When fish are chasing bait fish near the surface, there is no chance of them noticing your bottom bait. Of course you could use top or mid-water lures, or, when fishing from a height, tie your hook length several feet from your weight, but using a float is way more effective.
Do I need a float for fishing?
If fishing live bait for trout, panfish, and bullheads, or you want to suspend your bait off the bottom, a bobber is beneficial to most fishermen. If you are fishing large bait for bigger fish or fishing on the bottom, a bobber can be detrimental to your fishing success.
What is the purpose of a float when fishing?
The float is used to enable the angler to cast out a bait away from the shore or boat while maintaining a reference point to where the bait is unlike bottom or leger fishing.
What do you need for float fishing?
If you are just looking to do some general float fishing on rivers and canals, then a 12 or 13ft match rod should suit you fine. You will need a small reel loaded with around 3 to 6 lbs of line. If you are going tench or carp fishing, then a 12ft power float rod with a reel of 6 to 8lbs will be required.
What floats to use when fishing?
What Is Float Fishing?
| Float Type | Description | Ideal Use |
|---|---|---|
| Pole | Very sensitive and held in place by tiny rubber sleeves. Come in many different shapes | Pear shaped ones for any water, dibbers (small ones) for shallow waters and ‘body up’ shapes for running water |
| Slider | Chunkier floats | Large bait and windy or sea fishing conditions |
Should I use a bobber for river fishing?
Pond Fishing and River Fishing
When pond fishing, use a bobber to keep your bait afloat. When river fishing, use a sinker to weigh the bait down. If you use a bobber in a river, the strong current will push your bait back to the bank. In the case of bobbers, size matters.
How do I stop my bobber from drifting?
In a nutshell, slip bobbers usually have a small knot of a Dacron-type line that can be slipped on the line and pulled tight. A small bead follows that. The bead stops the knot from going through the hole in the bobber.
What depth does a fish need to float?
You want to set the depth of your float so that the bait is 8 to 16 inches off the bottom of the river because that puts the bait right in the fish’s face. The closer the bait is to the fish the more likely it will eat it.
How far should a bobber be from the hook?
1 to 2 feet
For the bobber, a smaller one is more sensitive and offers less resistance to the fish so it can eat your bait easily. Finally, a short distance between the bobber and the hook (1 to 2 feet, normally) gets your worm in front of many fish yet keeps your hook from snagging the bottom.
Do fish learn to avoid hooks?
Depending on the individual’s capture experience—the amount of time played on hook and line, the amount of time handled and exposed to air—a fish may learn to avoid similar situations that put them at risk.
How far should the weight be from the hook?
Depending on the depth, the distance from the hook to the weight needs to be adjusted. For shallower water, it is recommended to place your hook three to six inches above the weight. For deeper water, the hook can be adjusted to nine inches from the weight to no more than a foot and a half because of the leverage.
How often should you recast when fishing?
The waters will wash off the scent over time, so we recommend recasting every 15 minutes.
What fishing weight should I use?
In general, you should use a lighter weight sinker in shallower water, and deeper water requires heavier weight. For shallow water, a ⅛-ounce weight works well to create a slow-falling lure action. In deeper water that is up to 20 feet, it’s best to use between ¼ to ⅜-ounce sinker weights.
Why is my slip bobber sideways?
If your bobber is laying sideways it usually means you set the sinker to go too deep, and it is on the bottom. If the sinker is on the bottom, the bobber will float on its side.
Can you lure fish with a float rod?
You can use a spinning rod for float fishing. Still, you’ll find your casting accuracy and general bait presentation will suffer, leading to a lower catch rate.
Do you use a float with a spinner?
There are several techniques available when using a spinner under the float. You can simply cast and retrieve as you would when fishing with a spinner alone. The retrieve speed can be very slow, as long as you have direct connection with the float. The float keeps your spinner from snagging up on the bottom.
How do you drift fish?
Drift fishing requires some weight to get the bait down, but the motion of the boat moves the bait through the water slowly. You can also drift a bait under a bobber or popping cork. Drift fishing allows you to fish over a variety of habitats as your boat drifts with the currents or wind movement.
How deep can you fish with a bobber?
A slip bobber is most often used to fish at a maximum depth between 20 and 30 feet, but it can also be used in considerably deeper water of 60 feet or even deeper.
Do you need a bobber for catfishing?
If you don’t need a bobber or float you’re likely to find other catfish rigs like the Santee Cooper rig or slip sinker rig more effective but there’s are certainly instances where a bobber is the best option and even times where the traditional bobber rig will outperform all others.
Contents