Float fishing

Float fishing this has come up in another post some people do not associate float fishing and sea fishing but Bass, Mackerel, Garfish, Scad and Pollock as well as the 'mini' species all provided great sport on the float . Any bit of sea can produce on the float, but piers, jetties, harbour walls, rocky headlands are best I ued to fish Southend pier with this method 10 years ago and it worked then so why not now.

Long rods are essential. When float-fishing you aren't in direct contact with your bait like you would be ledgering. You need the length of the rod to pick up the line quickly when striking bites. This is where a 12 ft carp road can come into its own.

Always use the smallest float you can get away with. The slimmer the float, the less resistance the fish feels. Less resistance equals more bites .

I Found the most effective bait when float-fishing was live prawn, sand eel Ragworm also works, but attracts more than it's fair share of small fish so I only really used it when I was desperate to catch.

Depth is everything. Once you find the depth the fish are feeding you will get constant sport. If the bites dry up, vary the depth until you find the fish again. Once again like match fishing and carp fishing.

My basic set up was a stop knot and bead to set the float (free running along the mainline), a drilled bullet above a bead and a swivel attached to the mainline with a bead above the swivel to stop the knot from getting damaged( you can get there as a kit). On the other end of the swivel I attached a trace of 18"-24" with a size 4 Aberdeen hook. Mainline was 10lb-15lb mono and the trace was 10lb but I would go down to 8lb to get more bites.


One really successful technique is to set up a chum slick and trot your float in the current along the slick. The way I always did this was to stick all the bit and trimmings into a blender (any bits I had left over from pike fishing) with some fish oil and a little crumb. You can ball this in. but I know some one that used to get a plastic milk carton cut the bottom off it and freeze his mix in it then he would put a rope round the handle and drop it over as it defrosted it sent out a trail.

good info stooty i,ve not float fished in the sea since i was wrasse fishing in cornwall its certainly was great fun on the light gear
might one day get a chance to do it again

kevin

top post stotty

geejay wrote:top post stotty

Thanks i do try good to have you back

top tip-.......................the bead between the stopknot and the float, ................saves a little greif if its too big to go through the tip eye of your rod