Thread: Jig under slip float?

I use a jig and bobber all the time. It allows you the ability to fish a jig slower. I mostly use this setup during the spring when the crappie are shallow. I like slip corks and use the smallest I can get away with. My favorites are Crappie Magnet brands which are a inch and half long. Fish rip rap with a 2 inch minnow bait under the skip cork is deadly on crappie. I also use those clear casting floats that fill half with water. They add weight and they allow me to cast a 1/64 or 1/32 jig head a long way.

Use a jig and slip float all the time. Especially during the ice out period. A 1/32 or 1/64 jig and maggots catches those supper shy fish right a ice out. I fish strictly from shore early season and fish depths down to 20 feet with this set up. I also use the largest float that I have and substitute the short stem for a long one. I watch the stem for any suttle movement.

Fishing under a float is not as difficult as some make it seem.
First, the floats I use are weighted at the bottom with a lead ring which gives them a neutral buoyancy that allows them to dip from the most subtle strike.

Even when using a 1/32 jighead, soft plastic lures add weight and go down fast and stay down. Small plastics like the Magnet stay down when the float is pulled a short distance rather than retrieved. Using a leader or line of 6# test allows the least line bow that allows float dip.

All of my jigs are tied such that the knot is at the top of the line tie. This allows the lures a parallel-to-bottom orientation/glide. Maybe it makes no difference especially in a slight chop, but that's my preference.

Another thing that differs from using a float as one would use it with live bait is that my lures are never stationary for any longer than 4 seconds. Sometimes I'll impart action to the suspended lure by twitching the float or pulling the float 4" or less. A moving lure or lure that demonstrates action with the least motion imparted by angler or water ripples, gets the most strikes IMO - one reason hair and feather bodies do well. I prefer thin tail grubs to get a tail ripple/flutter fish find provocative at the slowest retrieve.

Which brings up one more thing - presentation. Float fishing is a presentation that's different than any other (other than drop shot). It is super slow and the lure can be glided at the same depth or the float jerked for an up-&-down action with pause after the lure is down.

I watched a Jerry Mckinnis show years ago whose guest was an angler around 90 yrs old demonstrating float fishing in deep water. The line under the slip float was over 10' long and he was fishing for smallmouth bass using a hair jig. Man did the rig catch fish!