floating a dead bait of the bottom

[billydutfish]

how do i go about doint it? i know you get float sticks you can stick in the dead bait but how do i go about attaching it to my line??? i also seen a programe the other day [think it was matt hayes] he used a bit of pollystrine to float his db just off the bottom does anybody know of any other weird and wonderful ways of doing it.

[Rob Ward]

Air Injecting.

 

Popped up with Polyballs.

 

Balsa inserts.

 

Use Pollen which are naturally bouyant due to an oversized swim bladder.

 

They all work.

 

You can also suspend them beneath a float or float-paternoster them so that they are off bottom.

[Pangolin]

On a pikefishing video I own, Mick Brown has a piece of polystyrene ceiling-tile, which he breaks bits off with his long forceps, and stuffs the bits down the throat of the deadbait. He says you have to work the forceps around, in the throat of the bait, a few times before you start, to enlarge the space. One very important point I might not have considered otherwise, is that a buoyant deadbait MUST be tied securely to the line, as well as being hooked well: if a pike swallowed a deadbait that had flown off during casting, it could suffer very badly from those buoyancy bits!

[Lee-sox]

rob just about said it all.

 

I always use poly balls, fox do a red one which also adds to the attraction of the dead bait, just attach it to the bottom treble with a bit of fuse wire.

[Peter Waller]

Polystyrene inserts are not exactly pike friendly, nor environmentally so. Personally I prefer the external polyball mentioned by Lee-Sox. Set it up so the polyballs come off the bait on the strike, but remain attached to the trace. The Marvic balsa inserts are also excellent and can also be rigged to stay with the trace in the same way. Polystyrene stuffed into a bait WAS fashionable a few years ago, perhaps when Mick Brown made his video.

[chesters1]

wrapping it in several layers of bubblewrap will do the trick as will putting it in a tupperware type box but more expensive

[Nugg]

I think we should all refrain from the use of polystyrene, as has been said it's not conducive to the health of fish, remember a bait can and will come off after a strike, then it's left there for the next one to pick up.

 

Here's one, from my box.

Cut a strong, large poly drinking straw [Makie Ds] in half with a diagonal cut which puts a point on it, put a tether through the blunt end, then seal up both ends using a hot-glue gun.

Stick it in the bait, you have given it a swim bladder.

 

[ 27. April 2004, 10:52 PM: Message edited by: Nugg ]

[Dick Dastardly]

Dont like that either Nugg,still rubbish (non bio-degradable at that) left in the water/fish(?)The "bait popper" method as sugested by Pete is both effctive and enviromentaly friendly.I prefer the balsa sticks inserted then attached to the trace.

[Dick Dastardly]

Oh one other way,it never fails to amaze me how efective dead naturals are when fished off a sunken pat rig.

[Vagabond]

What's all this "doesn't count" nonsense, Newt?

 

 

Saw this notice whilst fishing in Colorado - which suggests Americans not only snag fish, but do unmentionable things to them afterwards, as a careful reading of the notice will show.