DIY burley float for fishing

A DIY burley float for casting and burleying that can be made from a roll-on deodorant bottle.

Introduction to the DIY burley float

Recently, strong wind put an early stop to my mullet fishing on an open surf beach. I discovered that I could continue to catch fish behind a rocky headland. However, the loss of tackle amongst the weed and rocks was frustrating. Attaching a high-density ‘egg float’ allowed me to continue successful fishing. I could cast accurately, track the position of the rig and avoid the loss of more tackle. More such floats would be with me on future fishing trips.

For context, I should also mention that my recent success with Mullet fishing has been with small pieces of chicken fillet crumbed with dry breadcrumbs. This trick was shared generously by my very experienced and successful Greek fishing friends. “Must be white bread……only breast fillet was the command.” But I put a little tuna oil in the crumbs.

With my growing experience of this crumbed bait, I sensed that when the crumbs wash off the chicken flesh the fish went off the bite somewhat [Add demonstration video]. I suspect that the crumbs on the bait made a short-lived, but very attractive burley cloud near the bait.

This meant that constant re-baiting was required for good success, along with normal area burleying. This is less so with some other fish species that I target, but it is equally applicable to some others such as Yellow Tail Scads, Tommy Rough, Garfish and probably Mackerel.

Consequently, I got interested in ways of having burley delivered near my bait. Some examples are shown in the photo below, but none seemed to deliver the burley optimally as I presume my freshly crumbed chicken baits did.

I had seen egg floats with a large burley hole that was formed across the middle that should allow in situ burleying. I could not find these burleying casting floats online, so instead I purchased some beautiful-looking solid luminescent egg casting floats online and thought that I possible could improve them for my purposes. Other burley devices that I considered are shown in the photo below.

[Add a link to the video of the burley eroding from the ring sinker]

Room for DIY float improvements

A. In situ burley float cavity or reservoir. I had the thought that I might simply drill some large holes in these new simple egg floats to form some burley cavities in them. “The float could ‘rain’ burley down onto my baited hook!” Alternatively, a light but strong chamber consistent with easy casting could be added to a float. Hopefully, this would provide a longer-lasting burley stream immediately above (or beside) the bait. It even may be able to be stimulated to strategically increase the burley cloud when required.

B. Night float lighting. The luminescence of the new float will be welcome to help with observing bites. However, from experience, I have always found that a more intense light such as a glow stick is much more effective for night fishing. This is particularly so If the buoyancy/weight of the float can be finely adjusted so that the tiny glow stick will normally float just above the water surface and submerges with the most gentle fish bite.

“That transition from a tiny clear light on the surface to that shimmering submerged look, during a bite, is part of the fun of night fishing as it heralds the hook set and the exciting pull back of the next fish.”

A convenient glow stick mount was not included on the new (or previous ) egg floats, but it would be a welcome improvement if I could include it as an option on all my DIY floats.

C. Running float. The new egg float (unlike my previous one) did not have a running attachment for easy compact casting, more sensitive hook setting and easier fish removal in darkness. So this would need to be fixed when they arrived. All my DIY floats will have this provision as an option.

D. Fixed depth dropper length. Sometimes, when fishing from a pier, bank or steeply shelving beach, I find that a long soft-tipped rod (or pole) with a fixed line often works well when the contact zone is not very deep. I find that a fixed drop length below the float is also ideal for this activity. Consequently, having a simple and easily adjusted fixed line stop for the float is another useful feature of the float rig, particularly if it can be quickly switched back to a running float for distant casting if required.

E. DIY float size, casting weight and buoyancy considerations. I suppose we all want a float that is small to reduce wind resistance and be sensitive to delicate fish bites. We want a high weight that is good for accurate and distant casting and then enough buoyancy to support its own weight as well as the remainder of the rig. Consequently, for the float to be well balanced in this regard it ideally should be able to have an adjustable weight/ballast that maintains the optimal float orientation and submersion depth.

F. Cheap floats for use with light lines. We all know that for many fish, light fishing lines (with light sinkers) make for a better hook-up rate. However, the lighter line strength comes with the disadvantage of poor recovery of the rig when it becomes snagged or hit by a big fish that was not being targeted. So, we often fish at a less ideal depth to avoid such snags and big bottom feeders. Consequently, cheap and plentiful DIY floats make such losses inconsequential.

A DIY float from a dead deodorant bottle

Now that is quite a list of features for a float to have. My shiny new floats were making their slow tortured way to me over the seas. In the meantime, I was inspired by a large collection of used deodorant (antiperspirant) bottles from the bottom drawer of my bathroom cabinet. “I knew that they would finally find a noble use.”

I made some DIY floats with some or all of the above features. Here is my bumbling account of their creation that, as you may expect, the act of free-range tinkering changes ones thinking about solutions to challenges.

The tinkering started with using just the roller balls as floats and perversely ended with using only the bottle without the ball. The bottle became a big burley reservoir to which I added internal foam buoyancy and lead ballast weight/s. The ideas may interest a few other keen fishermen who like to tinker and have many dead deodorant bottles in that bottom drawer. The post is a little incomplete, but should still be of interest to some DIY fishing tinkerers.

This first group of floats just use the roller ball according to my original plan.

Have you got the balls to make your own float?

DIY float ball with no ballast adjustment or burley release. This is the simplest deodorant float. It just needs two undersized holes drilled in it so that a tight fitting piece of PVC tube can be ‘pulled’ through. It makes water seals, a path for the running line, a mount for a light stick and an optional friction stop for the non-running line (when using a light stick) and the stop point when the running line option is in use.

A lead washer can be used as ballast so that a light sinker can be used on the dropper for fish with a sensitive bite.

DIY float ball with water ballast adjustment. This float is as above and has the inclusion of a side hole and a DIY silicone rubber stopper in the float that allows the addition of water or a lead weight to increase casting weight, reduce float buoyancy and allow the use of very light sinkers on the dropper line.

DIY burley ball float with a burley slow-release attachment. This float is as above with an extra perforated metal cone (0.1mm thick stainless steel foil) attachment that is held in place with three silicone rubber bands. When charged with fine dry burley powder it slowly leaks out a cloud of burley over the bait for some minutes. Gentle jerking of the line can stimulate a much higher release rate.

[Add the link to the video of burley cloud when ready]

Have You’ve got the bottle to make a DIY burley float?

The above burley slow release was delightful. I think it mimics the brief burley crumb cloud that comes from my crumbed chicken baits when they first hit the water, but the burley storm from the burley chamber lasts longer. However, the filling of the cone was fiddly and the burley capacity was small. “The ball stole a lot of the cone holding capacity.”

As an alternative, I was preparing a long cylindrical and perforated burley chamber with about four times the burley holding capacity. Then it occurred to me that the deodorant bottle with its quick-fit cap would make a simple, robust and large burley dispenser.

If the bottle was fitted with suitable internal buoyancy (a ring of sealed cell foam and lead ballast if needed), it could become a good casting float. There would be no need for fiddly burley filling. Importantly, filling would be required much less often. This design also meant that, for such a flooded float, drilling small holes into the chamber (for a through line and glow sticks etc) was inconsequential to its floating performance.

To achieve consistent buoyancy, I needed to drill an extra breather hole in it to release the air that otherwise gets trapped in it. Luckily, the breather hole can also be the same fine that is required for the through fishing line.

The birth of a DIY burley float from a deodorant bottle

Dove-style deodorant bottles are my choice for making a DIY burley float. They have a nice tapered float shape. “Luckily these are my wife’s preferred brand, and I make sure there is a bulk supply as a Christmas stocking filler!”

If the ball is removed carefully, it can be used as another simple ball float (Please see details below). When the ball is removed a retaining ball keeper ‘net structure’ will be exposed and it can easily be cut out cleanly with a sharp knife.

To add buoyancy to the bottle I put a strip (130*20*7mm) of sealed cell foam inside and just below the shoulder of the bottle to form a floatation ring (More details are in the notes below).

I found I could easily make multiple short-slit cuts in the bottle with a slim cutting disk in a Demel tool. I made the cuts across the ‘raised ridges that are on each side of the bottle. Also, to keep the slits short I used some depleted cutting disks. “You know, those pesky little discs that seem to build up in a tinkerer’s Dremel toolbox.”

These slits created an easy path for the natural slow-release of fine bread crumb-based burley with tuna oil and other tasty particles. The slit width in the burley float can easily be widened with hot wire to make a faster release rate and accommodate the use of coarser burley particles.

Drilled holes would suffice, but the slit cuts were largely swarth-free and appeared to be better than many small round holes that could easily be blocked by some larger and swollen or flaky burley particles such as bran and fish flake particles.

I also noticed that most of the burley exited the lower slits. However, I think the upper slits may be useful to provide free entry for the replacement water.

The above photo does not show the cloud very well, but this video shows it a little better.

“I think we all agree that BURLEY is good and a lot more very fine burley is much much more goooder, particularly if it is very close to our baited hooks!”

Steady burley release and DIY burley float ballast calibration. In practice, my dry burley crumb mix floats to the top of the bottle when the freshly charged float is first flooded with water. I resist the urge to mix the two together thoroughly (as I do with the normal liquid burley that I squirt into the fishing area). This means that the dry burley floats, as a blob, to the top of the float with air entrained. This air temporarily gives the float more buoyancy.

The burley crumbs, steadily ‘wash off’ the soggy bottom face of the blob to make a weak mixture of crumbs and water for dispersal as a burley cloud. This provides a great amount of dilute burley at a rather steady release rate over a long period of time.

Also, the blob erodes and eventually becomes totally wetted and it will no longer will have significant air trapped between the burley particles. This means that the float will sink lower in the water. Consequently, I think the float weight should always be balanced without burley in the bottle.

For similar reasons, a vent hole in the lid is needed to allow trapped air to quickly escape so that there is a constant and correct minimum float buoyancy.

Notes for old salt fishing tackle tinkerers

I don’t presume to tell you experienced fishing/tackle people how to suck eggs, but some of my little tinkering tricks may be new to your tinkerer’s toolkit. “I learn so much from others, even non-Greeks!” Please comment if you think I have missed out on any technical tricks.

Non-destructive ball removal. A small hole can be pricked into the ball with an awl, course sewing needle or even a drill if you must. Then a fine screw can be threaded into the ball that is made from a delightfully malleable plastic.

After dipping the ball and the holding sphincter into boiling water the ball can be easily extracted. If the screw diameter is kept less than the OD of the PVC tubing the the hole can be drilled out to make a ball float “Two floats for the price of none, that’s like simultaneously catching two fish on the one hook that was found.”

Ball drilling cradle. Originally I cut off the bottle, just below its shoulder, to get the ball out. I took the severed shoulder and trimmed the lip of the sphincter down with a sharp knife. This piece of scap made an excellent clasp for holding the balls while drilling holes in them. “So it would be worth sacrificing a bottle to make one.”

PVC tube with a pull-through point. “Pushing a PVC tube through a tight hole is as difficult as putting bait worms back in their holes!” However, putting a long sloping point on the tube makes the job easy. I also like to leave the point intact so that the tube can be removed and refitted at any time or other devices can be easily stretched on if needed.

Compact lead ballast washer for ball float. I was surprised to find that the Dove ball could support a No.1 bean sinker and let the glow stick sit at the ‘right height’ for sensitive detection of bites at night. However, I have learned that such a heavy sinker is inappropriate for many fish that I target and one or two little split shots are more effective on the dropper line. Consequently, I devised a ballast weight made as a lead washer from a lead flashing sheet (Yes, not off a church roof). A tight fitting hole in it can enable it to be mounted immediately under the float on the through PVC tube, using the point to pull it through. I even beat a curve into the lead washer so that it hugs the bottom of the float and will be less tanglesome.

Internal float foam insertion. For the DIY burley to float correctly the internal sealed cell float material must be bulky but still allow the dry burley grains to flow down through it. I have found that a strip of sealed cell foam 6*15*140mm provides suitable buoyancy. The strip can be rolled up very tightly around a thin rod or stick and then bound tightly with many turns of thin fishing line to keep it compressed while it is inserted into the opening of the bottle.

Making the DIY water stopper for the round float. “This stopper is made from the little hardened blobs (or cylinders or cones) of silicone rubber waste that must be cleared from the nozzle of a silicone rubber cartridge connector nearly every time you go to use it! I keep these as they have so many uses, including fishing ones.” Please see DIY RTV silicone rubber uses for backpacking gear for many other tinkerers uses for this gift from the techno gods. Having cut a square end on the cylinder I glue on (with more silicone rubber) a little cap or hat of silicone rubber baking sheet from my scraps box. When the glue is cured, I trim the hat to a circular shape so that it forms a flange to stop it from ‘falling in’. The flange can also be used as a grip for removing the stopper.

Bypass hole for a running through-line. In order to have a running float rig when using the glow stick, a bypass opening can be melted into the PVC tube just below the glow stick mounting zone. I use a hot sewing needle mounted in a little wooden handle to make a very small hole. A slit shape works well as it lets the line move freely but it also acts as a stop for my DIY low-profile bobber stopper (castable) made from a thin slice of pantyhose. Thanks for another trick from the Greek fishermen.”

Tim