and rigged up an SS to 0.16 line with black hydro. During the match I inevitably got snagged and subsequently pulled for a break. I ended up with the hydro in my hand with a towel wrapped round it (silly I know) and pulled until the hook knot broke. The SS zoomed back and embedded itself half way up its body into the nearside bank which is red shale (not mud). I grabbed the stem and pulled it out to find there was not a mark on the float. If that is not a testimony to their strength I don’t know what is. The force of 13 metres of black hydro must be tremendous.
Kind regards – Ken.

Another 1st for Ratcatchers....... Hi Neil I hope you are well mate!! Well the Ratcatchers have done it again!! I fished a match this Wednesday gone at Darenth complex in Kent I drew the unfancied shallows on Willow lake and was told "You'll do no good down there lad" Ha Ha Ha I love it when people say that!
Anyway the peg was indeed shallow!!! only 18" against the island and about 2 foot everywhere else I plumbed up so I set up all my four Ratcatchers and proceeded to weigh a match winning 98lb of carp to 3lb.
Once again I am seriously impressed with the floats hence I would like to order some more say 10 of each size if possible??

Speak to you soon Cheers Chris G.O.T Baits

Hillbillyfloats Newsletter July/Aug 2009.

 Not a lot to report this month other than that I am still doing my best to catch up with the orders which are still exceeding my original expectations. However even though it would make my life easier to switch to a shopping cart type website I intend to continue to work to orders as I feel it is the best way ensure that everyone gets exactly what they want when their order is despatched. I have done a little more work on the X Range floats but they are still some way off being ready for sale and I am still waiting for Chris to find the time to update the website with the new Pikey, Ratcatcher and F1 Guzzunder models. Everyone will receive their orders as soon as I can get them out but please be patient as all Hillbillyfloats are completely made by me and I will not rush floats out at the expense of quality.

Hillbillys angling month........ I have had another period of mixed fortunes to report at my local Blake Hall fishery since my last Newsletter but as I am so busy on the floats it has been nice just to get on the bank a few times.

It all started with a welcome win on Peninsular Lake where I drew peg 40 on the dam wall. Having a very strong and blustery wind blowing straight in my face I set up a method rod, a pole rig with a Pikey float to fish the margins late on and a Pellet Waggler rod in the hope that the wind might ease a little. I started on the method and decided to catapult 6mm pellets as far as I could to “prep” the pellet wagg line. After a few fruitless casts on the method I started to get line bites which prompted me to try the Pellet Wagg line as I felt sure they were fish chasing the loose fed pellet that were responsible for the liners. Although I caught a couple of fish with my standard 18” hooklength it was not until I changed to a 30” one that I really got going as the fish seemed to be swimming a little deeper than usual. The remainder of the match saw me put 33 carp in the net for a weight of 100lb 4oz and a win. I did have a “look” down the margin and caught two carp but as they were no bigger than the waggler caught fish I did not give it very long.

 My next match saw me on Peninsular again but on peg 65 up the arm. Now this can be a very good draw with the wind blowing into the peg but when the wind is blowing the other way as it was on this occasion it is a real “no hoper”. Two hours fishing a mixture of method feeder, straight lead and paste on the pole saw just a solitary bite on paste from a 1lb tench. This prompted me to take an early bath as it was obvious I would not catch.

Would you Adam and Eve it next match I drew 64 and no the wind had not changed. Same old story 3 hours for two bites (a carp and a skimmer) and another early bath.

 Next up was my favourite Capricous Lake which I always enjoy fishing as there are fish to be caught all around the pool. Although there are favoured areas in the high and low numbers there is a chance of framing from anywhere and at least you get a few bites. I drew peg 10 and set up a very short tip rod with a small method feeder on it along with three pole rigs. I had two rigs with Shindig 0.3 floats on for my open water swims and a Pikey for down the edge.  My match got underway with a couple of small carp on the method before the swim was invaded by a shoal of skimmers which prompted me to try my long pole lines. A few smallish carp resulted on the paste but I could see that some anglers were catching much bigger fish than me. I then decided to have a look in my edge pegs and by switching between the two fishing just the paste off the hook I managed to take a total of 42 fish before the all out. I was pleasantly surprised to weigh 62lb 10oz for a win and beat the 23 fish for 59lb taken by the second placed angler on peg 26. Back up weights of 58lb from peg 5 and 57lb from 30 showed once again what a cracking little venue it is for producing close finishes.

It was back to the Peninsular Lake for the Thursday open and I felt I had half a chance of a good result having pulled out peg 35. As it was flat calm close in and not a deep area I decided to leave the pole in the bag and set up three rods, method, straight lead and pellet waggler. The plan was to start on the method whilst spraying pellets short for the straight lead/pellet waggler swim. A few unproductive casts on the method saw me switching to the straight lead to take a couple of early carp on hair rigged 8mm pellet but there was obviously not a lot of fish in the swim as there were no liners or swirls on the surface as the pellets were fed. A switch back to the method line saw me progress to nine fish at around three hours into the match, not brilliant but better than those around me.  The next couple of hours only resulted in four stocky sized carp despite trying both the straight lead and pellet wagg line a couple more times. However with just thirty minutes to go the method line suddenly came to life and I fed a further five decent sized carp into the net. My 18 carp weighed a level 63lb which was good enough for third place on the day being beaten by weights of 71 and 67lb from pegs 45 and 58. I was left to ponder on what might have been because during the course of the match I had lost five decent fish off the hook including one on my very last cast. I have now purchased a few packs of the new Guru QM1 hooks recommended by Steve Ringer and Alex Bones which supposedly reduce fish losses due to hook pulls and I will give you my thoughts on them in the next newsletter.

Back to Capricous for another fair match that was won with 42lb with back up weights of 38lb 10oz, 38lb 6oz and 38lb 1oz followed by yours truly on 36lb 8oz and three more weights of 30lb plus. Most of my 28 fish were again taken on paste down the edge but were they were mainly small stockies with a couple of better fish being taken in the last hour.

 My last match was a non event for me as the open was on Hall Pool where I drew a flat calm peg 26 which offers a short lob to the island and lots of skimmers on the pole line. However you cannot win with skimmers so I elected to set up just a method feeder and three hours later just a single stray carp and three juvenile skimmers had surrendered to my corn and pellet hookbaits. I decided to retire to the cabins patio area from where I could watch the action whilst enjoying my bacon and cheese sandwich and a cup of coffee which was a much better option than another three hours watching a motionless quivertip. 

Redneck user reports and comments.

Michael Whitmore commented......Just opened my floats and am very impressed with them and will order some more soon. Thank you for the service you give and trusting me to send the money once you have posted the floats.

Martin Churchill says......Thank you for the floats I am VERY impressed with them and will send another order soon. I took them to a club match and the lads are very interested so I pointed them in the direction of your website.

Dick Broomer writes......Thank you for the floats they look superb and I cannot wait to fish with them. The design is spot on. I have always had to modify my paste floats but these are superb. The pellet floats also are spot on, tip diameter, length and stem length. The design and manufacture is spot on once again.