Last season when I was fishing from shore for crappie and bluegill, I was using an old style round plastic red and white bobber. You can’t cast them very far. Some others were using wooden bobbers that could cast a long way. When I look in stores, all I see are very light balsa wood bobbers, which are not long casting.
Are any of you familiar with these long cast bobbers? Where can I find them? Any tips on size/weight I should get?
Thanks.
Hard to beat the rocket bobber for casting, usually the smallest size (can be hard to find) is best, they are durable too. In some shallow situations they land a bit hard, but they cast a mile.
Thill has some weighted bobbers that you can add more lead to the bottom. I see that Scheels has them. Try to get a kit that has more weights and the rubber O rings. Might have to goggle that one.
Thill with weight on bobber or wobble bobber you can cast a long way.
Scheels and Fleet farm should have the weighted floats that can be cast a mile. Look for the slip float variety. Here’s a link to Thill at Lurenet too if you want to order them.
Thanks for the suggestions. After doing some searches, I’m drawn to the Thill weighted wobble bobbers. I’ve never rigged slip bobbers before, and online youtube searches don’t really give a clear explanation as to how to do it. But here’s what I gather :
1-Put a bobber stop on the line and slide it up.
2-Slide on a plastic bead.
3-Slide on the wobble bobber.
4-Tie on your terminal tackle (hook or jig).
5-Add a small split shot somewhere above the hook or jig.
Then you can slide the bobber stop to adjust the depth.
It’s funny, I’ve fished for decades and consider myself somewhat experienced, but I feel like a noob related to this.
A fixed float works better in shallow water-otherwise great options shared for deeper stuff.
“A fixed float works better in shallow water-otherwise great options shared for deeper stuff.”
Is this idea reasonable? :
Put a bobber stop above and below the wobble bobber. If the water is shallow, keep the bobber stops tight to the wobble bobber. If the water is deep, slide the bottom bobber stop down closer to the hook or jig.
Then you can fish the float as fixed or sliding without re-rigging.
“A fixed float works better in shallow water-otherwise great options shared for deeper stuff.”
Is this idea reasonable? :
Put a bobber stop above and below the wobble bobber. If the water is shallow, keep the bobber stops tight to the wobble bobber. If the water is deep, slide the bottom bobber stop down closer to the hook or jig.Then you can fish the float as fixed or sliding without re-rigging.
You’re on the right track with your other post about mounting the float.
The two stop idea is a good one when fishing in water with things that can snag you up. If you happen to snap the line you stand less a chance of waving the float bye-bye as the lower stop will keep the float on the line.
Not all floats are created equal, yet all will serve its purpose when rigged as a fixed float for shallow water, meaning maybe up to four feet in depth. After that, the slip float will be your best buddy.
I’m picky on the bobber stops I use. I will only use Thill. They are more expensive but they don’t slip on the line and stay tied.
I’m picky on the bobber stops I use. I will only use Thill. They are more expensive but they don’t slip on the line and stay tied.
The bad ones seem to be made out nylon and slip much easier. The good ones will tighten up great once you wet them.
I buy mine at Scheels, the 100 pack. Longer strings means more able to pull harder while tightening. Thill makes a decent string stop too.
Some people use a bead ahead of the float but I simply cut the thread tags a bit longer and they stop the float plenty good. The bead can grab grass and other crud floating on the water and bind up at the float or wherever the bead is at when it grabs the junk. Ya, the strings can do that too but at least the float will bet to the stop.
I’ve tried every stop ever marketed: the strings of a hundred makers, the rubber footballs, the dog bones, springs…. you name it, I’ve tried it. The Scheels string have done me very well for the last 7-8 years or so, either the chartreuse green ones or the pink ones.
IMO-the fixed float is fast and simple,double bobber stops to adjust are not nearly as simple as ONE clip. For me to have a separate slip bobber rig is much easier-but I fish from a boat, plus I would rather vertically jig or troll than fish a slippy.
Fixed floats have their time and/or place. Slips do as well. There are times of the year in the boat where I fish purely vertical without a float. Everything has its day. There are times of the year, mainly during the spawn, when blind person could catch fish.
With crappies, the biggest hinderance a person can experience is being too rigid in not being able to change as the situation requires. In this case a gentleman wants to find/use a float with further casting capabilities, which in and of itself is a huge step away from the old, hard plastic, “bubble bobber. The market is full of floats, some very viable and others a pure gimmick just to sell. Thill was mentioned earlier and they are the standard for floats in my opinion. Whether someone wants a fixed float or a slip, Thill will fit the bill and many of their floats do so without needing to switch floats.
I make these floats. The balsa itself 1-1/4″ high and for the most part 5/8″ at the widest and are used with 1/16-ounce jigs and plastics to 2-1/2″. Some are a bit smaller for use when fishing lighter jigs and smaller plastics. They are about the best float I have ever used.
The secret behind these floats is the instability of the float itself. They lay flat on the water when there’s no weight on them. They can be rigged as static floats or as slips. With the hole in the bottom of the stem and the float top- heavy, any lift or touch on the jig will cause these guys to simply flop over on their sides, which is super for detecting upward hits, much like a spring bobber allows one to see the lift.
They’re compact and when rigged as a slip they set right down on the jig or hook allowing for very decent distance casting. Rigged as a fixed float they cast quite well up to about a 4-foot depth. Bite reaction is the same regardless.
I made these yesterday and did photos of the different steps. We’ll see if I can get them pics to load.
In the picture stack, these floats start out as laminated balsa in the bottom left photo. Using 4 foot lengths of each size to make a 5/8 square stock with a 1/8″ core. The stock is cut to 1-1/2″ lengths as seen in the picture. On one end a 1/8″ square balsa piece, 1/2″ long, is slipped into the core.
Left center, the picture shows the blanks with arbors inserted into the open end and ready to go into the Dremel for sanding to shape. The first sanding is done with sheetrock sanding sheets and takes maybe a minute to get to the rough dimensions I want, then fine sandpaper is used to do the final shaping. When I switch to the sandpaper, I also use a hacksaw blade to trim the top 1/4 ” off the float body with the Dremel running, then continue with the sandpaper for the final shaping.
Right center ids the mess of them ready to have the arbors removed. Using more of the 1/8″ square balsa stock cut into 5″ sticks, I insert a stick in each body and each body gets dunked in a bath of very thin dipping lacquer, allowed to drip a few seconds then the stick get stood up in a jar of vermiculite to dry. Each body will get three dips in this lacquer. Since its about a thin as urine on a plate the lacquer dries very quickly, maybe five minutes between dips.
Top right shows the floats after the lacquer bath and with the polystyrene stems glued in place using a lightweight epoxy and ready for the color lacquer dips. I use bent paper clips through the line hole in the stems to hang the dipped floats on a drying rack. The white goes on first, two coats. Then the chartreuse and finally the fluorescent orange. When These coats have dried the floats get 2 coats of a water-born one part epoxy.
The top left shows the floats as they hang to dry hard and the bottom right picture, of course, shows them ready to fish with the silicone line stays slipped up on the lower stems. Rigging is simple. For a static, or fixed, float, remove the silicone sleeves, slide the line thru the eye in the stem, then slide the silicone sleeves back on the line and over the stem as the look in the picture. The top sleeve goes clear to the float body, the second just above the line eye. Rigged as such the float can be adjusted for depth simply by sliding it while holding the line above or below the float with the other hand depending on if you want to raise or lower the float. Just leave the silicone bands in place to run as a slip float. Leaving the bands on the stem does nothing to affect the float or its ability to show up-ward hits and by leaving them there they’ll always be hand if one wants to change from a slip to fixed.
That’s it. The handiest float ever devised and the company that used to make them really messed up by discontinuing them. There are several differences between the old factory-made floats and these, one big difference is the use of the polystyrene stem in these which has a reasonable amount of “give” if they get bounced off of rocks or a dock or hard tree limb. The factory stem was hard plastic and would snap off if it hit something real hard. These floats simply rebound. Als, the line eyes have been chamfered at the top and bottom so that rigged slip the line flows thru the holes without having to run over a sharp edge. The hole in the stem is large enough that line flow is unreal, yet small enough that one can simply leave the thread tags a bit long when trimming a stop and the stop will not go thru the hole.
There are a million variations of floats on the market. Some are gimmick, but for the most part they all work…. just some better than others. I’ve been fishing this particular float for over 30 years and when I couldn’t buy them any longer, I started making my own. The weighted Thills mentioned earlier are great floats for getting distance but then the weight becomes a factor in upward hits. These compact, little floats are sensitive as all get out, and when rigged as a slip they cast easily about 50 feet, maybe longer, on a thin 4 pound line with a 1/16 head and plastic.
486696286_2344490029259777_6169324264042978282_n.jpg
486649657_2344490002593113_8969188966430259024_n.jpg
486610497_2344489969259783_5339035695707191628_n-1.jpg
486186914_2344489942593119_3288533559942447539_n.jpg
487014778_2344489899259790_745396796110705594_n-1.jpg
487418437_2344490075926439_8728006746154127469_n.jpg
“I make these floats”.
Wow. Impressive!
Marine general weighted casting bobbers. Aka looper bobbers. Great shore fishing bobber.
The looper floats are great for fishing larger fish but if he’s after pannies or crappies they’d be way to large of a float.
When Minnesota had a decent looper fishery those floats were the best. I still have a few in a tackle satchel that I carried just for looper fishing. Man I miss not having that and those fish around anymore.
Jimmy they make small looper bobbers. They work just fine for panfish. Best weighted bobbers that I have found.
I really haven’t followed looper fishing much since they stopped stocking them. I fished the equipment I had until they stopped showing up on the shore. Looper anything is sort of a misnomer anymore since they went away.
A friend in Two Harbors swears he caught one a couple years ago but I think it was a steelhead. Who knows.
If we have cohos around the breakwater I’ll fish a looper bug and a couple waxies or a hook and minnow, but other than that I have no idea what looper stuff is around anymnore.
This picture should self explain how the float is rigged to be fixed.
IMG_0516-scaled.jpg
When I’m spring crappie fishing I’m usually fishing against the wind. I use a thill splash brite. Its pricey to lose one but they get me over and past the reeds, and take longer to float back to me in the wind. I also use these as drift floats on the river. When its not extra windy northland makes a balsa slip bobber that has two brass ends instead of one that casts real nice.
Here’s just one box of floats that I’ve tried and they failed the test. I have four more boxes like this stowed away.
487960939_2346960805679366_2191466703291155662_n.jpg
^None of those are designed to be cast far, hence why they didn’t probably work.
The “Rocket Bobber” is the best for casting that I’ve found. The pro series weighted slip float from Thill is right with it but more sensitive to subtle bites or uplifting bites.
These that I make are the only ones I put on a line. When they were commercially made as the mini-stealth the #2 worked for the 1/32-1/64th stuff and the #3 picked up the 1/24 and 1/16.
With a 1/16 head and a 2″ plastic this morning I was casting to bridge pilings 60 feet away using these small floats. The crappies I caught were all upward hits and as described, the float laid right over the instant the weight was taken from the float. No better indicator of an upward hit than that.
Thill makes some really sensitive floats when rigged properly but no stick float or weighted float will react as fast as these do. Thill never should have halted making these guys.
Alright Jimmy I will take 2
Alright Jimmy I will take 2
Check your pms.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
