Pay Pal Links

Ok... I'm starting to open pay pal links for you to purchase my floats.  Please remember that each float is made one at a time and may take sometime to turn and ship to you.  Once a payment has been made I will email you to confirm the payment and that I am making the floats.  If some are already made I will ship them out and send an email notifying you of the shipment. 

Please note that when you are finished ordering the floats you want click on the email link northwoodscustomfloats@gmail.com to leave your email so I can get back to you.

Over the next few days to weeks I will be posting pictures of each size and style.  As of right now I will have three sizes of the Avons in a wire stem and carbon fiber stem configuration, three sizes of the loafer floats with carbon fiber stems.

I have a very hectic work schedule and will make the floats as time allows. 

Again thank you for your interest.

This icon will appear under each float picture.  The link should take you to the paypal site to purchase the floats.
For example:

    Wire Stem Avon

Rocky River

Well, I got out yesterday for a very short time on the Rock.  I was looking at the flow gauge the day before and thought the river was going to be a nice green color.  I drove over the east branch and it was pretty stained but the flow was perfect.  The west branch actually looked good but was slightly stained with a slight green hue to it.  I stopped by and fished the main river down from the nature center.  Unfortunatly the fish didn't feel like cooperating with me.  So, I started to test out some of the floats I have been making. 

I took off the loafer style float and attached one of the wire stemed Avons I had turned and made a cast.  After that first drift I was amazed at how well it tracked and held the line.  The more I used this style of float the more impressed I became.  After a short time I decided to try the float in some slack water.  I then drove down river and fished below a popular ford and down from the main road.  I took a few casts and again the float held it's line.  I am becoming more and more sold on the wire stem floats due to the fact that this one float showed so much stability in the water, it held it's line and stayed on the intended drift.  More tests will show the true virtue of the wire stem for the avon floats.

I'm sure the Rocky River is pretty much iced over because the flow ice yesterday morning was everywhere from what I saw as I drove over it on my way home from work and I wouldn't doubt that the same is true for today. 

Anyways, I got a few more floats finished they are an avon style with a mixture of carbon fiber and wire stems.  I'm looking forwards to using them this spring.  Remember if you would like to purchase some of these floats you can reach me at northwoodscustomfloats@gmail.com. Here is a picture of two of them up close.  I would estimate they can hold anywhere from 3 to maybe 5 grams, the wire ones a bit less. 

More Floats

Well here are a few more floats for your enjoyment.  All of them are turned from very light balsa wood with 0.040" carbon fiber stems.  The floats pictured are a loafer style and avon style floats.  They hold between 4 and 10 grams of weight.  If you would like to purchase a float or two you can reach me at the following email. northwoodscustomfloats@gmail.com.

Just a couple of the floats I finished Made from balsa wood with carbon fiber stems.  The floats are pictured with a 15 foot Raven IM9 with a Sycamore Wood handle and Islander Centerpin Reel.  Hope you all enjoy the floats as much as I have enjoyed making them.

It's way below freezing out today.  Too cold for me to actually get out and wet a line.  So I thought I'd add another picture of a fish caught using the Northwoods floats. I need to start taking more pictures.

Here is a nice Lake Ontario brown trout.

Very First Run of Floats

Here is the very first run of floats from 2008/09.  Balsa bodies with carbon stems all hold between 2.5 and 4 grams.

Larger picture of a few of those first runs.

Here's me with a nice Conneaut Creek steelhead from the Spring of 2009 using a Northwoods Float and a custom dyed trout bead.

Another Steelhead from the Rocky River in the Spring of 2009, Northewoods Float and bead.  The rod I was using a Custom made Loomis IMX made by John Witzke broke at the butt section on the next hook set.  Needless to say I was really pissed after that.

Inspriation for Northwoods Custom Floats Name

This is the stream that inspired the Northwoods name.  It is a small unnamed stream that intersects the James Bay Road in Northern Quebec.  My dad and I on one of our trips North (1999) hiked up a good ways up this stream.  I can only imagine being able to actually take a day and fish it.  For anybody interested in the James Bay region of Quebec google the James Bay Road.  It is a trip that must be taken.  A road so remote that there is only one fuel stop between the two cities of Matagami and Raddison to the North.  There is a distance of approximately 600 km.  The fuel stop is at km 281. In between there is nothing but wilderness.  I'll post a picture of the Rupert River before it was diverted North for Hydro power (don't get me started on this). 

Little Bit About Me

Let me introduce myself.  I'm Randy, I have been floatfishing with centerpins for a little over 15 years for a variety of fish ranging from salmonids to bass, catfish, carp and panfish.

In that amount of time I became interested in making balsa wood floats when I was fishing to a pod of salmon on the Oak Orchard and seeing them part like the red sea as my Drennan floated by.  As I made a few more drifts and the same thing happened over and over I began to look for a different float.  As I was rummaging through my vest I found one of the very first balsa floats I had ever made.  I attached it to my line and noticed that the fish seemed to ignore the float... Needless to say I hooked only one of them for a brief time but that moment was etched in my mind.

After that day I started searching the net for anything I could find on float fishing.  I viewed sites like www.fishing.co.uk for tutorials on float making.  I also found a great website that had many years ago a forum dedicated to float making, www.maggotdrowning.co.uk.

My first floats were turned on a hand drill and they were very crude and not too pleasing to the eye but... they caught fish and from then on I was addicted.  A couple of years later I  met a Romanian guy who was a very hardcore match fisherman.  He was a pole fisherman something I had never seen here in Northeast Ohio.  He showed me some of the floats he had made and I was amazed at the quality of his floats.  All of them handmade and they looked like floats I could have bought from a high end tackle shop.  After befriending him I learned he also made his own centerpin reels, closed face match reels and the best rod blanks I have seen from old broken blanks.  He had given me one of his old lathes which was nothing more than a sewing machine motor attached to a small 1/4" drill chuck connected by a rubber oring for the belt.  The bed consisted of two steel rods which had a machined dead center.  This lathe made some of the best floats I had made in a very long time.  I had finally made floats that were round and consistent in shape unlike the floats I made on the drill.  Sometime in 2005 I became part of the www.Questoutdoors.net staff and wrote a float making article www.questoutdoors.net/skills/centerpin/articles/float_making/ .  At this time I was making floats as a hobby for my own use. 

Jump ahead to 2008/09 I began making floats again and Northwoods was born.  I sold some through local tackle shops with little success.  The floats I made at this time had a loafer/chubber type body with a carbon fiber stem.  These floats were the best I had ever made.  Each one was nearly uniform in size, shape, and they tracked true through the drift.  Sometime later my belt broke and the dead centers worn out I had to call it quits for the time being.   Now, fast forwarding to 2012...  I got one of those elcheapo harbor freight wood lathes (the small one) bought some more balsa and began turning more floats.  This lathe is by far the best tool I have had for making floats.  I regret not buying one a long time ago.  Each float is now perfectly round and naturally the best I have ever made.

So, for the time being I will be using this page as a place you can purchase my floats.  I will begin posting pictures of the floats for you to see.   All the floats are handmade with either carbonfiber stems or wire stems. 

Thank you, 

Randy Gerrick

email: northwoodscustomfloats@gmail.com