Nice post, great to see the youngster with a big smile on his face, know the feeling as I have fished ever since I was able stand upright on my legs too. Feathers make wonderful floats, for years I have made floats from various birds feathers from crows to geese and even swans, you can get loads of goose feathers during their moult. --- if you cut the tip off a feather it will slip over the top of another feather, you can then paint the individual tips different colours, then when you place your float on the fishing line you can interchange the different coloured tips for suitability to match the different light conditions on the water without having to change the actual float itself. Also if you make the tips with different lengths you can make your float longer by just changing the length of tip you push onto the float (and of course if you need a float that takes more shot the same rule applies), if you keep some cut tips clear and dont paint them then you can insert one of those glow lights into the tip then push it over the top of your float for night fishing. A starlight (glow light) will fit inside the top of a canada goose feather.
Cut the top off some feathers to make interchangeable tips to push over the top of your float, paint different colours for different light conditions, also useful when you want to extent the length or bouyancy of your float, keep some tips clear for inserting a starlight/glowlight for night fishing. ATB.