Tigger

Haha, your right John, gotta watch me step, need some felt soles! I've got the boots already but need a pair of breathable waistwaders to wear with them. I've been looking for a pair since before last crimbo and can't see any that look worth getting. I think the worst thing that could have happened in that spot would be to fall and damage an ankle, hand, fishing tackle, or get a soaking ?. The water was fast and powerful but not deep, so I think drowning would be very unlikely, unless your dwarf and then it could get serious lol.

Had another few hours stood mid river in very fast powerfully flowing water yesterday. Lots of small chub, roach and dace with a few half decent chub of about 3lb amongst them. No pics again, just couldn't be harrised to wade back to the bank to take any. The rocks beneath my feet were so slippy it was a nightmare to wade. It makes things worse when they are larger ones the size of uneven shaped footballs, washing up bowls and much bigger, with smaller ones inbetween!

Dave, a number of years back Brian made some floats, he gave me a couple and they looked great. Anyhow, because Brian had gone to the trouble of making them I have never used them for fear of loosing 'em!

I keep threatening to do some youtube videos, I need to learn how to edit them, or to get my mrs to do it before I could post them on a youtube channel. My language may bee seen as a little colourful ?.

I can understand why people go to the trouble of making floats. I would imagine it to be enjoyable even, especially if you make some you like to use and they look nice also. Personally, it doesn't interest me enough to make the time to make floats. It's difficult enough to find a few hours time to go fishing. So, i'm happy to buy some floats, and in all honesty I think it would be a fair old hasstle getting the correct materials etc to make the shop bought ones which I use and prefer.

Whips....not my scene man ?.

For me, leger/bottom fishing tactics vary from venue to venue, depending on distance fished, what i'm fishing for etc etc. For the biggest part I try to avoid using a feeder and I prefer to cast over a baited area instead. If I can I fish my mainline straight through and use a split shot on my mainline to determine the length of my hooklink, or the distance my weight is up the line from my hook, this really handy as lengthening or shortening the distance between the hook and weight can be done in a couple of seconds. For this super simple set up I use various weights, link legers, small bombs etc. Whatever weight i'm using I always attatch it via a weaker link than my mainlne, so if it gets snagged the weak link will snap and I will lose the weight. There are situations when I will use method feeders etc but the set up above is my favourite one.

Maybe you were hitting the bites better with the dumpy float because you could see it better ?

Earlier in a post you asked me why I prefer a long sight tip over a dumpy one and I forgot to answer you. The reasons for my preference for a long sight tip are numerous. One obvious reason is because they are easy to see at long ranges, I sometimes trot a float up to 100yds and they are still visible in the right light conditions. Also, they enable you to read a bite better, and they allow you to see subtle things such as a slight rise in the tip if your bait or bottom shot hits the deck and is being dragged along the bottom. If you use a wire stemed bolo float in fast water with a chop on it the longer sight tip is still visible in the undulating surface. The wire stem helps to stop the float from flattening out if you slow it down by holding back a touch. In choppy riffling water it may also be a good idea to shot the float so as the top of the shoulder is above the waters surface as this keeps the float from dipping under in the chop and going out of sight for a second or two which you may strike at thinking it is a bite. The dumpy rounded type floats are ok on flat steady water but are not the most visible, even to someone with 20/20 vision. I think they are made more for fishing off the rod tip and fishing short trots in smooth flowing glides. Imo, it's pointless to struggle using those dumpy things when you could use a far more practical float which you can see so much easier.

They certanly won't get all the hemp as it falls though the water, not unless your only throwing in a few grains at a time. But, as you say, on the day the fish wanted a moving bait, that happens to me when targetting barbel and chub also. You just have to be prepared to swap and change. I mean, you could have a float rod and a leger rod set up and swap about if one method slows down. Try different hook sizes, hooklengths etc and swap and change your baits. If your using maggots switch from one maggot to 14 maggots! I'm serious with that, I do it all the time and it works really well. I use a sort of mid sized hook most of the time, a 14s drennan superspade or 14s kamasan animal. This sized hook fish ok with two or three maggots or with up to 14 squashed on them. If using two maggots I will thread on onto the hook to hide it. I never worry about masking the hook and bumping off fish because it just doesn't seem to happen to me. I think people bump fish because they don't strike hard enough to drive the hook home, I strike like a panther lol.

Went out for a few hours trotting later this afternoon, had quite a lot of chub to 3lb and some huge dace. No pictures as it was a very alkward place stood way out in very fast flowing water. It took all my concentration not to get washed away lol. Enjoyable though!

Ok, sorry, I assumed you were fishing the river with it FT, so I was suggesting floats for running water. In your situation I think the best thing to do is choose a float you can see easily and work round that. Some of Dave Harrells waggler floats have nice thick tips and are hollow so sort of glow brightly as tge light shines throught them. They come in numerous sizes so may well be worth you checking out.

Thanks John :). Might go back today but just for minnows, I caught about 20 or more just to try them out for the baby piranhas, blimey they go mad for em, only two tiny ones left!

you can see the float easy enough John. I'll leave this vid on until tonight but i'll have to remove it later on as the club has a non publicity on their waters and they would get upset if I left it on lol.

I hardly if ever use a stick float, imo one of the worst floats you can use on a river, ok on a still water though. I use bolos/avons, long sight tips pear shaped bodies, thin carbon or alloy stems (depending on the swim) and generally no lighter than 2grm. Mostly I use 3 to 5grm. To save you wasting time looking for some decent ones, Dave Harrel has his name on various ones and they are very good. Benwick sports is prolly youe best place to buy them from. They have some other nice makes besides Dave Harrels to have a look at. Don't worry about bites, even minnows will pull a 5 or 6 grm float under! I'll put a short clip up on the "a few hours out thread" and you will be able to see a 3grm float I use to give you an idea.

Yeah, there is some quite choice vocabulary, but, in my defence, I coudn't help it LOL.

Thanks for the kind offer John, your a gent, but, I have a few knockin about. I have to keep a few as I keep loosing em. Today reminded me of the film with Tom Hanks when hes stranded on an island and his ball friend "wilson" floats off, it was similar to me watching my catty floating away, I nearly jumped in for it but I was playing a rather large chub at the time. I actually have it all captured on the go pro !

I haven't been out fishing for a few weeks but managed to get on the river for a couple of hours trotting today. I had a decent session catching a number of roach and some average chub from 1lb to 3lb. I did have several huge chub, I didn't weigh them but they were propper chunks and fought hard for chub. While I was trying to land a chub mid river my catty fell out of my pouch and I could only watch it float away, oh no, not another one gone ffs!

I know several avid roach anglers who fish the same large river as myself. They are float angling fanatics, but, sometimes they switch to feeder fishing and have similar results. Infact, I think one of them caught his pb roach with a light feeder in a slack when the river was up and coloured. It's swings and roundabouts I think John, you just have to use the right method in the conditons which suit it. Personally, I find winter to be the best time for roach on the rivers. On my local rivers they will migrate and shoal up during the winter months, so you just need to find out where they migrate too. Very often it will be the tidal areas as it is on mine. They mingle in with the likes of dace and can form massive shoals.

Sounds like a nice day, three hours is enough....as the old saying goes, "enough is as good as a feast". Never caught one of those fancy orange tench, although I did catch a small blue one several years back along with a load of bitterling, both a first for me!

Yeah, there are some fatties in there, just not the same as being on the river though ?.

Yes Martin, it has to have pellet waggler rod printed on it or it isn't fit to use as a pellet waggler ?. But then again, you migh be ok if it says carp waggler on it ????

Yes, they can be good throughout the in and out and after also. Although I fish both large and medium sized rivers I prefer to fish the mid sized tidal river stretches. Often right down the margins fish really well, so no need to be out in the middle.

I do a lot of fishing on tidal stretches of several rivers. I am usually float fishing and often have some cracking sessions fishing an incoming tide. Depending on the height/power of the tide I can finnish up trotting back up river!. As the incoming tide slows down I often fish way overdepth and lay on, which can be prolific fishing. On a high tide everything stops for a short spell and again depending on the tide I lay on/float leger. As the tide ebbs and turns and the flow picks back up I start to trott as normal again. How good the river fishes does vary depending on the water coming down the river, wether it has any flood water coming down carrying debris etc. It usually fishes best when the river is low to normal level . As I said, i'm virtualy always trotting but when I lay on it's just the same as legering really. I think laying on is a more sensitive method and if done correctly shows bites so much more clearly and the fish feel very little.

Your assumption is correct FT, although I do like to use drennan puddle chucker floats which have a weight slotted into the base to cock them. I use a piece of soft rubber, the type I use on my avon floats but a longer piece to push onto the float after removing the push in sight tip. I don't use the actual starlights as imo they are usless. I use the larger and fatter glowlights which are very cheap on ebay. Depending on distance I often just use the actual glowlight as a float. These are an example of what I mean... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373631762924