Float fishing setups

Make sure you have plenty of line on your reel, and run the line up through the eyelets on your rod. Leave up to 24 inches of extra line at the end of your rod to work with. If you will be using a sliding float, decide where you want the float to stop when sliding freely on your line in the water and add the stopper there. If you are using a bottom-tie float, you can add split shot weights to either side of the float.

If you are using a sliding float, add your split shots near the bottom of the float movement area. This should be a lighter weight line than what is in your reel, and will be what your hook or lure is attached to. Secure the leader to your mainline with a knot, or by connecting it to a snap swivel. Maggots, grubs, crayfish or small baitfish are a common choice.

Head out onto the water with your new float setup and toss it in the water. Adjust your bobber stopper so the bait hangs at the depth you want. You can go bobber fishing in almost any body of water, however extremely shallow water will not be a good choice since your lure needs to hang below the fishing float a short distance.

Fast moving rivers are viable options for bobber fishing setups, but the water needs to be at least a few feet deep and if you can find areas of pocket water that are not as fast moving, this will be the best place to toss your bobber fishing rig in. Saltwater fishing is also an excellent option for fishing float setups, and one that many anglers overlook. You can land a wide variety of saltwater trophy fish using a float rig, especially on the West coast where fish are more than willing to attack a new lure depending on the time of year.

Since you can adjust the depth your bait or lure falls, fishing float style is diverse enough to land fish at almost any depth. Top water fish including gar and mackerel are common targets for sport fishing. For those that like to target midwater fish, wrasse are an excellent choice, as are pollock whiting.

Deepwater bass can also give anglers a good run for their money since they are both ravenous fish and excellent fighters when on the line. You can also try your luck with steelhead, which many anglers find to be an excellent option for both beginners and experienced fishermen alike. Salmon are also a common choice, though can sometimes be difficult for fishing floats depending on the season and the depth of their rivers.

Float fishing is extremely easy and highly enjoyable for anglers of all skill levels and all ages. Float fishing gives you a brightly colored float and lets you enjoy the time on the water while also catching more fish along the way, simply by looking for downward movement on the top of the float.

If you are using a slip bobber, this might not be as easy to notice, but for a fishing float that is secured to the line, fish action below the water will be easily noticed at the top of the float by anglers on the boat, the dock, or on shore.

Always ensure you are using the proper drift fishing line for the fish you are targeting. Drift fish line comes in a variety of weight limits and sizes. Thicker line can land big fish , but can also scare away smaller fish which in turn will keep the big trophy fish at bay.

The Beginning Of Centerpining- When I started using a centerpin reel about 30 years ago, I had to wait about 5 days on the water before I finally saw another angler using one just so I could see how they cast it.

Trying to cast a centerpin reel without ever seeing another angler do it seamed impossible. Back then, centerpin fishing was almost unheard of. Where did it start? Many anglers will tell you that centerpin fishing originated in BC or in the USA, but the truth is it started right here in Ontario.

Although centerpin fishing for steelhead started here in Ontario, centerpin reels were actually originated in the UK where they were used for Carp fishing. One day someone from Ontario who saw this got the brilliant idea that this might work in Ontario on our rivers for steelhead, and so began centerpin fishing. So what is centerpin fishing anyway? This is a question I get asked a lot especially from my USA clients since centerpin fishing is still just starting to catch on there.

Float fishing and Centerpin fishing is a skill and it takes time to get good at it. Many anglers struggle for years before they come to a guide like me that can teach them how to do it right in a few hours. I teach that if you can master my 4 fundamentals of Centerpin fishing you start catching far more trout, steelhead, and salmon. A Centerpin reel looks a lot like a fly reel or a mooching reel and is basically a spool that sits on a center post or center pin.

This allows the spool to spin effortlessly both forward and backward with no drag and very little if any resistance at all. Centerpin reels have extremely high-quality bearings that allow the spool to spin freely as the current pulls the float down the river.

Many reels have such good bearings that even with just a slight breeze the reel can start pinning. The Centerpin reels in the picture are an example of what they look like on the rod and with the line on.

On these reels, you can see right through them and this space is why some Centerpin reels are so light. The main reason for these reels having such great bearings and to be able to free spool so easily is so you can drift a float and a bait like a plastic worm, a roe bag, or fly below the float down the river at a nice natural pace with-out needing to pull line off the reel manually like you would with some other types of reels that guys use when float fishing.

One of the advantages of the Centerpin reel is the ability to fish very long, long, long drifts, did I say long? Making long precision drifts like this with other types of reels is nearly impossible and if it is possible to do this with another type of reel it would take a lot more effort. Spinning reels and baitcasting reels usually can not compete with a smooth effortless Centerpin reel.

You can also fish for trout with a Centerpin reel. Best Reels — What is the best Centerpin Reel? This is a question I get from a lot of anglers. My advice is simply this. And be careful of knock-off reels selling for dirt cheap online.

Often the reviews are fake or paid for in some way. I get all kinds of these companies offering me free reels or rods in exchange for a great review so be cautious of the super cheap ones. Make sure half the tape is on the rings and the other half is on the cork handle of the rod and try to apply it as flat and smooth as possible not bulky.

Guys that lie the reel flat on the ground or in the river tend to have issues with dents or sand and grit in the bearings. The fishing rods used for centerpin fishing are specifically designed to hold a centerpin reel and in some cases are good for a spinning reel. Most Centerpin float rods either have a fixed reel seat which is put in the most common spot for most reels or they have a sliding ring reel seat system that allows the angler to put the reel in a spot that suits the angler or is best for the reel.

The sliding rings allow you to move the reel up or down the long cork handle and for some, this is more of a comfort thing. Float stops come mounted on a loop of wire. Pass an inch or two of line through the loop and pull the first float stop off the wire and onto the fishing line.

Next thread the float onto the line, then a second rubber float stop. The float should now be trapped between the two float stops, slide all three 18 inches 45 cm up the line. Some fishing sets come with hooks tied to a length of line with a loop at the end. To join the hook line and the main line, tie a loop in the end of the main line using a figure of eight loop knot. Do not use an overhand knot, because they weaken the nylon line too much. Please see my knots page How to tie five good fishing knots , it has the figure of eight loop knot along with other useful fishing knots.

The strongest way to join the two loops together, is to pass the main line through the loop in the hook line. Then pass the hook through the loop of the main line. Other methods will weaken the lines too much. If your fishing kit has loose hooks, then tie one on using a Palomar knot. The Palomar is a strong easy to tie knot that will work with any sort of fishing line. The Palomar can also be found on my knots page, How to tie five good fishing knots.

Most fish can feed on the lake bed, so to have the best chance of catching, your hook bait should rest on the lake bed. To ensure this happens, you need to know how deep the water is. If I fish a lot in the deeper water I will add a couple of split shots on the mainline which I can slide up and down the line as needed.

When you back to a shallow spot you simple move the shots and the float down. You can see the added split shot up near the float in the diagram above. Someone mentioned the fish seeing the mainline with this method. I will also sometimes add a second leader with a second bait of about 12 to 20 inches tied off the hook bend of the top hook to make the whole leader longer and to get the shots and shot line higher up and away from the fish.

Adding the second leader and bait makes the entire leader closer to 6 feet deep which is better in the deeper water of 8 to 12 feet deep, and so there is less mainline in the water.

If I move back into shallower water again I can just remove the second bait and leader so I have a short leader again. If you do decide to run the 2 baits, to make sure that the bottom bait is getting down to the fish or the bottom, I will add a split shot between the two baits, usually about dead center.

See my 2 bait float fishing leader in the diagram below. For a deepwater float fishing leader setup I will make a shot-line of about 6 feet long and use larger splits shots, and then space them out in the same basic pattern as I would with my regular shot line.

But on my longer float fishing leader setup, I will use a 6-foot long shot line and the space between the top two split shots might start around 6 inches because now I have to fill up 6 feet of leader, and not just 20 inches of leader. With the deep water float fishing leader, you will need to upsize the split shots to be sure the leader works properly and that the bait gets down fast enough.

I use lead shots around the size of a pea. Your float size also needs to increase to a 12 to gram float. Slip floats are often the best to use when fishing water is deeper than your float rod is long. This will help you cast easier and will help you land the fish easier. This fast and deep float fishing leader setup which is known as a bulk shot leader or as bulk shotting is one that I might use when I need to get my bait down to the fish very fast.

With this rig, all 5 out of seven split shots are placed12 to 14 inches from the bait which will get your bait down really fast. Keep the same length of shot line section for all depths and just slide your float up or down to get the desired depth.

I also keep the bait 8 to 14 inches from the lowest splits shots so that it gets down and stays down. I only use the bulk shot float fishing leader setup if the fish are holding at the bottom of deep drop-off ledges like in the picture below. An example would be if I was fishing a spot in fast water where the bottom went from 2 feet deep to 7 feet deep very fast and all the fish are sitting on that 7-foot drop.

I would cast a couple of feet before the drop and the weights would pull the bait down the slope of the drop and into the strike zone. This would be the only time I would use this type of float fishing leader, all other times my standard float fishing leader setup is better.

My float fishing leader uses a 16 to inch bottom leader. But, there are times when I will add a weight to this part of the leader. Most guys will fish many drifts before they notice that the split shot has slid down to the bait, and that wastes time and can spook fish on that drift and on all other drifts after that even if you move the split shot up, so I have a little trick that I use.

Guide Tip: I have been known to use a split shot between the bottom swivel and the bait when I use buoyant baits like a Berkley Trout Worm but you could do it with any bait if you feel you are not getting down to the fish.

Therefore, when I fish two baits I will either use a heavy bait like a glass bead on the bottom or I will sometimes add a split shot between the two baits to be sure that both baits are getting down to the fish and the bottom. This is a fast and easy way to rig two baits on a leader.

The reason I use this 2-bait rig a lot is that I can easily fish sections of the river that are from 2 to 4 feet deep with just the top bait, and when it gets deeper instead of sliding the float up, I simply tied on a second leader with a second bait off the hook bend. This allows me to fish shallow and deep easily, and it allows me to experiment with baits and to see if 2 baits are more effective than one bait. For trout fishing, I just drop down in size, I go about 0.

In case you are wondering why I say to go by the millimeter size instead of just saying to go from 8-pound test to 4-pound test is because of the brands that do not rate their lines properly which I explain above.

When the water is not clear, I will keep the two baits 12 to 14 inches apart but when the water is very clear I will often increase the distance between the baits up to 24 inches because the fish will be able to see the bait from a distance.

Tying your lower leader off the bend of the hook like this does have some issues. It makes threading on spawn bags and some other baits more difficult because the line prevents the bait from going on the hook all the way.

I will show you another option below. Instead of tying the second leader off the bend of the hook, I add a 4 to 6-inch tag line with a hook on it. This allows better movement of the bait, allows better hookups because the fish can inhale it better, and it allows me to add any bait unobstructed by a line tied off the hook bend. Someone just asked me what leader set up is best for float fishing in water that is 2 feet deep or less, my reply was this:.

The exception is fishing in dirty water. Since I like to catch fish, in water that is 2 feet or less, I will often switch to my advanced bottom bouncing method which can be done with a Centerpin reel or a spinning reel and is much more effective in shallow water if done right. If for some reason I wanted to fish in 2 feet or less of clear or dirtier water, the diagram above is my very shallow water float fishing leader set-up.

Hey graham i just starting to get into steelheading and got my first centerpin. Hi Joshua, good question. The fluorocarbon is also clear which allows me to use a high viz line as my mainline, which I always do.