Float fishing has been a real productive way to catch fish for a long long time.
We don’t pay it much attention in Australia but in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world it is as common as spin fishing….and many say much more productive.
The reason these anglers like it so much is that it catches fish in some very heavily fished waters…
…when fish see a lot of tackle they wise up very quick.
Many of the waters in Europe are catch and release only…and its policed by water bailiffs who make sure anglers follow the rules.
This means the same fish get caught more than once and they learn fast and get very hard to catch….so tackle and bait have to be absolutely spot on or the fish won’t touch it.
In Australia we mostly take the caught fish home so they never get a chance to learn from the experience. So we benefit from their lack of experience…maybe this is why float fishing has never taken off.
You might see anglers chasing luderick, garfish and trout with floats but these are the exceptions…and it’s a pity cos floats catch fish!
The floats I use and work best are the thin pencil and waggle floats that don’t weigh much, sink easy and the fish can’t feel.
You can use bubble floats but they are too hard to sink so the fish feel resistance and are less likely to swallow the bait….
…instead, using a thin float that a fish can’t feel gives you more chance of a hookup….and landing a fish.
The set up for these floats is simple….just a few split shot to hold them in place and one or two down the line to sink the line.
For the most part – floats are used with the bait on the bottom….
Yep… just like when you ledger or bottom fish…then the float acts as the most accurate bite indicator !
The idea is to put the bait where the fish expect to find it….on the bottom. Then you do a few extra things to get them to take the bait…
The first thing is to cast to the same spot, then have some berley already there so the fish are attracted, then keep chucking in little bits of extra bait to get the fish competing for something to eat…and then hooking them when they bite….simple!
The other thing is being able to use a float when the water is deep. All it takes is a stopper attached to your line so the float is locked into a certain depth.
Most Aussie anglers don’t fish deep water with floats cos they don’t know how to use a float in water that’s deeper than the length of their rod….after all if you’ve got a 2 metre rod and you’re fishing 1.5 metre deep water then your rod is long enough to have a float and 1.5 metres of hook length attached to the float.
But what if you’re fishing 4 meter deep water….. it gets really awkward to fish the bottom. That’s why European anglers developed longer rods …..up to 5 metres long originally.
Sometimes even this isn’t long enough so they developed a simple method to allow them to fish any depth and it’s pretty simple to do…
…but why would they bother going to all this trouble…because, on its day, float fishing is one of the deadliest methods for hooking fish…its a great bite detector, hooks more fish cos they don’t feel any resistance…and there’s nothing quite like watching a float go under when a fish bites.
The best rod to use is a long lightweight rod…the longer the better usually.
I use a 3.6metre rod but you can do the same with a 2.5 metre rod. What you want is one with quite big ferrules (rings) that allow the line to pass easily.
The way you’ll fish is using a “running” float that is stopped in place by a short piece of line tied to the main line. This will stop the float running any further along the line….and a set up like this can fish very deep water!
The next thing is choice of float. Thin pencil floats are OK for close in work but if you have to cast a fair distance or there’s a bit of wind then you need a heavier float. There are floats specially made to handle wind. They’re called different names, but the ones I like are called Drift Beaters. They are just a bigger float that can carry a bit of weight on the line and have a very buoyant tip that stops them being washed over with water when there’s a bit of chop.
Using something like this lets you fish big dams and reservoirs and cast out to the deep water. I’ve used these to catch trout and Redfin when fishing on the bottom didn’t produce much.
If the thought of float fishing seems a bit too hard there’s a special type of float that make’s the whole job a bit easier. It’s called a self adjusting float and it does all the hard work for you. This float has a special connector that you thread the line through. They don’t need any stopper and run freely on the line until it is tightened. You use bigger weights on these floats and when you cast in the float sinks and as it comes to the surface you tighten your line which locks the float in place…and you’re ready to fish.
These floats actually let you use a berley cage as a sinker so you get the best of both worlds….your bait is near the berley and a float tells you when you’ve got a bite….it’s a match made in heaven.
Most anglers who use floats will tell you that watching the float go under when a fish takes the bait is pretty cool. I agree and the only thing that beats it is float fishing at night! This is an experience in itself!
You can attach little isotopes, that glow in the dark, to your float so you can see them when you cast out. It’s a real hoot to see the glowing float tip disappear under water as a fish takes it in the darkness….seeing that light slowly get dimmer as it’s pulled into the depths is a great experience!
You can also fish running water with a float.
This is a great way to explore the water in front of you by letting your float travel down stream carrying a bait.
In my early days of trout fishing a mate and I fished the upper Yarra River with lures. After a day of casting metal lures all over the place we’d only caught 3 fish. We were cold, wet and hungry and felt pretty average about the whole experience.
As we were leaving we met a guy who had an escky full of trout…big ones. He was using a small stick float and drifting a couple of lively worms down stream….and he was cashing in!
All he did was cast out and let the current carry his float down the river. The bait was bouncing along the bottom and looked like any other food that drifted down stream. When it’d gone far enough, he’d wind back in and cast again. With every cast he’d throw in one or two live worms as a berley trail…and this attracted the fish from down stream.
This is where I first got serious about float fishing in running water.
So….float fishing is worth exploring and can be as simple as you need it to be. It certainly catches fish and is just another method you can use to add a bit of spice….and hopefully a few fish to your bag.