I also agree with Chum Man and Pugnacious. My float rod was $60 and love it. But those are some nice reels to put on a crappy rod I guess, might not seem quite right. My set up is 30 lb braid mainline, banana weight, and 4 foot 12lb or 15lb fluoro leader. I have never lost a float using this set up, but still use the cheap ones. I am certainly a novice, but float fishing has caught me almost all of my steelhead and I have put plenty of time in using other techniques. Definitely one to have in your arsenal.

I like the 3/8 oz Beau Mac floats.
I used to get all caught up in having a balance system, 3/8 oz float, 1/4 oz in-line weight and 1/8 oz jig. It works just fine but a 3/8 oz float will take a hell of a lot more weight then 3/8 oz and still fish great.

This past weekend we got a nice fish out of a super fast chute. A 1/8 oz jig balanced system just won't get down fast enough to be in the zone.
We end up using baitcasters with a 3/8 oz float, 3/8 oz inline weight, 1/4 oz jig and a split on the leader. The float still fished great. Balanced, not. Bastardized, hell yes.

My best advice, experiment and see what works best for you.

Actually, that is kinda hard to believe. Even *I* can catch a fish when using floats. I've even had a big buck steelhead come to the surface and grab the dink float itself, shake it in it's head like a rag doll, then spit out out and return to the depths!

(Although, I just did get fully skunked while using floats and a HOOK/BAIT/JIG when out fishing with Bob and Superfly).

What river(s) are you trying to fish with floats? Also, you using just jigs, or bait?

Another vote for Beau Mac floats. I'm sure there are other good floats out there but these are vastly superior to the standard cheap floats.

If you use heavy braid as your main line, you should never lose a float, weight, or bobber stop. I don't think float fishing offers the same thrill as a take on drift gear but it is as effective as a river technique as you can find.

funny, i've only ever caught one steelhead on a jig while tossing a bobber. the rest were all on some kind of bait, or soft plastics.

what parker called the bastardized method, isn't that the minifly setup?

back to $$$ on rod costs. i'm dumbfounded why anyone would blow a wad on a bobber pole. a bobber pole needs no sensitivity, your watching a bobber for christs sakes. bobbadown and set. no feeling involved. a guy can get a berkley im7 or the new im8 for 80$ and be easily just as successfull as the guy next to him sporting a 400$ loomis.

steelheaders just love to throw "the big money" (get it?) on very simple techniques.

brewer for years fished the barrier dam area of the cowlitz. alongside Leo of Leo's jigs. the BD was his haunt to fish so i saw him very frequently. the guy caught hundreds of steelhead.... all on crap gear. he never used a rod over 8.5' at one time his rod broke and he just found a tip section in his garage that matched up. he used that mismatched pole for sometime. his spinning reel was a yard sale piece. but it all caught fish just the same. why? simply put he fished the jig correctly. as in all fishing techniques its the guys that do them correctly do very well. regardless of the expense of thier gear.

heres the brewer equation:

confident jig for water conditions-
fished at proper depth:
and above all else the final most important element.... you need fish. thats it, real simple.

the issue with this obvious formula is great for success.

there are no fish these days. alot of skonks stinking up the place this last winter.

with a spinning rod set up how do you long line through boulder gardens while on anchor and do it smoothly? i have found a baite caster works way better and its instant thumb down and pull when the bobber goes down 100 yards away from you. i missed a nice mid teener fish on the hoh this year due to long linning with my 9'6" lammi light set up and learnd a good lesson as i got to be net boy for my buddy who was bait casting long line and limmited in the first boulder garden.

It's not complicated, you take a piece of hollow core, a bobber stop and a dink. Rig it up and go.

Catch fish


Rod legnth matters the brand dose not.

If you want to learn to float fish take a trip to canada. It is basicly the the rule up there. Level wind or centrepin for a reel. 10.5' rod is standard(sensitivity does count it's not all about just watching the bobber). Weights are your choice pencil lead sometimes , split shot the other time(they both have their place). Floats some like dinks some like balsa some like drennans. Bait works good, so does pink worms, so does rubber eggs so does jigs, so does colorados (the fish usually decide). Floats work best in smaller well defined water or where precise holding locations are known. Big water still is the place for driftfishing or hardware(but not always).

i cup my hand around the spool and use that to control the line coming off. if i see a strike, my finger flips the bail and i cross its eyes.

it's easier to see my method work in person than it is to describe, that's for sure. also a very effective way free drift bait(the main reason i own a spinning rod), or control a spoon's depth. todd and herzog may preach the virtues of the levelwind for spoons, but the original spoon man himself, milt keizer, preferred a 9' fenwick spinning setup!

hybred, not sure who your question is directed at. but use what you want. when you want. it sounds like you just got schooled by your buddy. who runs a bobber 100 yards away?

Braid is the way to go while using floats. How many times did we chase that float?

Don't forget the most powerful tool in the float fisherman's arsenal -



Your gonna need to get a bunch of these

Been fishing "bobber/floats" jigs for 15+ years and found many things in that time...

1. Hi vis lines do not affect your fishing

2. Colored bobbers or floats do not, for the most part, scare fish.

3. Any rod can be used for this type of fishing, saw a person using a "tuna rod" cause that's all he had.

4. Until about 5 years ago..mono lines was all I used......tried braid...never going back to mono........the positive features of braid far out-weight the negative....yea, know all about line wrapping around tip....lost 2 tips cause of this.

5. Banking fishing......long is better.....current rod is Lamiglas 13', 3 piece....long rods allow you to "keep more line off the water"....and that is very important to get a natural drift. That said, 2 of my favorite rods are a Shakespear and a Shimano 10.5 foot.....have used those to catch "lot's of fish".

6. Used to make all my bobber from the backing material stuff.....did the plastic straw bit, top and bottom......painted the tops.......but not any more. Since I've gone to Braided line i've not lost a bobber in 4-5 years. Use 20# braid and leader material to either 6, 8, 10 pound.

7. Spinning reels for me and most others I fish around. Used to used Shimano Spirex but now use only Stradic...fast retrieve.

8. Jigs.......wow, tried them all.......have 100's that I've bought from everywhere....but now most of my jigs are from one of my fishing pardners....Bradsjigs.....do a search look that site over. Video, by me...and lot's of pictures


picture below is some of the bobbers/floats I've found.........I use mostly the "round cork", smaller size but will try another type if I find one....

I had an opportunity to fish with a guide in BC who used dink floats, 10,6 rods, curado reels and split shot.
We crimped 3-4 1/4 oz splits on the line above the swivel, below the float about 1 ft a part. 18" leader with egg sacks. Killer combo, four of us fished 3 days and hooked and released over 100 steelhead. Can't count the number we lost. Mighty nice way to fish.
The one item that he said was the most important was to keep your line off the water, with the tip of the float pointing at you. This way the hookset was fast and in the lip.

Works like a charm down here too.

oh i know and i do, sometimes well ancore above boulder gardens let it out right by the boat and line it down through, 100yds was an example, mabee and exageration. all depends on howw long the garden goes for.

I love my cheap shimano 10 ft. $57.00 for float fishing have even used the car door warranty. just dont ever try it for drift fishing, cant feel a darn thing. I am still trying to find the perfect braid to go with it. Any suggestions would be helpful. For many yrs. now I have used a float and drift gear below it. swivel, hollow core pinched on, 2 ft. of leader corky and bait. This works just like anything else.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone!