River Fishing Tips | Avon or Stick float for big roach and chub? - Paul Garner

Trotting is such an effective way to catch larger river fish and I don’t know why more people don’t do it!

Trotting is a great method for larger river fish like chub

To me, it’s a job for the Avon float. Its body is buoyant enough to carry the weight needed to keep a bait down close to the bottom and the thick tip rides the current and is not dragged under when the hooklength touches the river bed.

As a rule of thumb, use 1g of weight for every 2ft of depth. This may see you using large floats in deep swims, but it is essential to keep the bait down.

The pronounced shoulder means that the float can be held back, slowing its progress to around half that of the flow at the surface. This pace more closely matches the current close to the riverbed, producing a more natural speed as the bait is swept downstream.