Hey Lead Thrower. Just buy some bobber stops. You can get them through Cabelas or my friends at Teds. They are just a small nail knot tied to a straw tube. Slide them on your main line and you are set. I usually use two of them, so if one gets trashed, you have another one already on your line. If you use the same reel to drift fish with, just slide it up your line, and it's out of your way until you need it. Good Luck

LT, I tie a blood knot using dacron line as a bobber stop. I then put a corky between the dacron and bobber. One tip, after tying the blood knot, trim each end down to about 1/8" so you can tighten the knot when needed. I have never had a problem with this knot going through the guides and they last nearly all day.

[ 10-29-2001: Message edited by: ritefish ]

I have to agree with the guys that fish the longer rods when fishing floats(bobbers are for kids!)I never fish a float rod shorter than 10.5', preffering my 12' stick. I also agree with RR about using braided line...no stretch on the hookset and you can mend the braid better than mono. I'm always holdin back on my float once it is below me so my line is almost always direct to the float. When your float goes under it should load you rod up if you are getting the proper drift.

BTW, i hooked my first jig caught Steelhead -(Silent Approach jigs)- the other day. For anyone that hasn't seen these jigs, check them out...they're sweet. www.silentapproach.com

Lead Thrower, dont waste time and energy, on sliding floats, there are really very few river situations that call for a sliding float, and I would venture to say zero situations for steelhead, and just a handfull for salmon, as Osprey put it, maybe for lower river Springers, but thats about it.
you will be much happier fishing a fixed float on a long float rod. I fish jigs much like Osprey does, very aggresively and often "tail" or hold back a bit on my float to get the jig to swing into a particular piece of holding water, with a sliding float this is impossible.
when the float dissapears I reel as fast as possible,until I feel a little tension, and then set the hook, as hard as possible, followed by several more fast cranks of the handle, followed by a second hard, downstream hookset, the rest is up to the fish. dont be afraid of setting too hard, it isn't possible with long float rods, you arent actually setting as hard as you think.
bury that sucker! good skill, and stay with it, you'll soon be landing more steelies than you though possible.

Fuzzy

Silent Approach Jigs

Long rods are definitly the key to fishing floats and jigs properly. If the fish you are losing are coming unhooked a little trick I use is pinching the barbs on the jig hooks, either halfway down to the shank or all the way down. Half way down will still give you some barb to work with if you are concerned about not having a barb. I've found that you will land more fish without a barb then you will if you keep the barb on the hook due to the better penetration you'll get with the hookset. I keep my drag really tight while I'm fishing so the drag will not slip on the set then loosen it after the fish is hooked and fight the fish on a fairly loose drag. You are always going to loose some fish, but with a jig and float setup you should be landing 75+% of the fish you hook.

I'm with Os on keeping as much of your line out of the water. I recently switched to Fireline and with little or no slack and no mono stretch you can really drive that hook home. Of course Os uses those little red/white plastic bobbers

Fuzzy I don't see how you can say that fishing a fixed float is better than a slider. I fish for steelhead in 3 ft of water and in 15 ft. All within a couple of casts. And then in a 5 ft. run, next a bit shallower, then again in 10 ft., etc. How can a fixed float compare???

Gotta go with Os and Fuzzy here Jack. I'll take fixed anyday! With my 10 foot TH rod and Stradic reel I can fish the deepest of holes effectively. There is a popular salmon hole on the Wilson that is very deep and I can fish it with my fixed bobber with no problem.

Fuzzy, I gotta pick a fight. Tell me how to run a 10 ft plus rod on a brush infested river and toss 8 feet of line twenty yards next to wood sweepers, without hanging up your gear. Load up a sliding float, fish a three foot leader and stagger your shot on the leader. Gradual stagger for slow, and rapid stagger for fast water.

I'd put a slider against a fixed float in that scenario every time. You can also dance a jig through slow frog water without horsing up your drift. Most of it depends on how you weight your float. We get lots of fish, where the float just wiggles, hitches, or rises a 1/4 or 1/2 inch on the surface of the water. Like a crappie bite.

There isn't a right or wrong way to do it, but I can walk a long stretch of water, adjust to different depths a lot quicker with a slider than I can with a fixed float. To me, it's all about time spent in the water fishing. More time in the water, more fish. You can run a modifed rig with a bead an bobber stop below your float, if you fish a chunk of water where you want to lean back on the float. That way, you can go form a sliding set up to a fixed set up, by adjusting the lower bobber stop.

The aggressive approach on jigs works well where you are. I have fished out there, and it's pretty hard to boot a fish on a jig set up. If you fished here for these spooky pressured fish, and leaned on a float, you would just be watchin your float all day without a fish. These fish in 33 degree water want an absolute dead drifted jig, tied sparse (2 or 3) light hackle tips on a 1/32 or 1/64 jig. Maybe a maggot or calamari tentacle for odor in cold water. You may want to try it on your spooky summer fish. There are a couple guys out your way trying some of this stuff on summer runs, and they are cashing in on it.

Good luck, and good fishin. :p

Good point Hawk. There are many situations where a sliding bobber outfit will work better then a fixed one. My preference is for running a fixed float mainly because I fish smaller coast rivers where I don't fish deeper then 8-10 feet.

lead thrower- back to your original question of hook-up ratio. Over the past couple of years I've switched over to mainly float fishing for salmon and steelhead 90 percent of the time and have found my success ratio increase dramaticly. As mentioned above, using a long rod and keeping your slack line to a minimum will help you chances. The single thing that has helped me put more fish to the bank and boat while float fishing is swithcing over to Owner jig hooks. I started using these hooks last year and absolutely love them.

Mark

I like float fishing with either setup, depending on the water I'm fishing. Shallower steelhead fishing I prefer a fixed bobber and for 'nooks in deep holes I prefer a sliding bobber. I posted a week or so ago a way to get 2 different depth levels with a cork float on a single drift, to cover the shallower water at the upper end and the deeper water in the center of the hole. I'd repost it here but Os would make fun of it again.

Hawk for the situation you discribed,that would be the only way to fish it,
Like I said before I fish a fixed 95% of the time,this would be one of the 5% .

I fish my own design float,it's weighted , yet easily adjustable,just like a bobber stop,So I'm able to change depths as needed.

during summer times I fish as small a float as possible,and yet alot of times I've had summeruns,just tip the float over

My hook ratio is high,I can't remember the last time I lost a fish I hooked on my float rod,
I did notice that it helps to have more than 40 yards of line,when hooking into a big Native Steelie.......Os

Does the type of float matter, if you use those white floats with the orange paint on the top, can those spook the fish? I have heard people say to use the natural cork floats but have never seen these in the stores.

I beleive so.
I'm so anal about this ,heck I even camo paint some of my floats......a little over board huh?

what ever catches fish ....Os

Caught and released a very nice 8# hatchery brat this morning, with my float-n-jig set up. I tie my own jigs and had on a blood red one, with a sliding, charcoal colored foam float, weighted to netural boyancy. Went through the same drift 3 different times at 3 different depth adjustments before she hit, and that was the only one touched all morning. For the kind of water I fish, only a sliding float will do.
The most important thing to remember about any style of fishing, is that you use what's right for you. When you have confidence in your equipment, you'll catch fish. To each his own and tight lines!

Well put papa.

I prefer a fixed float, but that's just my preference because of my target water. That's not to say any one of you guys couldn't fish a slip float just as effectively. I just prefer a fixed float. Since I fish a Thill float, and prefer not to use extra weight when fishing jigs, I also use a spinning setup most of the time.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. Learn the right way to offer the presentation that suits you, and you're in bi'ness.

I guess I was a bit biased in my opinion on fixed floats, but I do what most of you suggest, and that is to fish with whatever works for me. there might be some certain situations that a slider might be effective, but for me, I havent found it on the rivers I fish. I target the bright, moving fish most of the time, and in the rivers I fish, that eliminates the 10 foot deep frog water holes, those places are where the darker fish usualy hang out. my fixed float system that I have come up with, allows for instant depth change,I can fish a 3 foot deep section thouroughly,and in an instant I can fish six foot depths and back again, with no hassle. just a pull on the float, and the depth is changed, but the float stays fixed and tight. it is weighted for extremely long casts if need be, and the weight can be adjusted (or removed completely) for any size jig, in two seconds, without re-tying. its sensitve, stealthy, and just plain beats anything I have ever seen or tried. there is only one knot, and thats to the jig, no leaders, swivels or anything else.
its also cheap, I can have three floats rigged and ready for the price of one thill. it involves modifying an already existing float style to one that is readily adaptable to any water condition.
I agree with the rest of you, figure out what works for you, and stick with it, confidence in your own abilities, and gear is whats important.

Fuzzy


Silent Approach Jigs

I prefer a baitcasting reel simply because I like fighting a fish on a baitcaster. I also always use slip bobbers. I fished with a fixed float for awhile and when I swithched to a slip float I found it much easier to adjust on the fly.
Waxing your line also gives you a much better drift and helps your hookup ratio. I found that a longer hookset, making sure all the slack is out is essential to hooking up with more fish. Make sure you reel down to the fish before you slam him.

I use a bait caster because it's easier to freespool, drag set light, thumb on the spool to set the hook, long rod[11' 4'']. I use both kinds of floats, fixed and slider, always with powerpro line. One technique[learned from REITERRAT]is to put another bobber stop below your slider so if you break off at your swivel your expensive isn't heading for the pacific.

Lead Thrower:

1. long rod----I use 10 and 10.5 ft., would like a longer one.

2. Slider dink float---made the change this past summer...make my own, have painted ones, green or red head. Green for early morning, red if many leaves on the water.

3. Good spinning reel---Shimano's are tough to beat. Like the number 200 best.

4. Use slinky for my weight, if needed, have hole at both ends, run line thur, go around slinky, 1-2 times, out the other hole. This allows you to "slide" the weight closer to the jig quickly. Pinch on weights scare me, they might put a nick in the line.

5. Keep as much line off the water as possible.

Never thought about the "fire Line" or "power Pro" but will sure give them a try.

"Worse day sport fishing, still better than the best day working"