Floater Fishing with a sinking bait

Read an article in the Anglers Mail by Colin Davidson in which he was fishing a bolt rigged surface float with a bait suspended beneath (pellet i believe).

Has anyone any experience of this? Don't the carp shy away from the float as normally when floater fishing you would have a long (6 foot) hooklength?

Was thinking about maybe trying this method but substituting the controller float for some Kryston Driftwood and suspending abunch of worms beneath it instead.

Cheers

Trevor

Its not a new thing Trevor. Ive been fishing a peacock waggler with a few maggots suspended underneath for years. Ive caught loads of Carp and other fish with this method.

A few years back I used to floater fish for carp on a very regular basis, sometimes I would find you got takes just after your bait had hit the water, before it had popped up onto the surface. These takes were always violent - the carp seemingly very confident about taking a sunken dog mixer, usually it occurred when my bait (now I only ever use cork) had been waterlogged and so had very little bouyancy left.

After this happened a number of times it got me thinking and I developed a method that sounds like the one you mention, basically you feed plenty of mixers (or whatever bait youre using -bread is brilliant for this). You must find a nice straightish stick or use a peacock waggler, and attach this to your line at both ends with float rubbers, placing a no.4 or BB shot at each end of it for casting weight. Then on your hook/hair you have a similar (but sinking) bait to the ones you are feeding. For dog biscuits i used to use pellets, for bread obviously just use some flake. Start with your hooklength about 8 inches long, but the beauty of the stick is you can slide it up and down the line if necessary, let alone the fact it looks like a stick and not an obvious controller!

I used to catch a lot of fish this way, it works particularly well if they are being very wary of surface baits, showing interest in them but not really wanting to feed properly. Bites will show sometimes as your stick standing on end and disappearing, most often it will just zip across the surface of the water. Obviously your casting range is a tad limited but you can get it much further than you think, especially when you use a float/stick that can handle 4bb+ casting weight.

Not sure about the worms idea but I dont see why it wouldnt work, just that carp would be used to worms lying on the bottom of the lake rather than floating near the top - give it a go though mate!

Just out of interest, where do you surface fish for carp? (im from notts too /forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif)

Trev - I know it's nothing new but have never tried it myself. Do you not find that by fishing a waggler that your line sinks to a point so you have a problem hitting some bites? Even if you grease the line part of the main line will be sunk due to the waggler being attached at the bottom.

Fin - Was thinking about using a twig or something similar but also like the idea of the bolt rig affect when using a heavy semi fixed in-line controller float. I'll have a play and see what i come up with.

Thanks for your replies

Trevor

On waters of under 5ft I sometimes use a sunken crust suspended just below the surface from a 1 to 2 oz lead off the bottom. it is especially good on waters with a lot of wildfowl as you can sink the bait instantly with a turn of the reels handle, and let the bait back up to just under the surface once the wildfowl has gone.

I'm not surewhy but it seems to work better on windy days with a ripple on the surface and it seems to catch more andoutscore baitsdrifting directly on the surface with no weight. Perhaps the fish can see it clearer against the ripples, and perhaps it looks like sodden bread that has started to sink?.

I sometimes fish a floating bait with the hook attatched to a small sinking bait just below the floating bait trying toimmitate a piece of bait that has broken away from the main floating bait. that works well at times.

As for worms, I sometimes use floating worms when stalking Carp. I either inflate the head section with a hyperdermic needle or use a piece of red foam on the hook. I have more takes on redworms than lobworms but both work extremely well; especially if they are used to normal floating baits.

Hi Keith

Interesting stuff and made me want to try it even more! just been to check on my wormery and my dendrobenas are coming on nicely so should have plenty of bait to keep me going, hopefully the carp will be obliging and i'll have to stock up some more!

Trevor