Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

In honor of the day, use coupon code GFJSPD for 20% off all GREEN floats in my Etsy shop today!!!  Offer is valid until 12pm Pacific tonight.  Thanks!

My Favorite Floats

Here are a few photos of my favorite floats.  I beachcombed them myself when I lived in Alaska.  #glassfloatjunkie #glassfishingfloats

Assorted swirled floats found on remote
Alaskan beaches by me!

 

Russian star float with a dot I found.
This is a beautiful float, but it does have a crack.

This is a tri mold float with 2 spindles inside the float!!  I found
this gem on a remote Alaskan beach, too!

 

Beachcomber's Fun Fair ~ Ocean Shores, WA ~ March 1st & 2nd

Many glass fishing float collectors congregate each March to Ocean Shores, Washington for the annual Beachcomber's Fun Fair.  This event was created over 25 years ago for those of us who love the beach & all things associated with the beach.  Clearly, my favorite thing found on the beach are glass fishing floats!  Below are a few photographs from the weekend, which include several examples of floats.

Author & long-time glass fishing float collector/researcher,
Walt Pich.

Alan Rammer, author & long-time collector discussing
floats, I'm sure!

Alan Rammer's booth.

Items found on the beach are exhibited & judged
each year.  These were all found on the Olympic Peninsula.

Items found on the beach believed to be from the 2011
Japanese tsunami are placed on exhibit.

These items were just a portion of those found on the
Olympic Peninsula beaches by John Anderson.

Shannon is giving a little Float 101 to some folks.

Floats from John Anderson are entered into the glass fishing
float category.  Pardon the reflection of the overhead lights
on the glass!

Various floats entered into the glass fishing float category.

A Kanji roller from John Anderson's collection & display.

A spectacular cobalt blue swirled float from Mike Taylor's collection.

Another float from John Anderson's display.

That jumbo roller had many folks drooling!

"Colonel" Rich Richardson & Walt Pich.
Both of these collectors have been to Japan many times &
have done a great deal of research for our hobby.

Several of the collectors managed to be sitting at the same time,
so I snapped this shot.

Today is the official release of Glass Ball Shapes by Walt Pich!

Get your copy of Glass Ball Shapes by Walt Pich exclusively online from me!!! Today is the official release date! I'm at the Beachcomber's Fun Fair with Walt & he has lots of copies!! You will want this book!!! It's awesome!! 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/181127099/glass-ball-shapes-rolling-pins-sausages

FREE FLOAT!

I have a promotion going on right now!  If you make a purchase in my Etsy shop over $30, I'll give you a free 2.3" float with the original net!!  The value of the little gem is $14.99!  I'll just include it with your order!

UPDATE:  Due to Facebook limiting the exposure of the post below, I am extending the FREE FLOAT promo until Monday, March 3rd!

Please go check it out!

Revising the Blog

I am in the process of revising my blog to include the information from my website.  I will be working on it consistently until it's complete.  I have A LOT of work to do & photos to add, but I think it will be a major improvement!  I will be linking my website to this blog soon, as well.  Although I sell floats on Etsy, my goal is to also offer float sales through here.

Thank you for following me & I hope to have the revisions done soon!!

And....this is coming up quickly.  If you are anywhere close to Ocean Shores, Washington, you should come check this out!  Lots of glass fishing float collectors attend, including myself.  There are glass floats, beach glass, driftwood, displays, photos & exhibits.  For more information, you can go to the official Beachcombers Fun Fair website.

Octopus Fishing with Rollers

Well, I've drawn the conclusion that blogging isn't going to win me any awards, so I'll just post when I can & try to provide you all with some useful information, or stories!!  :)

Often I get asked about how Hokkaido rollers were used for fishing.  For a while, I wasn't exactly sure because I had heard various stories & couldn't confirm them.  I was finally able to get some photos & the actual rundown on how they were used, so I wanted to share it with you!

Many of the rollers I sell in my Etsy shop are from Hokkaido, Japan & were used for octopus fishing.  They are made from recycled glass in iron molds.  Sometimes the rollers have the kawaguchi marks on the seal button.  This is an indication that the float was made at the Kawaguchi Glass Company.  When translated, kawaguchi means "river mouth".  Most of the time they are unmarked.

As you can see in the photos below, the rollers were tied to the line with several feet in between them.  Sometimes the smaller, 2.5" floats were also used in addition to the rollers.  Attached to the main line were vertical lines that had fine stainless steel hooks alternated with small rocks.  The fisherman stretched the lines out for miles along the coastline in shallow, sandy bottomed areas.  The octopus would swim through the lines & get entangled.  The size of the rocks used were based on the size of the roller used.

The fisherman also used, what is commonly known, as a cranberry dot float.  Here is an example of a cranberry dot from my collection.  It still has the original wooden tag on it.

Here is an example of a blue dot float, which was also used for octopus fishing.

Sometimes Hokkaido rollers were also made in a beer bottle brown color if the factory got that color of glass to use.  These are rather uncommon.  Here is an example of a beer bottle brown roller from my collection.

I want to thank my friend, Charles, for providing me with the photos & information on how the rollers were used.  And, if you have a roller & need a substitute for rolling out cookie dough, one will work in a pinch!  :)

Until next time, I leave you with this........