Vintage Old Fishing-Floats-Bobbers-Corks

Ideal Fishing Float advertising Sheet circa-1911
Promoting their newly patented fishing float with the knob patent Dec.5, 1911


Nels Olson Patented Snagless bobber Pat. 9-7-01


Nels Olson Bobber box paper

Carolina washboard Company Maroon Cork fishing float box

1950's era Carolina Washboard Float catalog advertisments

Shapleigh's Hardware Diamond Brand Cork fishing Floats Box

Bill Dewitt Pyrashell Floats  catalog page

                                                                      

Bill Dewitt Pyrashell floats

C.J. Carlisle Co. Coldwater Michigan

 The Coldwater Bait Company- Coldwater , Michigan is best known among antique tackle collectors for their line of  early wooden plugs. Such names the Coldwater Wiggler ,King, Helldiver, Ghost and Skipper come to mind. Coldwater Bait Company  also sold a line of fishing floats and display equipment such as rod stands. Their line of rod displays were bought by many of the large well known Tackle manufacturers of the day including Shakespeare, Heddon , Horrocks & Ibbottson, and many small sporting goods stores and bait & tackle shops. If any of you have an early example of one of their floats with provenance, I'd love to see a picture of it.


Red,White & Blue patriotic Carnival Cork Company, Float,
Fishing line on card.St. Louis , Missouri.
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1942 Pool Red Head Automatic Casting Float Envelope

Red Head Automatic casting Float & Box


Pair of Tiny Pflueger Catch- Nibbler Floats on cards

F.E. Chester, Providence , Rhode, Island

F.E. Chester Wooden Egg float

F.E. Chester Co. Display card catalog ad 

   Redfield Patent fishing floats had a unique spring cap design.

If you have been collecting fishing gear for a while, there is no doubt you have seen those older Imported Japanese Bamboo  Fly-Casting Rods sets that came in a hinged wooden box. Most of these rods were furnished with accessories such as flies, hooks and these tiny 3- 1/4" and under  floats(all which are usually long gone by the time these fishing rod sets hit the table at the flea market or garage sale). I've seen these floats in all combination of colors - green,red,blue,white and even pink.

On August 25, 1942 William W. Brown of Warren, Indiana received  patent 2,293,800. The patent covered the line hitch and the method of forming it.The langauge in the patent papers states that the object of the invention is to provide a hitch especially adapted to be attached to articles of fishing tackle such as floats, sinkers, spreaders and lures to provide means whereby a fishing line can be quickly and easily attached thereto without forming a knot in the line and from which the line may be readily removed.

  Most bobbers and floats are found without  their original box or display card. This makes identifying old bobbers and floats  difficult. When trying to identify a bobbers maker, one of the best keys is to look at the hardware or method of line attachment. This often times is the only thing that makes a bobber unique. Willliam Brown's line hitch was created from a single strand of resilent wire formed to make a spring coil in which the end convolutions of the spring were wound in the same direction.

William Brown's patented line hitch

Instructions for attaching the bobber to the line were shown on the point of sale dealer display card