Cheap torpedo float

The guys on cencal were talking about floats a while back and seemed to doubt the versatility of the swim noodle (one of my favorite ghetto componenets), so I built this float mainly to show what can be done with one.  It's way overkill for our neck of the woods, but would be a suitable replacement for comparable (expensive) floats at 11L of floatation.

I put a PVC pipe through the middle so the rope couldn't tear through the noodle and to keep it straight, then added a big washer (scrap from an old electrical box) to the back so the clip couldn't pull through either.  I can put my arms over it to chill out at the top of the water, and it has very little drag (notice I sharpened the end to make it aerodynamic).  The rope has a surgeons loop just past the float that I do a loop-loop connection to my floatline with.  Total investment <$10, mostly noodle and clip at ~$4 each.  That's a 'magnum' noodle, not the normal 3" type.

All hail the ghetto rigging king!!!! 

thats a cool setup actually. and i bet it will snake through the kelp well too. i once went hunting for halibut and forgot my float at home. i blew up a zip lock bag and rubber banded it around the end of my float line. i think either way i would have lost it but for some reason that day i felt like i just had to have something to keep the end on the surface. in hindsight, it was useless.

Of course what good is a float without a badass floatline to go with it.  I've heard tales of tuna breaking 600lb rigging, so I decided to build the mother of all bungie floatlines.  Rather than putting a tiny little 600lb spectra line through my tubing I pulled a 600lb working load (2000lb?) rope through my tubing.  It barely squeezed through.  Of course then I couldn't use some pansy snap swivel, so I looped the ends of the rope through steel turnbuckles.  To seal the ends I used a useful property of most tubing, each size fits tightly inside the next size up.  Starting at the 1/4" steel eyebolt I applied silicone, then slid tubing over it, then tied a constrictor knot, more silicone, tubing, constrictor knot.. until I had a perfect plug for the end of my tubing (I did have to widen it up a bit to go over the doubled rope and eyebolt). 

I made a low profile loop in the rope by doubling it over and tying a bunch of constrictor knots around it with spectra.  I also drilled the ends of the eyebolts and put a pin through them so they couldn't unscrew from the turnbuckle, but they're still allowed to rotate.  The end is a little heavy since each buckle weighs about 3oz, but the floatline is pretty bouyant so I'm not worrying about it.

As usual I have my 10' hash marks so I can read the depth I'm working at off the floatline.





This'll be overkill for around here, but I can rest assured that I can handle all situations.