Float Fishing With Braid

[Les L.]

Tried float fishing for bass for the first time on Friday.First attempt rigging up led to the unforseen problem that my braid/mono leader knot stopped my bead before it reached my bead stop.

 

Re rigging i tied my braid directly to the swivel above my trace, protecting the breaid knot from chaffing with a bead.Had never tied braid to a swivel before so was guessing on the knot to use, but seemed to hold ok when tested.

 

Hooked a fish but whilst playing it the braid broke, presumably at the swivel.

 

So 4 questions

 

1. Is braid to swivel ok ?

2. If so whats the best knot ?

3. Fluoro or braid for the trace itself ?

4. Does the braid colour matter on a bright day in 25 foot ?

 

 

Cheers

 

 

Les

[Newboy]

Am I reading it right that you have put a bead stop above the leader knot? If that is the case than you are doing it wrong.

 

Think of braid always on the water surface/above the float and anything below is mono. So in effect, the leader knot is the bead stopper. Or if you want you can powergum a stopper BELOW the leader knot.

 

There is a special braid knot if you want to tie braid to hook/swivel but you don'y need it here. And regarding colour of braid I think I've answered you above re:braid if always above water, so that wouldn't matter.

[plaicemat]

I must admit, I found it easier using mono line on my fixed spool reel so didn't have the problem. I don't know what the experts use but this worked for me. Before I changed reels, I was using a multiplier with braid and found that ordinary mono held better than power gum on the braid.

 

Witn regard to the breakage, was it a new swivel or a recycled one? Even the smallest amount of corrosion or salt crystals will be enough abrasive to cause the braid to fail.

 

Terry.

[Les L.]

Swivel was new.

 

If theres no braid below the float whats the advantage in using it over mono ?

 

Puzzled

 

Les

[plaicemat]

Personally, I can't see any but, like you, I'm ready to be educated by the real pro's.

 

Terry.

[Adam F]

Mono is fine - and as you use a pretty long leader it makes sense to go all the way with mono to save the fuss - BUT, you can feel far more with the braid which is helpful when fishing this method.

 

As for a braid to swivel / hook knot etc - normal knots work OK, just loop the braid twice through the eye and try to use knots that dont strangle - Grinner / Palomar are good.

[Swainiac]

Adam, am I right in saying that if you double up the braid then tie a normal four and a half turned tucked blood knot the braid will hold??

 

I never use braid direct to swivel, but have been told this one works??

 

Rich

[plaicemat]

That's one I use, Rich. It's the Trilene knot which is a recommended one for braid.

 

Terry.

[Newboy]

I use 12 lb mono on my shimano fixed spool, lots of fun, provided I don't land one of those 15lb+ fish.... (yeah right, like there's one out there with my name on it.... ). I found mono less likely to get barrowed into the spool and mono has better give than braid. Especially I don't require the ultra thin property of the braid.

 

Trilene that was the one I was thinking off.

[TomBettle]

Our resident Bass God's will give the correct version soon, but the set-up is something like as follows and there is a very valid reason for each part:

 

1) 12lb flurocarbon hook length of about 3 or 4 feet

2) Swivel, bead, lead link and 3oz lead, float, bead, power gum stop knot

3) A long 25lbish mono leader of about 15 to 25 yards depending on depth to be fished

4) 30lb braid mainline

 

The light hook length in flourocarbon serves two purposes:

a: The Bass is less spooked by a heavier line

b: If it get's snagged it is the weakest link and all you lose is the hook length

 

The float rig is set up exactly as any normal sliding float however the Bass God's use a lead link instead of a drilled bullet, I guess to help cange leads if required

 

A mono leader is used and is slightly deeper than the depth to be fished, this allows the stop knot to be adjusted under, over and just on bottom depth

Again the leader is slightly lighter than the mainline with the theory that if it is the lead that snags then you don't lose a long length of braid and also the stop knot slides more easily, whilst gripping better (contradiction, but true) on mono.

 

The heavy (relatively speaking) braid mainline still allows ultimate feel (even with a long mono leader). This is iportant remembering that the technique is a cross between touch ledgering and standard float fishing.... You feel for bites rather than watch the float.

Edited July 31, 2006 by TomBettle

[Les L.]

Great info, thanks to everyone who replied

[Maverick Martin]

Thanks Tom

 

I have now twiged the benifit of braid ie when trotting away from the boat

 

Martin

[TomBettle]

I may speak the lingo Martin, but I can't for the life of me catch them in any quantity...

Edited July 31, 2006 by TomBettle

[BigMac]

The 2 main reasons for using braid as a mainline are:

 

1. The lack of stretch.

 

2. Nearly all braids naturally float, so you can always lift the mainline off the surface and "mend" the line directly to the top of the float therefore keeping in better contact with your bait.

 

You dont need or indeed want stretch in your mainline, the mono leader and your barbel rod or similar soft rod will soak up any lunges the fish makes. Its true braid does bed in a bit but only when reeling in a heavy fish, so on the next drift by the time you've got your float away from the boat, you have actually unbedded any braid that the last capture caused.

The best reason for not using mono as a mainline is most of them sink like a stone!!! Your float goes away from the boat beautifully at first and then you have to keep on paying out more line to keep your float at the same distance. The reason is your mono mainline has sunk in a huge bow, down in the water column and down tide and when your float goes under ( it will be your only bite indicator as there is too much slack in your mainline to feel a bite) you will find yourself winding in 30 metres of slack line before you can actually strike!!!

 

Dump mono mainline for this method it has lots of disadvantages and no advantages. Braid with a mono leader is the way to go,

 

Al

 

 

[plaicemat]

There you are, then, we've all been told!. I knew he'd come home sooner or later and put an end to the conjecture.

 

Terry.

[BigMac]

Sorry to preach but I only want everyone to catch more fish!!

 

If your fishing a bigger tide and fishing in, lets say 10metres of water, your float will travel further from the boat and quicker from the the boat, than you would really like. In these circumstances you could set your float depth at 12 or even 13 metres deep and then just feather the line until the bait is far enough away from the boat so that the towing effect that you have on your float, and therefore your bait, will keep your bait in the "zone" for a longer time.

 

Another tip is to keep your eye on the fish finder, so that when you go over the hotspot you can open the bail arm of the reel or the freespool on your multiplier and leave your float and bait over the hotspot for a longer period of time, increasing your chances of a take.

 

We've also found, that even on a particular mark, it pays to search around that mark, because those fish may have moved only 100 metres, but if you aint on em you cant catch em. We've also seen fellow club members leave the area that we've been fishing, 10 minutes before the fish come on the feed. We have belief in what we're doing and can suffer the couple of hours without fish because we know that they swim about using up energy and want to replace that energy loss with the minimum of effort, therefore they have to eat at some stage to replace it.

 

When your fishing this method properly you can feel your bait getting excited, you can feel that first strike of the bait as the bass headbutts (with flared gills) the mackerel (freespool, leave it where it is) and then the heavy thump of the, mouth wide open, inhalation of a 10 inch mackerel. Bloody magic!!!!!!!!!!!

 

We find it hard to fish for any other species when the bass are in, but we make no apologies because, IMHO, they are a fantastic species of "game" fish.

 

Al

[Paul D]

Al,

 

Preach away. ( Hoping that I am not one of the club members you have seen steaming away ).

 

"you can feel that first strike of the bait as the bass headbutts (with flared gills) the mackerel (freespool, leave it where it is) and then the heavy thump of the, mouth wide open, inhalation of a 10 inch mackerel" - Stop it , getting tempted to go out again ! , I am hooked on this style of fishing, great fun and yet more useful tips from yourselves again.

 

 

[large fries]

Long time till the weekend.All this talk of bassing makes it tricky to concentrate on work Still forecast is looking good for saturday and sunday,cant wait till then though coz forecast looking good for wednesday evening :

[Swainiac]

Al, very detailed analysis of the bite. They do this down in weymouth, and it was pure chance that I spooled line, giving me a "take". Then on each subsequent drift, the knock, spool, the hit, THE FIGHT!!!!

 

The excited actions of the baitfish is very very similar to the action of a freshwater livebait when targeting Pike. No matter how big the quarry is, the bait fish will generally always give that little bit extra effort to get away from the hunter, again, pure magic.

 

Rich