Revolution - How Do You Bobber Fish?

[Johnny wilkins]

I am still seeking some help from everyone out there.

 

Please check out the older post invite. All this month I will be wanting volunteers to describe their setups and share how they fish with live bait.

 

I will be donating some prizes to the cause and someone will win some cool shirts and prizes for sharing. There are no wrong answers, just want REGULAR fishing setups - how you fish with the standard gear.

 

Participants will be asked to log what they are catching and describe the setups. We will share information together and put it all together for everyone. I also have a tackle offer for those who participate to join in on. Also - I am adding a new package so those of us on a budget can join in too. I will be offering a mini-pack to participate where you get $20 in tackle and the total price for getting in will be $7 (the option for the $20 pack is still available as well). 

http://bigbluegill.com/forum/topics/bobber-fishing-revolution

 

Anyhow, check out the post and please volunteer your live bait fishing setups. Every setup is welcome and I want many states to participate - runs through the end of the month or as soon as we get enough volunteers. If you fish one of the following, and this is your primary method you will stick with through the challenge - reserve it.

 

I need:

 

Each one of the following fishing setups covered with an angler fishing it:

 1. Blackbird Balsa Slip Float

2. Thill Plastic Slip Float & Jig Combo

 

 

 

3.  Thill Premium Spring Bobber

 

 

4.  Thill Balsa Crappie Float (&/or Jig)

 

5.  Thill Foam Float

 

 6.  Thill Peal Foam Float

 

 

 7.  Raven Slip Float

 

 8.  Thill Waggler

 

9.  Thill Mini Stealth

 10.  Thill Shy Bite

11. Thill Super Shy Bite

 

12.  Thill Mini Super Shy Bite

 

 13.  Thill Stealth 

 

 14.  Gapen Panfish Floats

 

15.  Blackbird Phantom - Plastic Float

 16.  Blackbird Spring Floats

 

I need these!! Anyone fishing the following??

 

17.  The Classic Red & White

 

 18.  The Trolling Bobber

 

 19.  Bobber With A Brain (please - anyone).

 

 20.  Thill Pencil Floats

 21.  Rocket Bobber

 22.  South Bend Panfish Floats

 

 

22 slots to fill - pick your favorite weapon and let me know to get in our revolution. 

 

Johnny

 

 

 

 

[James Micheal Landrum]

Johnny, the Thill I'm talking about does not have a silicon sleeve, all it has is two SMALL black Rubber Bands, one on the bottom and the other on the top? I've never had a thill break and that includes fighting a 8 LB Bass and netting him , which is now mounted in my office, we fought each other 30 minutes in a river slough? I'll take a picture of it so you can see the one I'm talking about

[Johnny wilkins]

We have a few people who are interested in the revolution I still have a whole bunch of live bait setups wide open if you are interested in joining in March or April.

Also - THIS IS NOT A COMPETITION. You are supposed to fish like you normally do. Record what you normally do and what you normally catch using your live bait bite indicator / jig or combo.

What we want is an overview of what a group of people fishing different tackle setups in different areas catch.

For instance, you will see I fish near a big city and my bluegills are smaller. I do NOT drive more than :40 min. to fish and prefer to drive :12 min. I fish within the city and the nearest suburbs. 

Join, fish regularly and log a few notes along the way. We all learn together no pressure no wrong answers and we are NOT looking to change rigs or setups.

[Johnny wilkins]

You are right James, it has three weaknesses and neither is you. Off the shelf, it might be one of the top 2 in the US Market but it is weak.

1. The first is manufacturing. This float is a cheaply made float that could only be made in the US. The ends break off it because it is manufactured as cheaply as it could be. Balsa is so light a wood that to make it that thin at those two points causes WEAKNESS in the design/build.
2. When the line comes out of the silicon sleeve at the top - it goes straight up in the air. This cuts down on the angler's ability to check the float while keeping it upright. 
3. Because the line comes straight up out of that silicon sleeve, it forms a high-riding loop in the line that catches the smallest breeze - this kills presentation and again - float control.

Mr. Mick Thill taught me-  I couldn't have discovered half of what I have on my own, it takes some teacher or someone you meet to pass on knowledge. The gap in America is that knowledge died years ago when the tackle industry turned to machines to make things 20 pieces per minute. I would rather have one item made in 3 minutes if it will do better.

 

We lost a lot of jobs to other worlds because we thought cheaper is better. Sometimes better is better and the cost difference to pay just a little bit more for something, might be worth it for our time.

 

I can see you are passionate and your selection is a good one. I do appreciate you joining and logging with us for sure. My whole point for being here is to share, learn, live and catch some fish and I hope I can do that with everyone as a team.

 

It might seem like things I say are CRAZY - there is no way someone has something better, but I fish for team USA and have fished next to Italians, Portugese and English anglers who are far better than me.

 

Take the journey with me and I PROMISE, this will be worth it - the Revolution is about calling US tackle manufactures on skipping generations of knowledge with speed manufacturing and profit-based products. This is not OUR fault - it is THEIRS!

 

We the anglers - They the Tackle Manufacturers. Trust me when I say they do NOT care about live bait anglers in boats that don't cost $10,000 - $60,000 and they do NOT care about us worm anglers. If they did, there would be a whole line of tackle that Rocked our worlds! I'm with you - not against you.

 

My ideas are not original, but I have original thoughts and I have researched, sampled, tested, reworked and readied some ideas that need to be shared.

 

First, we must all fish. Record, report and a few photographs down the road, when we all can learn this together. We can all share a thought and we can all revolt against live bait anglers being second class citizens - I am through with that. That is going to end.

 

Live bait angling has beauty, skill, technique and glamor that rivals fly anglers and that can embarrass patch-wearing bass anglers' games.  Catching fish is what this is about.

Take the journey with me.

 

- Johnny

[James Micheal Landrum]

Johnny, soon as the water warms up , I'll show you some pictures of this Thill, 1and 1/2 incher and show you what it can do in the pond or Back Waters of the River!!!!!!!!! I can 't imagine it has a WEAKNESS, unless under different conditions??????

[Johnny wilkins]

Which float excellent question - none of the above for current.

For current the buoyant part of the float needs to be at the TOP of the stem.  There is a Thill float for steelhead on the market that allows you to fish it in current but most shops don't stock it.

Picture float #12 attached upside down - which you can absolutely do if you had two silicon sleeves that fit it.

I will be getting some floats from Hungary for flowing water in a few weeks as the US Open Championships are fished on a river. These will tend to be bigger than you need for your inlet as these are for river current.

Yesterday the water was flowing because of the surface wind. I was holding the line straight in front of the float so that the float cocked a little towards the tip.

With everything set up perfectly (or near perfect as I was not so happy with it), my rig wasn't giving me much of a bite indication in the wind.

The rod tip and line position is the most important thing followed by shot position and then the float. With current you want more shot - in number and you want to place more of this shot up the top half of the rig. You would like to have only one tiny shot down low near bottom because near there, there is little current on the bottom - in most cases.

[Johnny wilkins]

You fish a mini shy bite I am pretty sure. Excellent! 

Definitely welcome aboard. This is a decent bite indicator but I will cover its weaknesses as we get into the Revolution. 

This is a good sized bite indicator and your approach is right on. Keep us posted as to your catch and how you are fishing, where, bait, catch etc.

[James Micheal Landrum]

I do not see the Thill cork I use, it's something like the SHY BITE Thill, but it's only 1 and 1/2 inches long with the two rubber stoppers? I rig it with a SMALL sinker with Crickets and fish the Back Waters of the Altamaha River in Georgia. Last year on my UL-6LB Trilene I got a nice 8LB Bass----- Wow what a fight!!!!!!!!

[John Sheehan]

I am curious as to which float you suggest for staying on bottom in the current.You saw what I used .What would have been a good 3rd float to employ?

[Johnny wilkins]

yes- you are welcome.

The fish in that current were probably warmer than the rest of the lake and more active. They have more oxygen there too. By moving, they probably released off the bottom and floated after your bait - yes, like trout, they were rising up.

 

If you "hold back" in that current and manually move the bait back in the current using your rod tip and the length of the pole, you will keep the bait still near bottom. Current moves on the top at 100% speed, but will be close to 0% near the bottom. Your bait must move in that near 0% speed to get all the fish attention (not just the actives). You can also try adding more line and dragging an inch or two on the bottom.

 

With current, you will need some float to keep the hook bait from dragging the float under so you need slightly more float.

[John Sheehan]

I gave the mini stealth  and the 3/8" Thill Pencil about equal time both on 4 lb. test . The smaller #10 hook/Thill Pencil perhaps caught more fish as I used that 1st  but I started having trouble with the pencil float .I am unexperienced and need to see the proper way to set it up so casting doesnt tangle .It takes time for the pencil to settle  compare to the mini stealth which I had balanced better I think .I used a small feather jig and shot withe MS float . I 'll get better at this and try to be better at details and weight matching and let you know how it goes . Thanks for your great advice on slip floating.