Dotting Down

One of the more common mistakes I see anglers making is not shotting their floats low enough in the water. While I am not advocating dotting a float down to a pimple on every occasion I am talking about having the right amount of float tip showing and not the tip plus half the body, or two inches of waggler. The “right” amount is an individual choice given what is happening on any given day but I am willing to bet that many anglers would catch more by adding a shot or two and reacting to every disappearance.

I probably take things to extremes at times using size 13 shot and occasionally bristle grease (lip salve actually), even on carp rigs, to get the “perfect” amount of bristle showing. There are times though when I will take shot off in order to have more bristle above the water.  But my starting point is always to get the float as low as I can.  Indeed sometimes the weight of the bait is enough to sink the float.

Getting the float "dotted down" is a starting point.  That may not be to a pimple.  I will start a session getting the float as low in the water as I am comfortable with.  As the day progresses I may decide to take some shot off.  One reason, amongst many, may be that I actually want the bristle to catch any wind and move the float.  Or I may dot down to get the float out of the wind.  Dragging bottom or suspending a heavy bait are other reasons for having more float showing.  But these are conscious decisions made for an angling reason.  Not because "that will do".

I fully understand that there are those with poor eyesight for whom dotting down too far would make the float invisible. But not everyone I see failing to shot the float lower in the water can have poor eyes.  I also accept that for many just being out fishing is good enough.  Catching is a bonus.  But I go fishing to catch fish.  I want as much action, in a match or on a pleasure session, as I can create.  Are the people I see really completely satisfied fishing and not catching? 

An obvious question about dotting a float down is “ Why is this important?”.  It has been argued that the resistance a fish feels when sinking 10mm of a 2mm diameter bristle cannot be much more than sinking just 5mm. I would agree. The resistance, while there may be some, is not my main reason for shotting floats lower in the water. For me it is all about spotting bites.

Let us say you have 15mm of bristle showing and the float sinks by 3mm. The difference is negligible and possibly not seen as a bite at all. But with 3mm showing and the float sinks by three there is no doubt that you would see that and should react. Even carp, although aggressive feeders, can give very delicate bites, particularly in Winter.  Bites when it is cold are at a premium and thus you should be shotting the float so as not to miss any.  And I would rather strike a few times at false bites than miss the actual bite when it happens.  Also you are much more likely to react when the float disappears than when it just dips marginally.

On the subject of resistance felt by the fish I have seen bites fail to develop when the fish felt the resistance of trying to pull line above the float through the surface tension. Hence the reason I sink the line with backshot, but that is the subject of a separate post.  So I don't think resistance can be totally ignored, particularly so for thick tipped wagglers.

There is a chance that the resistance shown by trying to sink too much pole float bristle is also a reason for the fish to reject the bait. I don't know but why take the risk when with a little bit of fine tuning we can eliminate it. Certainly if we talk in terms of straight or even insert wagglers the resistance felt in trying to sink two inches of float is considerable – to a fish.

I also hear people say that with more float showing they can read bites.  This comment baffles me. Either it is a bite or not.  The float has dipped or it hasn't.  If it has then I strike.  The only real difference I ever notice is that line bites tend to be different to a proper bite.  Often I know I have foulhooked a fish just from the bite that I still instinctively reacted to when perhaps I shouldn't.  The float's disappearance is all I want to read.  When it does I react.

I think many anglers are frightened of sinking the float too far in case they cannot then see it and more importantly, not see a bite. My answer to that is to experiment, see how far you can sink the float and still see it, and importantly, see when it isn't there. In this context a thicker bristle can normally be set much lower in the water than a thinner one and still be seen. So if you are having difficulty or indeed have poor eyesight then try using a thicker bristled float and get that as low in the water as you can.

I also think that some anglers get close to shotting the float "perfectly" then can't be bothered to take the time, put in the effort or use the small shot required to finish the job.  I accept that for some with limited dexterity or poor sight using size 11, 12 and 13 shot is difficult.   But if you can then I strongly recommend taking the time and making the effort.  It is these fine margins that make some anglers stand out from the rest of us.  I find the cube shaped Stotz type weights much easier to apply to the line than traditional round shot.

Another thing to consider for anyone struggling to see a float is whether you are fishing too far out. People that fish with me regularly know that I don't, as a rule, fish the pole past 10-11m. I often joke that if I want to fish longer then I get the leger rod out. My eyesight is fine (I have an excellent optician), it is just that I have proved to myself over time that I don't need to wield 13m+ of pole in order to catch an acceptable number of fish. And I am talking about both commercials and canals.

People will ask “What about poor conditions?”. My answer is to still get the float as low in the water as possible. The closer the rig is to neutral buoyancy the less it will be affected by any chop on the water. A well shotted float will ride through the peaks and troughs unlike an undershotted one that will bounce up and down. In these conditions I find it better to use a much heavier float. That way the whole rig will stay more stable. It also helps if you use as long a bristle as possible on pole floats. Getting the body deeper in the water will reduce the surface's effect. It is worth investing in a few “windbeater” type floats such as the DT Windbeaters* so as to get the body of the float below the wave base and thus into more stable water. They may not see much use but well worth having for those really poor days.

 

If you want to understand why then research “Wave Base”. But simply on most lakes with wind created waves water will only be rising and falling in the top few inches. Below that it will be still. The depth of the wave base is roughly half the wavelength. So if the float body is below the wave base it will be stable.

 

 

 

DT Windbeaters. 

May look odd but this type of float, dotted down in a high wind/choppy surface, works well.

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the diagrams that are shown in magazines of shotting patterns. I get slightly annoyed that it is made to look so simple. Not that the pattern is wrong but that there is never any mention of fine tuning or trimming the shotting to get the float set as the angler wants. It is impossible that the precise shotting pattern demonstrated makes the float sit perfectly. In my experience even a float set perfectly today will require some tinkering the next time the rig is used. I am, in the main, talking pole floats with relatively fine bristles.

The way I shot my floats is to get the pattern of shot I want at the business end, towards the hooklength. As I use a limited range of floats I do know precisely what shot to add when making the rig so that the float, straight out of the box, will sit almost perfectly but probably needing a little extra shot added for me to be happy. These extra shot are normally added just below the float. This is for three reasons. The first is that they can be used as a tell-tale against the float moving. The second is that they will not interfere with the shotting pattern lower down the line and third they are easy to identify should I want to remove them later.

With stick float fishing it can pay to almost or actually overshot the float.  That way you have to hold it back to prevent it sinking.  This slows the bait right down and can be a devastating method on the right day. Then, if you are dragging line on the bottom you may need the float undershotted.

When fishing a waggler on a river and dragging bottom you will need more float showing to prevent the float from constantly being dragged under.  But you can still shot the float so that it just manages to keep progressing through the swim but show delicate bites.   

*  I have no commercial connection with DT Floats.  I know Dean but that is as far as my association goes.  I thank Dean for allowing me to use the picture from his website http://www.dt-floats.co.uk