They are already going great, outselling every other pattern at the moment, which is great news.

Designed in part by Andy May, and already used by a host of top names including Dave Swain, Martin Churchill and “Sir” Harry Billing, they are set to be one of THE must-have patterns in 2012.

Slim, powerfully built and sensitive (a bit like me really..!) and available in 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 gram sizes (errr…not a bit like me..!), The Piranhaz are selling fast, so get yours now…a Piranhaz is not just for Christmas; it’s for at least a good few hefty bagging-sessions..!!

Happy 2012 to all,

Scone.

Well, there actually..!

You have to be a member of the Matchfishing-scene website to enter, but it’s your chance to win 30 Sconezone floats, including some of the as yet un-named new pattern..

Get your entries in now as the comp closes on December 21st..

Good luck and thank you all for your support over the past 12 months…Have a great Xmas and an even better new-year..!

I’ve been working on a new all-round pattern which is especially suited to winter maggot and small pellet fishing, but as with all Sconezone patterns, it’s very versatile. For one lucky subscriber, a top-banana pressie will be given of a full set of these lovely floats.

All you have to do is log on to www.matchfishing-scene.co.uk and (you have to be a member of the site) look out for the “Xmas Sconezone Competition”.

I will put the competition on-line soon, and the lucky winner will not only recieve said floats, but; wait for it….will get the new pattern named with their suggestion..!

Yep, that’s the comp…”name the float”…!!

The photo show’s the pre-production prototype. Specs are 1.2mm hollow bristle with the usual, very strong stem-through design; 0.7mm black glass stem, balsa body and new-style “Finesse”-type spring eye.

Be sure to enter the comp as it’s your chance to have the float named by you…!

Martin Churchill (aka “Church”) has joined Dave Swain, Gaz Wood, Andy Toplis and Jamie Jones as a sponsored angler, and with Martin’s pedigree, he’s sure to have a positive influence on future development of products. His angling C.V. makes impressive reading

I look forward to working with Martin and hope to continue to improve the impressive service Sconezone already provides.

I start as Product Development Manager at Maver UK in January 2012, and whilst this may seem like “the end” of the Sconezone, trust me it’s only the beginning. Maver have kindly allowed me to continue with the Sconezone, and as such, for the foreseeable future, I will continue to supply and develop new ideas of my own, especially concentrating on pole-floats. Maver want me to design their own range of double-hard floats for commercial fisheries, but I will endeavour to service my customers in the same way as I have over the past few years. I’m currently working on a new maggot-pattern with Andy May which will hopefully be released in the spring of 2012.

My fishing has been non-existant since the last round of the UK Champs as I’ve obviously had other things to think about, but soon enough, the spring festivals at Whiteacres will come around as will the Fisho’s and the qualifiers for next years UK’s…(I finished outside the top 40 again in the UK’s for the second year running so have to qualify. I’ll blame it on the drawbag, but really, I’m way off the pace of Messers Cox, Fry, Ringer et al..!)

I’d obviously like to thank everyone for their best wishes (and there have been many.!) and here’s hoping that 2012 will be a whole lot better than 2011..!

Dave has a fantastic angling CV, winning many events in Ireland and being one of the very few who have fished the Fisho final no less than five times (I don’t know what he’s messing about at..!). Dave now uses Sconezone floats and his favourite pattern during the spring and summer months is the Ninjaz. He uses this pattern almost exclusively for his meat and pellet fishing on a wide variety of venues noting the brilliant stability and sensitivity along with the fantastic build quality.

Having Dave on board didn’t come cheap though. He saw the side-trays and just had to have one:

Sconezone side-tray for Preston X6

As you can see from the photo, it has an attachment for a “pinging-bowl” which transforms comfort whilst shallow fishing, and an additional fitting-post for attaching a Pole-Roost such as the Apollo 8 system.

Detail of the "Pinging-bowl" attachment

If you want to order such a system for your box, whatever the make, send me an e-mail to Ianscone@aol.com with your requirements and I’ll get back to you with a price and an expected delivery date. remember that these trays are all “bespoke”, which means you can have any size, any colour, any attachments, in fact anything you want on the tray.

Laters,

Sconeeee

No, really, I hate Autumn. It signals “Winter is coming” and I hate that time of year even more, but at time of writing, it’s only 183 sleeps until Whiteacres…how fast does time slip by these days eh? Anyway, I digress; the Sconezone offer of some freebies with all orders over £25 has gone down very well as is the introduction of my latest new pattern, the Samurai. It took longer than I would have liked to develop it, but with all the hear-say regarding “copying other manufacturers patterns” (not aimed at Sconezone I hasten to add..!) and the need to find a float which performs as good as it looks, I think the time has been well worth spending.

The float body is manufactured in Aircraft-Grade closed-cell foam and no matter how much bashing-up it takes, the Samurai will never take on water. I’ve made the bristle longer than I usually do for margin-floats as I found during testing, the short bristled models take some reading unless the laccy is being ripped-out. This longer 30mm bristle allows that “reading” of bites to be easier, although it’s still nice to get laccy-rippers..!

The Samurai

It’s great news as some of you probably now know that I’ve recently been made redundant, and to say that it came as a shock was a bit understated. New ventures beckon and as my mates keep telling me “you are so ugly Sconee”…no; sorry…I meant to say that they keep telling me that “stuff happens for a reason”. I’m not a great believer in fate or anything sinister like that; much preferring to work my spuds off to get what I want. It aint quite worked as yet, but I’ll keep trying..!

Keep an eye out on www.matchfishing-scene.co.uk for the latest giveaway which will be coming soon.

I’m off to the Glebe again to see if I can tip-back 50 pounds again…it’s all I’ve been doing lately..!

Laters and order a Sidetray…you may have to wait a month, but the feedback seems to say that they are the best money can buy…

I told Malc that the Viperz were not specifically designed for paste fishing on commercials, but a float being “a float”, Malc decided to give them a go as recommended by Andy May…this was Malcs judgement:

To put this right, I’ve decided to have a go myself, and the results and feedback have been nothing short of excellent..!

If you need to speccify an all-alloy, bespoke sidetray, made specifically to your own design, send me an e-mail to Ianscone@aol.com and I’ll do the rest.

Prices will range from £50 right up to £100 for your own designs.