Sometimes there really is a need for a float with soft plastic lures!

[Spoonminnow]

After doing some gardening yesterday afternoon, I decided to go fishing considering the ideal conditions of warm weather and cloudy sky. When I got to the lake, the wind averaged about 10 mph or less and I tied on the baits pictured.

The bite was light half the time and not easily detected so there were a lot of misses. Out comes the float for ha ha's only once having done well with it. Note that the lures have very thin straight tails that quivered even when the lure is paused. The key in getting the lures to do their thing was the constant ripple on the surface!

Last time I used the float under similar conditions I remember using a certain retrieve: drag a foot / twitch the rod top / pause and repeat. I found the lures did not work just sitting in one spot under the float like when using live bait. The effect made the fish grab and maybe even miss the lure, but with a 2nd rod twitch, the float was pulled down beautifully allowing a rod sweep & fast-retrieve of the reel handle hook set.

Crappie (some over 10.5" - large for this lake), decent perch, sunfish and a small bass struck, hooking themselves after feeling the resistance. Over 40 fish were caught in a few hours. Also key was the use of a 1/32 oz jig head that glided under the moved float moved slowly and the ability of using a heavy float thereby allowing casting long distance into the wind.

I cast 360 degrees around the boat, anchoring for half hour, catching a dozen fish at a time and then moving 20 yards, anchoring again. The lures thereby did their stuff in 6' over a flat and in 9' in deeper water. The schools were mixed except when a got into a school of 8" crappie. Regardless of size, fish had no problem pulling the float down less than a foot, allowing an easier detection and hook set then using no float. I believe calm water might not have been an effective use of the float having tried it many times in the past with soft plastics, but yellow perch just finished their spawn and all species were excited in the 49-51 degree water - in March no less in the northeast!

What a year thus far!