River Fishing Tips | How to improve your river catches on the float!
Now is the perfect time to catch a bumper bag of roach and dace, and you can be sure fish in many rivers the length and breadth of the country will be feeding well in readiness for the lean times they know are coming.
And there’s no more enjoyable way to catch them than with a stick or a Bolo float.
Both really come into their own when there’s a bit of pace on the river, but I fish them in different areas of the venue.
I’ll choose a stick float for close-in work – no more than around three rodlengths out – and a Bolo for further out.
I’ll start on the Bolo while I priming the stick float line for later in the session.
The Bolo is shotted simply, with an olivette at two-thirds depth and a couple of No8 droppers between this and the hook.
No feed to start with
When I begin fishing the Bolo, I don’t feed anything on this line – I simply run the float through to give me an indication as to what kind of mood the fish are in.
If the float instantly buries, it generally means I’m in for a good day. However, if I run it through a few times without a touch, this tells me that the fish are in a less obliging mood, telling me I shouldn’t feed very heavily.
If I catch instantly, I’ll then give them some feed on this line, initially several catapult pouches full of hemp followed by regular maggot loosefeed.
I’ll look to stay on the Bolo for an hour or so while also feeding the closer stick float line with maggots and hempseed. This is where I’ll expect to catch roach later.
On to the stick
A stick float taking around six No4 shot is ideal in many swims, shotted with No6s equally spaced between float and hook, apart from the two bottom shot which are smaller No8s.
The presentation offered by this stick set-up is much better than you can get with a Bolo and perfect for big, wary roach, which should be feeding after being fed loosefeed for an hour or more.
On the stick, I’ll start by easing the float through so that the hookbait is just tripping bottom, but be prepared to change depth a few inches up or down if bites slow. You can also slow down the rate at which your float travels through the swim for a different presentation.
Big roach love a hookbait presented slower than the current.
stay in control
It’s important to control the passage of your float through the swim, and the easiest way to do this is to fish with your reel’s
bail-arm open and let line peel from the spool as the current pulls the float through.
To slow it, dab your middle finger on the front of the spool to prevent line leaving. You can also try actually ‘feeding’ line out with the fingers of your other hand.