River Fishing Tips | 5 tips for stick float fishing
A winner on running water in autumn, this versatile float always has the knack of catching better fish…
Hemp & caster
Maggots are fine for small fish, but when quality is on the cards, it’s hard to see past hemp and caster for feed. Chub, barbel and big roach love them, and they’re baits that sink relatively quickly.
Each bait does a different job, though, the hemp getting to the bottom quickly to keep the fish in the peg while casters fall slightly slower and will draw fish from downstream. A ratio of 75 per cent hemp to 25 per cent casters is about right, using maggot on the hook to begin with and then changing to caster as the fishing improves.
For quality fish, choose hemp and caster
Find a spot with smooth water
If you have a peg with some erratic flow that’s got water swirling and boiling all over the place it will be impossible to get the bait to run down the same place every time, and that will make it impossible to concentrate the fish in one area.
You need a spot with a steady glide to allow you to run the float through the same spot every time, enabling you to build up the area with loosefeed and get the fish hunting for bait. Take time to study the swim and work out where the smooth water is.
You need a steady glide to allow you to run the float through the same spot every time
Cast downstream
To ensure control of the rig at all times as it trots down the swim, make each cast slightly downstream. This means the line is behind the float and cannot overtake it, which would otherwise pull the rig off line. Keep mending the line, taking up any slack that forms so you are always in direct contact with the float to hit bites quickly and sharply. Feed in front of you, though, because this will mean your hookbait ends up among the loose offerings a little further down the peg rather than standing out on its own.
Always cast slightly downstream
Vary your presentation
Changing how the bait travels through the swim will catch more fish. Allowing the rig to run through the river will work, but holding the float back gives fish that aren’t going to chase a bait the chance to take it.
If you find a spot where you are getting a lot of bites, hold the float back there for a couple of seconds, as more often than not the float will bury!
Keep ringing the changes to keep the bites coming
Size matters
This is where a lot of anglers go wrong. Pick too light a float and you’ll not have control of the rig or be able to cast far enough. A good rule of thumb is to use a No4 shot for every foot of water, so in 5ft swims, go for a 5x4 float or in 9ft a 9x4.
As far as stick float patterns go, in smooth, steady water a classic straight stick made of balsa will be perfect. In uneven flows, a float with a slight shoulder and an alloy stem will give you stability for great bait presentation.
Don’t go too light on the float
River Fishing Tips | How to stop bumping off roach on the float - Hadrian Whittle
The most common cause of bumping fish on a running line is allowing a bow to form between the rod-tip and the float, so when you strike, you’re not direct enough to the float and the fish aren’t hooked properly.
Longer rods and silicone line spray on your reel can help solve this.
Another issue could be hook size. Try going up one size, a 16 for double maggot and an 18 for single, for example.
Soft, tip-actioned rods are vital for roach.
Learn the perfect roach stick float rig by clicking here.
River Fishing Tips | How to shot a stick float - Kelvin Tallett
The stick float is a fantastic method, offering superior presentation to the waggler for close-range fishing on rivers. But there is much more to it than simply setting the float at the depth of your swim and running it down with the flow.
Constant adjustments should be made to your rig and feeding to keep in touch with the shoals of fish.
A typical shotting pattern is using the shirt-button option where each shot is evenly spaced down the line, like the buttons on a shirt. This gives the hookbait a very natural fall of the bait through the water.
Stick floats are best shotted ‘shirt button’ style
When you hold the float back against the current, it will allow the bait to rise up slightly off the bottom, which can produce a bite when running the rig through normally won’t. A bulk of shot is very rarely used when fishing the stick float.
Get the stick float right and big bags of fish await you
River Fishing Tips | What does it mean when fish cough up bait? - Darren Cox
Greedy species like perch and chub tend to regurgitate bait the most, but I’ve had roach and dace do it too.
When it happens, it tells me two things…
Firstly, that the fish are ravenous and eating well and secondly, that there may not be that many fish in the peg as the ones I catch are eating everything I’ve fed.
In this situation I then feed less bait, meaning there’s more chance of my hookbait being taken by the few fish that are present.
Fish coughing up bait can be a sign you need to limit the feed
River Fishing Tips | The best float rig for barbel - Dai Gribble
SOME people favour using big wagglers, especially if it’s windy, but most of the time when trotting for barbel I use two types of float – Chubbers and Avons.
I use both Chubbers and Avons
Avon floats, with their large shoulders and heavy wire stems, are best suited to deeper water and slower flows, while the more streamlined Chubbers, or Loafers as they’re sometimes called, work best when used in shallower, faster water.
It’s important to use a big enough float to boss the river, rather than letting it boss you, so I rarely use a float with less than 3AAA loading and, depending on flow and depth, I will use them as big as 5SSG.
I start with the bulk of the shot set 50cm-60cm from the hook, with a single dropper shot, generally a BB, between the bulk shot and the hook.
A standard barbel float rig
Although barbel will sometimes take a bait presented off the bottom, I want my bait running along the bed of the river as that is where it is most likely to be taken, so my shotting is designed to get the bait down to the feed area as quickly as possible.
They are great fun on the float!
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.
A typical Avon float rig
River Fishing Tips | Six tricks to catch the bigger river fish - Darren Cox
Hungry as the big specimens may be, the appetites of their smaller brethren will be just as keen, and a day can be soured by a never-ending stream of tiddlers and nothing substantial to put a bend in the rod.
On a river, it’s not that easy to single out the chub and bream when there are hordes of tiny bleak and dace to wade through. You will have to put up with catching some of these smaller fish, because that’s just the way it is, but there are plenty of tricks you can try to sort out the proper big boys!
“It’s not that easy to single out the chub and bream when there are hordes of tiny bleak”
Find the fast water
Find swims with faster water that will be well-oxygenated. Most species will have finished spawning and will move into gravel runs in fast water. You’ll still find little fish there, but that’s where the chub will be.
Fast well-oxygenated water is best for big fish early in the season
Use big baits
Maggots will be a waste of time. Casters are a favourite and tend to sort out the chub and big roach. If you’re still getting pestered by bleak and dace, though, use tares or a kernel of corn.
Bigger baits for bigger fish - don’t waste time with maggots!
Tackle up properly!
Big hooks and stronger lines will make sure you land chub and even barbel and will also put the smaller fish off. Try a size 16 hook to a 0.12mm or 0.14mm hooklength.
Use bigger hooks and stronger line
Up the feed
Feed hemp and caster in a ratio of 50/50. Begin by feeding sensibly to work out how many bigger fish are there. If small fish are a problem, double the feed.
Keep the feed going in and double the ratio if small fish are becoming a problem.
Go shallow
Fish will be very active in early season and may be feeding off bottom. This is especially true of chub. A small stumpy waggler fished at half-depth is a super way to catch chub darting about up in the water.
Try a small waggler fished at half-depth for chub
Fishmeal groundbait
Bream are the main target on slower rivers, but even on the feeder, little fish can dominate. Use a fishmeal groundbait, which dace and roach aren’t so keen on. Add inert particles like hemp and casters.
Fishmeal groundbait is a great attractor for big bream
River Fishing Tips | Get the best from trotting a stick float with Darren Cox
There are few more enjoyable ways of tackling a river than the stick float, running the rig way down the peg, then watching that tiny domed float top bury as the strike is met by the jag of a big roach or dace.
Good as the pole is, it is a tactic that limits how much of the swim you can cover. A rod and line with a stick, though, opens up so much more water, while retaining the same degree of control and presentation to coax regular bites.
However, it’s not a case of setting up one rod to get the job done. The key to catching well on a river with the stick is to make constant changes until you find exactly how the fish want the bait presenting.
That makes stick fishing a busy way to set about a river swim, and a very enjoyable one too.
When the stick float is better
When there’s pace on the river, I think that to catch roach and dace with a moving bait you need to slow things down to a speed where the fish will take the bait confidently.
It’s all about trial and error – running the rig at full pace, then checking it to a standstill. Next I will release it, then ease the float through at half pace and so on.
I’ll regularly move the shot on the line to make the bait behave differently.
However, there are right and wrong conditions to fish the stick in.
Generally speaking, an upstream wind or no breeze at all is bang on, whereas a downstreamer will make controlling the rig and keeping the line behind the float very difficult.
How far out to fish
I’d always fish in the main depth of the river and aim to find a flat spot of an even depth to get a good run through. I plumb up using a big heavy plummet and locate the depth both in front of me and well down the peg. That way I’ll know of any depth changes where I may need to slow the bait down to prevent it being dragged under.
Distance is also governed by the pace, because although more fish will be in the main flow, you won’t be able to fish as effectively here. Instead, I’d pick a line where the pace is slower and where the fish can feed properly. A bit of a compromise is needed. You’re better off not fishing where the majority of the fish are with a bad presentation, and instead going for a ‘good’ line and catching what you can with better presentation.
Shotting
By having two different shotting patterns I can achieve very different levels of presentation. The middle-of-the-road rig and the lighter stick have shirt button-style patterns of No8 shot grouped together in pairs and evenly-spread from halfway down the rig, tapering off to single No8 droppers on the hooklink. This gives the bait a slower fall through the peg and means that when I hold the float back in the flow, the bait will rise off the bottom a few inches.
On the heavier rig, I use a bulk of No4 shot a couple of feet from the hook to make up around 80 per cent of the shotting capacity. The remainder consists of No8 droppers. This is a much more positive rig to get the bait straight to where the fish are, and is ideal for days when a lot of fish are in the peg and you don’t have to search for them.
Dead depth or overdepth?
Traditionally, the stick float is fished to just trundle along the riverbed at full pace, but because I want to slow the bait down, I can actually fish overdepth by quite some way as long as I keep the float controlled as it runs down the river.
I set my lighter sticks six inches overdepth and cast the rig in so the bait is downstream of the float.
I then constantly vary the speed at which the float runs. Being in direct control, I can ensure that the rig is never pulled under.
Float sizes
I’ll rig up three floats of different sizes and work out which one is best for the conditions. My sticks are hand-made by my friend Nick Sutton and take No4 shot, seven in the case of the ‘No 7’ float.
My rule of thumb is to use a No4 shot for every foot of depth, so in a 7ft deep swim I use a No 7 stick as my ‘middle-of-the-road’ rig. I can then go either way with a heavier or a lighter rig to find which one gives the best presentation.
At the start I will cast out the middle-of-the road rig without a bait on to see whether the rig is hitting bottom or not, if I can control it and hold it back, and how the float tip reacts when run at full pace – is there enough buoyancy in the rig or not? From these findings I will select a heavier stick, perhaps taking nine or 10 No4s, and a lighter one taking just three or four shot.
