Here at Middy we are really proud of our wide range of floats for both pole and rod-and-line. So we should be - we have been making floats since the 1960's. One of the fathers of float making and founder of Middy, Ken Middleton, couldn't purchase floats made with the quality he required, so he proceeded to construct his own. Through interest in his match results and the floats he made, Middy Tackle was born. Fast forward 50 years and you'll be hard pressed to find any angler that hasn't used a Middy float of some sort. Over the coming weeks we will introduce to you some of the various patterns of floats we produce, what materials are used and more importantly how and what they are used for. This week is about the Xtreme pole floats, courtesy of Middy angler Dale Calvert…

If you asked me which float I reach for more than others when setting up it would have to be the Xtreme Series 4. In sizes 4x10, 4x12, 4x14 and 4x16, this beauty really covers most of my pole fishing. For margin and far bank work the 4x10 and 4x12 are perfect for up to 4 feet. A 4x14 is excellent for when it’s choppy on these lines. A venue I fish regularly has a snake lake canal that is very deep. Even at 2 plus 2 it's 7 feet deep. If it's calm then I'll try and fish a 4x14 but generally on this venue it is exposed to the elements so a 4x16 on a windy day is awesome. A swim of 5 or 6 feet or more and I'll shot this with 8 no.8's and a couple of no. 10's. I'll have about 3 no.8's directly under the carbon stem to lock it in and then "shirt button" the shot in the last 3rd of the rig with the remaining shot having the no.10's as droppers. Oh, don't forget a couple of no.8's as back shot! On a 5m line I'll lay the rig in away from me and have the bait settling down the slope. Fishing this line a few inches over depth when it's windy gives that little extra stability to the presentation. On this line I'll fish with the bristle dotted right down keeping the rig nice and tight just waiting for the fish to almost hook itself. When fishing long I will generally shot this the same, with maybe a couple of changes but just leave more of the float tip showing. There really is no point straining to look at something you can't see very well and, of course, in white water I will blacken out the tip.

These floats are very buoyant. A-grade balsa coupled with a 2.5mm bristle, they have an extra sting to the tale - a polymer side eye that is attached to the stem just under the bristle ensures they really live up to the Xtreme name tag by being virtually indestructible. Fishing short or long on corn, hard pellet and meat I will 9 times out of 10 go for a Series 4.
At £1.50 RRP each, these floats are awesome!

~ Dale Calvert