Marker Float set ups

[John 'BLOCK']

Dear All

Wondered what set up people use...B/S of braid used,weight used and do you use a shocklead to stop the float tangling over the line / as a back up for the weight.

cheers

[Gaffer]

Hi John,

 

Is this article of any use to you?

[John 'BLOCK']

Hi Gaffer

Cheers for the link..my main question is what types of braid to use...i recently had some snap on me.(berkley whiplash 20lb)..and to be honest the line lay did not look to healthy.It was very thin for its breaking strain and i wanted to use the marker as a way of spodding out too.

Do you think i should go up in B/S and also diameter of braid ?

Just how far can a marker float be cast ?

I wondered what you used braid wise ?

I have already lost a marker float and don't want to lose another or a spod.

Sorry loads of questions :confused:

[Gaffer]

quote:

---

Originally posted by John 'BLOCK':

....my main question is what types of braid to use...

---

20lb braided mainline should be fine for a marker float. Personally I use 14lb Berkley Fireline on my marker float set up and Power Pro on my normal rods.

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by John 'BLOCK':

...i recently had some snap on me.(berkley whiplash 20lb)..and to be honest the line lay did not look to healthy.It was very thin for its breaking strain and i wanted to use the marker as a way of spodding out too.

---

John, you say 'snap', I take it that it snapped on the cast. I always use a shockleader on my marker float set up and my normal rods.

 

The shockleader that I use is 45lb Kryston Quicksilver. A shockleader should be 10x (times) the casting weight, so a 4oz lead needs a minimum shockleader of 40lbs.

 

The shockleader needs to be the length of the rod, the length of the drop (the length of line between rod tip and and the casting weight/marker float) plus six turns on the spool.

 

The shockleader will take all of the strain of the cast and once it has left the rod you need a thin(ish) line to then get the distance.

 

The mainline is then used to transmit the 'feel' of the lakebed and to retrieve the marker float. As you can imagine 20lbs mainline is ample.

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by John 'BLOCK':

Do you think i should go up in B/S and also diameter of braid ?

---

No, just get a beefier shockleader.

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by John 'BLOCK':

Just how far can a marker float be cast ?

---

I cast as far as I need to, to find a feature that I want (130yrds, ish) or as far as I can get out freebies.(100yrds, ish)

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by John 'BLOCK':

Sorry loads of questions

---

No probs mate, apologies if you already know what I've been on about.

 

Unless I'm fishing a new water where I'm totally unsure what or where the features are I use my usual set up as described in this article. I no longer carry a marker rod nor a spod rod for my usual fishing.

 

Hope that helps.

 

[ 23 April 2002, 08:41 PM: Message edited by: Gaffer ]

[John 'BLOCK']

Cheers Gaffer

Only one more question...20lb whiplash which as you know i very very thin for its B/S what is the best knot to tie to attach it to the line...

the 40lb shock leader will be very thick in comparison how many turn should even up the distribution on the line ?

again sorry about all these questions but i am doing a whole day of feature finding this weekend and last time was cut a bit short after the "crack off"

Cheers

[RobStubbs]

I will just chuck in my tuppence worth and I will point out that I'm not a fan of braid (although I use it on a close range marker rod). In theory Gaffer is correct that a leader should be 10x the weight of the lead as ounces to pounds thus a 5oz lead would need a 50lb leader. However this is for real serious casting (I'm talking about pendulum and the like used in sea fishing). In carp fishing you can half that and I would suggest a 35lb leader would be the max required. I would also be inclined to use a more forgiving mono leader as it has that extra bit of stretch.

 

For my distance feature finding I use 10lb mainline (big game) with 25lb mono leader. The lead is typically 3 1/2 ounces maybe 4 and I use a 12ft 3 1/4 TC rod. Now I'm no great distance caster so I can probably only get a little over 100 yards but the setup will cast a lot further in the right hands.

 

The reason I don't like braid at distance is that it behaves different to mono - it can float in a loop against the wind and it throws up wind knots (more so than mono). I have seen a mate wipe out two rods at the same time (marker & spod) due to the line floating 'the wrong way' and he had to re spool both reels.

 

I'm sure gaffer will disagree with me but that's my personal opinion from my own experiences.

 

Rob.

[Gaffer]

Hi Rob, you've made some good points.

 

RobStubbs:

The reason I don't like braid at distance is that it behaves different to mono - it can float in a loop against the wind and it throws up wind knots (more so than mono).  I have seen a mate wipe out two rods at the same time (marker & spod) due to the line floating 'the wrong way' and he had to re spool both reels.

Very true, but in my experience, less so on fused braids. Having said that, I always 'feather' my casts (even on my normal rods) so that I'm tighter on the lead when it hits the water.

In feathering the cast there is less bow in the line, and as I'm sure you already know, I'm able to feel the lead down through the water and onto the lakebed.

 

There's nothing worse that having to reel in the bow in the line caused by the wind only for the lead to have already hit the lakebed.

 

RobStubbs:

I'm sure gaffer will disagree with me....

No not really, as always you make some very valid points.

 

This is the leader knot that I use for tieing my Quicksliver Shockleader to my Braid mainline.

 

I'm not sure if it has a name. Rob, any ideas?

 

 

Moisten, tighten, trim ends, carefully singe ends with a lighter and finish with a dab of super Glue.

 

Hope that helps.

[John 'BLOCK']

Thanks all will try this at the weekend !!

[RobStubbs]

Gaffer,

My leader knot is very similar to yours except I form a loop where you have the grinner knot and go around the line five times. I then go back through the loop I created, 3 times and then back through the overhand knot in the leader. I got this one from my sea fishing and it is a brilliant knot. It rarely knots poorly (and if so is found out when pulling hard/testing) and if the line breaks it is generally not at the knot.

 

Cheers,

 

Rob.

 

P.S. Braid is banned almost everywhere I fish so that's another reason I haven't actually fished with it.