An assortment of balsa floats for varied types of fishing.

A lightweight surface-floating device attached to fishing line for indicating a subsurface bite or strike by a fish, primarily on some form of bait and occasionally on an ultralightweight jig or fly. Technically a float is the most prominent form of bite indicator (see) or strike indicator (see) although it is not actually referred to as either of these. In North America such a device is primarily called a bobber, sometimes a cork, and occasionally a float, but it is only known as a float in Europe, where such devices originated hundreds of years ago. Modern floats are primarily made of balsa wood or hollow plastic.

Modern float designs, rigging, fishing tactics, and control techniques are part of a highly effective fishing system that is an art form and a science in the hands of diligent anglers. Float fishing methods have evolved in recent years and have expanded opportunities to catch many species of fish, especially in freshwater lakes and rivers.

Until recently, floats and float fishing had changed little from their first recorded existence in the fourteenth century until the first modern-era reel development in the mid-nineteenth century. This development allowed anglers to make bigger floats that could be cast farther and also to control their floats at greatly increased distances to reach fish that had previously been out of range before with just a pole. Progress remained stagnant again until spinning reels became popular in the mid-twentieth century and caused casting distance to advance again. In recent decades, floats and float fishing have also benefited from high-tech rods, reels, and lines that have dramatically extended distances, depths, and current speeds.

Thinner, stronger nylon, combined with long-distance casting spools on spinning reels and ultralightweight rods, permits a perfect natural bait presentation in many situations. You can, for example, cast a 13-inch float nearly 80 yards from the bank and place a baited hook or jig 20 to 40 feet deep to unsuspecting walleye, catfish, or trout; cast a 11/2-inch float to panfish in 12 inches of clear water 30 yards away; and tempt catfish or stripers with a live shad just off snaggy, rocky bottom in powerful flowing water below a dam.

A range of float designs can be bought or made, allowing you to literally fish anywhere at any time and to precisely and naturally present a hooked bait as the fish would expect it to behave and, in most cases, with the fish unaware that you are anywhere near.

There are three major styles of float fishing: fishing with a pole on stillwater and slow-flowing water, fishing with a rod and reel on stillwater, and fishing with a rod and reel on flowing water. Each of these styles employs specific float designs, balancing patterns, casting techniques, and control techniques.

Some Basics

Using highly specialized tackle and the most delicately balanced floats, a match angler fishes the 1992 World Championships at the River Erne in Northern Ireland.

Presenting a hooked bait naturally is an important concept in all types of fishing and especially when using floats. Many species of fish, particularly those that live in stillwater environments, inhale their food most of the time; this begins when they are tiny and start inhaling zooplankton for food. Many fish—most panfish, for example—feed this way their entire lives. Thus, when they suck in a bait that is attached to a float, they are acutely aware that something is very wrong if the bait doesn’t move readily when they inhale it.

Anglers should remember that fish have different feeding states. For a small portion of their time they are aggressive, for a larger portion they are neutral, and for the greatest amount of time they are negative; some people estimate that the respective percentages for these behaviors are 10, 30, and 60. Whatever the percentage might be, these behaviors vary according to many factors, especially weather changes and fishing pressure.

When fish are in an aggressive mood, they will attack and consume a bait even if something is wrong with it. But they are especially likely to immediately reject a suspicious bait if they are in a neutral or negative mood. As a result, anglers have to use methods and equipment that will not alarm even the wariest fish.

A major factor in making an unalarming presentation is the float. In places where fish are not very astute or when fishing for aggressive species, a float that has a lot of buoyancy (such as the round bobber that is very common in North America) may be used with success often enough to overlook its deficiencies. However, such buoyancy acts as a drag on hooked bait and is a dead giveaway to light-biting fish. So it’s better to fish with a float that is designed to avoid alerting fish and is still sensitive enough to alert the angler to a bite.

Correct float selection is dependent upon knowing the depth of the water at the fishing place. In a boat, depth is readily determined by using sonar; without sonar, and for shore fishing, it is necessary to use some type of weight attached to the line (called a plummet in Europe) to plumb the depth. Determining depth in this manner is known as plumbing. This activity also is meant to determine the composition of the bottom (mud, gravel, weeds, etc.), the location of stumps or other snags, and changes in depth so that the angler can create a mental picture of the area and visualize where the fish might be.

A major factor in float usage is balancing the float properly. This balancing is also known as shotting, since small split shot or a jig, or a combination of both, is added in just the right amount and placed so that only a minimum amount of the float tip is above the surface and visible to the angler depending on the circumstances. It is always best to have the least possible weight to get the float in a balanced position.

When casting modern floats, always lob the float upward slowly and smoothly. Never snatch it or cast it quickly, which causes tangles. When a float starts to lose momentum, feather the line as it comes off the spool; this pulls the float back so that the baited hook passes over the float before it hits the water.

Float Fishing with a Pole

Float fishing with a pole on stillwater and slow-flowing water is the oldest and simplest way to fish, and it is ideal for children or beginners of any age. Perhaps the earliest illustration of any type of angling is a hieroglyphic from about 2000 b.c. that depicts an Egyptian angler with a pole catching a fish. The use of a float with a pole was known to be practiced in the late 1300s, if not before.

Anglers learned by trial and error in the hundreds of years following the fourteenth century that it was vital to use the smallest possible float that was carefully balanced by lead shot. These floats were made from crow, goose, swan, or porcupine quills (cork bodies were used when extra weight was needed and pear-shaped cork floats were used for pike), and with proper balancing only a fraction of the quill’s air chamber was above the surface. This was vital, since it gave the float an almost neutral buoyancy and meant that the most discriminating fish, or even a tiny specimen, could suck the bait into its mouth and simultaneously pull the float under, signaling the angler to set the hook.

This is exactly how the most famous angling writer of all time, Izaak Walton, fished his beloved River Lea, and his book The Compleat Angler, written in 1653, described how he used this technique to hook that river’s famous, nervous, and difficult-to-catch roach. Even earlier, in 1496, the first English language essay to teach the art of angling, A Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle by Dame Juliana Berners, illustrated an angler using a 16-foot pole to catch a fish from a river. While Berners graciously credited several earlier angling writers with teaching the fundamentals, both she and Walton noted that the golden rule was always to use the smallest float possible for the conditions and to carefully balance it with lead split shot.

Poles

There are actually two styles of poles: one-piece or telescopic versions that are 9 to 20 feet long, and multipiece (or take-apart) poles that are 18 to 60 feet long. These are both useful in any type or speed of water, but since they do not have a reel, the distance from the angler and the depth of water that can be fished are limited to the length of the pole. Longer poles have the advantage of allowing anglers to reach out to distant locations (such as a weedbed) from a bank or boat and carefully lower a float and bait into small pockets that would be impossible to cast into (or to cast into delicately) with a rod and reel. As a rule, the length of the line from the tip of the pole to the hook should always be shorter than the pole; use 12 feet of line, for example, for a 14-foot pole, and 18 feet of line for a 20-foot pole.

The main tackle component in pole fishing for the average angler is a 10- to 14-foot-long pole, which may be as simple and inexpensive as a cane pole; fiberglass or graphite poles, however, though more expensive, are deadly for anglers who are serious about catching more and bigger panfish.

Floats

Shown are common floats used with poles. The two versions on the left typify highly buoyant floats that are not sensitive enough to depict light bites and the action of small fish; the two floats on the left, if balanced with the proper amount of weight, are very sensitive and able to indicate lift bites and the immediate bite of even small fish.

For pole fishing in shallow water from 6 inches to 4 feet deep, mini-floats (called a mini shy bite by some) in several sizes from 1 inch to 21/2 inches long are perfect and are not likely to scare fish when they are presented in the water because of their smaller shape and lesser splash. These floats are easy to make or find in stores. In essence to make one, take a 1- to 2-inch piece of a thin dried tree branch (1/8-inch to 3/16-inch thick), varnish it, and paint one end with a highly visible color (often red). In use, this is balanced with one or two small split shot. Such an all-balsa float is available in many sizes from stores; it is capable of being fished with up to four BB-size shot (one shot weighs about 1/64 ounce).

For pole fishing in intermediate and deep water from 4 to 18 feet, a simple crow or porcupine quill float, or a balsa-bodied float on a thin dowel stem (called a shy bite by some and about 7 inches long in several sizes), is extremely sensitive and deadly for all panfish, catfish, and small carp. Because these floats have longer stems, they are more stable in the wind. Even the wariest old crappie, perch, or bluegill can easily suck these floats under when they are balanced to sit just 1/2 inch or less above the surface.

Both of these styles are attached to the line and held in place by two silicone sleeves (which are first slipped onto the line before it is tied to the hook), one at each end, which allows the angler to interchange floats if the conditions or the location changes. Each time the float is changed, however, it has to be balanced either by adding or subtracting split shot. These floats are especially deadly for crappie fishing with small minnows.

Since these floats are attached to the line and held in place by silicone tubes at each end of the float, only the length of the pole limits the depths that can be fished.

Multipiece pole use

Multipiece, or take-apart, poles are used by professional tournament anglers in major match fishing events, including national and world championship events, and exist in lengths from 18 to over 60 feet long. These poles allow the angler to fish any depth of water, from as shallow as 8 inches to the length of the pole minus 24 inches from pole tip to float. For example, to catch crappie 2 feet deep and 30 feet away from your position under a dock or trees, simply place the float rig precisely where you want it. With just 6 inches of line between the float and pole, you can place or push the float into tight places.

To land fish with a multipiece pole, you push the pole behind yourself until the section where the pole is joined (about 5 or 6 feet) is reached and then take the sections apart to land the fish. After rebaiting, the pole is put together again and the float rig is placed anew.

These are very expensive graphite poles, however, and not necessary in normal angling situations; only when there are lots of anglers and spectators do these poles become important. There is also an entire range of pole floats that are specially designed for use with the long take-apart poles; these, too are very expensive and much more fragile than other floats, and are not necessary unless competing in bank-fishing events where the presence of competitors and spectators makes the fish much more difficult to catch.

Float Fishing with Rod and Reel

English centrepin reels used for float fishing.

The techniques and float designs for float fishing with a rod and reel on stillwater and flowing water are completely opposite to each other and were developed in England in the 1850s. Anglers learned to drift floats in Nottingham by carefully controlling the float with the rod tip, so that the baited hook moved at the same speed as the slower flowing water near the bottom, where most fish feed. The improvement of the smooth-running centrepin reel (a single-action two-handled reel that is also called a float reel and features a large-diameter arbor) in England was the main contributor to this advancement.

About the same time around the major steel town of Sheffield, where there were slow-flowing rivers and drains (canals) and some 2,220 angling clubs, intense fishing pressure made it very difficult to catch fish close to the angler, especially in big competitions. Anglers were forced to find several ways to cast their floats across the drains and rivers in order to reach the wary, nervous fish that were scared off by the vibrations and movement of anglers, spectators, and people strolling the river banks. This method of float fishing was called the original Sheffield style and also known as Fine and Far Off, and today is known as waggler fishing.

Flowing water principle

In flowing water with a rod and reel, it’s necessary to fish a controlled float that is connected to the fishing line on the top and bottom of the float, whether of a fixed or slip variety. When fishing a float in flowing water, the angler must be stationary in order to find the correct float speed that catches fish at that moment (this means anchoring when fishing from a boat). The reason is that stream flows vary from top to bottom and, even though floats are used on the surface, the baits are fished on or near the bottom. On a straight section of a trout stream that is 4 feet deep, for example, the flow just off the bottom will be approximately 20 to 25 percent slower than the surface speed. On a river that is over 20 feet deep, there will be very little current near the bottom, even if the surface speed is swift. These variations mandate that a float be controlled with the rod top and that the angler be stationary.

Even if you know the exact speed just off bottom, the fish may want the hookbait faster or slower. These factors can and do change every day, and learning them is part of the mystery and magic that continuously challenge anglers.

Floats on flowing water

Shown are common balsa floats used in flowing water. The two on the left are fixed in place with silicone sleeves, with one being used in medium-speed flows (A) and the other in faster flows because of greater buoyancy (B). The two on the right are slip floats (C and D), in which line passes through wire arms, with a stop knot used for positioning.

The type of float used varies with the flow speed. Among fixed floats shown in the illustration above, the classic bulblike Avon style (A), for example, is used for medium flows, whereas a more buoyant float (B) is needed for fast and more turbulent water, where bait must be dragged along the bottom without being pulled under easily. These and other fixed floats stay on the line at a preselected position, usually being held in place by silicone sleeves at both the top and the bottom of the float.

There are two eyes on all flowing water slip floats—on the top and the bottom of the float. These floats slide on the line, with depth setting controlled by attaching a stop to the line. Smaller-bodied versions (C) are good all-around floats for any species when using small- to medium-size bait; larger and more buoyant versions (D) are good for big bait and big fish. A float stop and a bead must be used for both of these.

The simplest and often the best weight placement for balancing in flowing water is a bulk pattern. Place all the shot together a few inches in front of the hook if you want the bait to be just above, or just on, the bottom; or place the shot 18 inches from the hook if the bait is to be dragged along the bottom. In smooth-flowing water, shot can be spread out evenly from float to hook. In Europe this is called the equidistant or shirt button shotting pattern. There are many other ways to place shot, these being the most basic.

Stillwater principle

To bury the line so that wind and wave action don’t move the float and baited hook away from a given position, cast beyond the target fishing area, place the rod tip under the surface, retrieve some line to get the float and bait where you want it (in this case over a **** or reef), then let the float settle on the surface. Keep the rod tip in the water so the line to the float remains submerged.

An important element of fishing a float with a rod and reel in stillwater is to cast a relatively long distance (in some places close to the far bank) with floats that are attached only at their bottom (called waggler style in Europe), then push the rod top as deeply under the water as possible, and wind in quickly. This sinks the line and prevents the wind from affecting the float. If anglers will do this, they can master float fishing in windy and wavy conditions. This is the general method that was originally developed in Sheffield.

Floats on stillwater

When a fixed float is cast in stillwater, the baited hook drifts down as depicted and the tip of the float settles down in the water. However, if a fish takes the baited hook while it is falling and before it reaches a vertical position, the tip of the float remains high in the water. This is a subtle but sure indication of a bite, and reason for the angler to set the hook.

When a fixed float is balanced and positioned properly, the tip of the float is just below the surface (left). When a fish takes the baited hook and moves down, the float disappears, which is very obvious; but when the fish takes and moves upward, it is less obvious because the tip of the float moves up (right). This latter scenario is known as a lift bite, because the action of the fish lifts the float.

Shown are common fixed floats used for making distant casts when fishing in lakes and ponds. Although not drawn to scale here, they depict how split shot is used to fix various floats at given positions. The length of line below the float determines the level of the baited hook.

The floats that have been developed for fishing with rod and reel in stillwater are called wagglers in Europe; they are used for fishing at any distance and at any depth, and may be used as slip or fixed versions. They are attached to the line only at the bottom, and because of their aerodynamic shape (bulbous at the bottom and long-stemmed at the top) they cast very well, infinitely better than any round type of float (such as a bobber).

When such floats are correctly balanced in the water, their shape is hydrodynamic, meaning that they slide through the water (with less drag than a round- shaped float) when a fish bites. When using these floats, you can catch fish as your bait falls through the water—fishing on the drop—and see bites if the fish moves up in the water as it takes the bait.

Generally the float settles in the water after the hookbait has fully dropped into position; when a fish takes the hookbait, the float lifts up in the water, indicating a strike. This is known as a lift bite. The angler sets the hook upon observing this, and since the float folds over when the hook is set (because the float is attached at the bottom only), the angler gets a better hookset. Always strike sideways with the tip near the surface, and after the fish is felt, lift the rod back up to normal playing position.

There are small and low-profiled balsa-bodied wagglers for casting to shallow water along the bank or up to 30 yards away, with larger models for windy conditions or longer casts. Deep fishing or very windy conditions require long peacock quills, some with and without a balsa body, to present the hookbait correctly on most windy days. Some of these models are up to 13 inches long.

As a general guide for balancing, fixed wagglers should have at least 60 percent of the total lead shot positioned to lock the float in place, with the rest of it being drop shot (lower and closer to the hook or jig head). For slip wagglers, start with a bulk pattern, and for a rest shot place two smaller shot 4 feet from the bulk shot, which helps minimize tangles.

Pole Floats

Sleeve

Sleeve

Spring

Sleeve

Sleeve

Floats for Flowing Water

Stop over bead

Stop over bead

Sleeves

Wire stem

Wire eyes

Sleeve

C

Wire stem

D

A

B

Bulk shot

Cast

Bulk shot

30–100 ft.

Rod tip

Hump/reef

Stillwater Fixed Floats

Shot

Shot

Shot