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

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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!

There is always a time and a place for a float, strike indicator, cork, bobber or whatever you may choose to call them. Any time and Any place. I prefer a slip float though instead of a fixed float so I can change depths quickly without putting kinks in the line from pinching the float in place with springs..

Good report. Floats certainly have their time & place. Boy.....wish I could do some gardening right now! LOL! Got another 3 weeks before the ground will be totally free from frost and workable. :)

That's how I started crappie fishing as a kid. I always have a float rigged up. Also use a marabou jig with a float some time.

Love fishing a small jig under a bobber. I've taken some really big crappies this way.

I've seen chaunc in the "bobber action" mode. He mode 'em down.

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Originally Posted by Cane Pole

I've seen chaunc in the "bobber action" mode. He mode 'em down.

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Sure wish i was healthy enough to get back down there to fish with you and Ms Brenda. Getting better by the day tho. Maybe late may?

Thill makes a wooden pinch on that will sail a flat mile in the wind and is REALLY fun to watch dance ...might try one sometime ...
sounds like it was fun trip to me .....good job

Prior to this year I've never really had any luck with the float and jig either. I saw Russ Bailey using ice fishing floats with 1/48 jigs when shooting docks and decided to give it another try. I've been having much better luck with the light combo using 1/48 or 1/32 jigs with Southern Pro stingers or BG Itty Bit tipped with wax worms.

Trout-Magnet-EZ-Trout-Floats

My absolute favorite way to crappie fish... Always start with a float/jig then try other methods if not successful

In the small rivers I fish we have cypress tree knees. I like to pitch a float in fly or small jig when its in the summer time. the gills and crappie are holding tight to the knees.

Float question. Don't mean to hi-jack this thread, but just recently, I saw a Bill Dance episode where he used a pinch-on split shot above the jig he was using. Do you folks use weight along with your jigs too? If so, why? I usually just fish the jig below the bobber myself. Not sure if I'm missing something?

I don't see the need in it myself. I have done it before on a unweighted float to make the float set down in the water just right but now I have found floats that work just how I like with out extra weights.

I was gonna say the split shot was probably to make the float neutrally buoyant but why not just get a smaller float at that point?

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Originally Posted by Crestliner08

Do you folks use weight along with your jigs too? If so, why?

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The whole rig will cast better if you put most of the weight above the jig.

Think of the float as a kite. Everything below the float is the tail of the kite. Same principal.

Note the lead ring at the bottom of the float. The weighted, cigar shaped foam float sails through the air, even into the wind and the lead offsets float buoyancy such that the float doesn't sit too high in the water regardless of wave action. Plus the float stays vertical, allowing even small fish to drag it down with less resistance.

I keep finding floats stuck on stumps left by shore anglers and decided to give one a try. Previously I only used slim elongated balsa floats with a stick protruding above and sometimes added lead to the bottom stick for casting distance. The float lays on it's side and when the lure is hit, will go vertical and then dive. Float buoyancy resistance to the fish was almost nothing, though casting into a wind was limited. I'll try the float pictured from now on to see if it makes a difference in late spring and summer.

Again, I believe the wave chop and me dragging the float a few feet and pausing was the best lure presentation for 1/32 oz jig and 1.5-2" grub, in fact better than casting & reeling because the lure stayed put longer, still exhibiting the great thin-tail flutter produced by the float and water chop. Who knew?!

The only problem I have with bottom weighted floats is that they won't show a "lift bite". And regular floats, when you have a sinker on the line between the jig & float, won't show one either ... at least not unless the fish moves the sinker up high enough to remove the downward pull of the sinker against the float.

Now, there are floats made for just this situation. The FnF Bass boys use counter weighted bobbers, like Punisher Lures Bob's Bobber, which will sit upright from the weight of the jig ... then "fall over" on it's side when a lift bite occurs. But, at almost $3 each, and no more often than I use ANY kind of float, I don't own any of them.

... cp :kewl

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Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

The only problem I have with bottom weighted floats is that they won't show a "lift bite".

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I use nothing but bottom-weighted floats, and they all show lift bites. I think it's just a matter of the shotting pattern.

I love the float and fly/jig I like to use 1/32-1/100 and that float gives enough weight to get out there and get to the fish without spooking them

I don't get to do it much anymore but fishing a good hand-tied marabou under a bobber from shore, sitting on an overturned bucket, is my favorite way to unwind.