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Great Tough-Bite Slip-Float

Fished the past week using the Gapen 5" pencil float as a slip-float (slider) and had great results on suspended gills, crappies, walleyes over brush pile crib.

Used light leader method where I could pop the leader and get my entire rig back above the leader - shot, float, bead and knot stop - used mono self-made stopper by the way.

This method out-caught both the tight-line method and jigs for most fish.

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Albums: Bobber Floats

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Comment by Joe Angelucci on July 30, 2014 at 6:57pm: You guys want fun, try using a 7 foot pole, 1lb test, freeline, #10 shot with a #32 hook from the bank with ice fishing micro plastics. You get to know every weedline and drop off on a 3 acre pond. More like hunting than fishing.

Total blast, I don't think I could ever pick up a rod and reel again. BTW, fish have run this season from 1.5 inch in to 8 inch

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on July 30, 2014 at 6:45pm: Well, Tony, you have a precise location and a system worked out.
That "floats your boat."

Comment by Johnny wilkins on July 30, 2014 at 6:44pm: I know right. I have a confession, I used a boat last week.

You made me laugh pretty well right in that spot! I am glued to the bank, I am addicted to sitting at the edge of the water and dragging the fish to me.

Comment by Tony Livingston on July 30, 2014 at 6:43pm: It wouldn't be so difficult if I would show a little initiative and take a boat instead of insisting on fishing from the bank...!

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on July 30, 2014 at 6:42pm: I love fixed rod fishing, yet am very often "stuck on the bank."
I work with both, as needed.
Now that I've become enamored of the fly rod, well, floats stay in the box as often as not.

Comment by Johnny wilkins on July 30, 2014 at 6:38pm: BLUEGILLS RULE! eh - BlueGILLERS RULE!

Comment by David, aka, "McScruff" on July 30, 2014 at 6:38pm: Everything you guys said... Yes.

Comment by Johnny wilkins on July 30, 2014 at 6:37pm: For anyone who doesn't know it - Tony is fishing very difficult circumstances at that distance and depth.. Not my favorite fishing, but if you are stuck on the bank and the fish are out that far- you've got no choice.

Comment by Tony Livingston on July 30, 2014 at 6:35pm: I think a fixed line/float setup absolutely offers the angler the greatest sensitivity available. However my style of float fishing entails very long distances (up to 75' or more), PLUS the need to fish at depths of around 15-20' once I get out there. The fish I'm targeting won't always be found in shallow water, and my experience has been that a tradeoff involving sensitivity for distance usually works in my favor.

I think we should also consider the fish themselves, in regards to conditioning and becoming hook shy. Highly pressured or wary bluegills will always require more finesse on the anglers part to catch, while unpressured fish are much more likely to not be quite as picky....hence the tradeoff mentioned earlier.

Look at Jeffrey Abney's catches, and examine the technique and gear he often employs....in many instances and areas of the country that methodology wouldn't provide for a productive outing. But he catches tons of nice bluegills, due in part to the fact that those fish are not pressured, and not conditioned. He doesn't need sensitivity to take big bluegills in his preferred spots.

In my own ponds, fishing pressure is very low, and I can usually manage to catch a mess for supper most anytime I want, so sensitivity, while perhaps a little more important to me than it is to Jeffrey, is still not anywhere near what you probably require in those highly pressured Chicago waters.

Comment by Johnny wilkins on July 30, 2014 at 6:34pm: I am not sure I say the distance vs. sensitivity often enough - but I always start people out on an 8' pole or 10' pole as the fish in front of you and that rig are the easiest to register a bite. As you get further out and increase the size of the float, add split shot and line, it is more difficult to catch fish.

(the only exception is if you are standing in ultra-shallow water and the fish don't physically live within the first 15' of where you are fishing) - then you need to get out to that distance. Again, the most sensitive setup is a float under .5 grams (very small) connected to a non-casted line. In a case where I have to cover ground, there is always the 12.5 meter pole - You can see the full length of the poles behind me (Wold Championships - 2011 Italy).

Every situation has a float - or needs a certain float- only the majority of times, you want it to be your favorite float... the fish will ALWAYS tell you if they like your setup as well.