Favorite Float and Weight set up?

[Bantam200]

Fixed or sliding? I have tried all kinds of floats over the years, but I think my favorite set up is a sliding Thill steelhead float jury rigged as a fixed float, one knot at the jig only. I like dinks in certain situations, mainly if i use a 1/4 oz jig. What is your preferred set up?

[BC Steel]

Fave float = 11 gram Drennen Piker
Weights   = 1 .375 shot and 2 .325 shots

Split shot rules!

[zonker]

For winter fishing my favorite is a West Coast foam float (or one of my homemade knock offs). Here is a tutorial for making them:

http://steelheadnotebook.net/forum/index.php/topic,350.0.html

I rig it as a slider with a bobber stop and bead at both top and bottom. With the stops moved close to either end of the float it functions as a fixed float. With the top stop moved up the line and the bottom stop down, it functions as a slider. Best of both worlds. I might add that this isn't my own idea.

For summer fishing I prefer a fixed #2 Cheater (Beau Mack Co.) It balances nicely with a 1/8 oz. jig. A 1/16th oz. works well with it, too. This is especially good for fishing slow flows and those shallow riffles at the heads of pools where fish tend to hide when they are under pressure or the water is low

zonker

[Sturzman]

I'm not exactly sure what my favorite style is, but it better be fixed! If money was no object I'd fish with those balsa floats. Not because they'll catch more fish but just because they're so fun! Inevitably though I end up using the round corks for summers and solely dinks now for winters.

[chumdog]

3/4 inch  dinks, with the chartruse tops in winter and painted corks in summer.  I like dinks cause their cheap, and I don't feel too bad when I decorate the trees!

[bugnuts]

Which he does like he's decoratin' a friggin' Christmas fir. 

[Backer51]

I like the dink floats as well.  I then weight it with a homemade slinkie 12" to 18" above the jig.

[First Bite]

For winter steelhead I like using the West coast Float set-up with an in-line weight.  Using Power Pro for the mainline.  Summer steelhead I like the small round corks.  Drennen is a close second for a fixed set-up too.

[Tee Jay]

I go with a gray 1/2 inch dink and an in line weight.  I use this set up for both winter and summer, whether I'm fishing jigs or bait.   

[Brian]

Winter - 3/4" x 4" dink float - fixed with an in line weight 12" - 18" above my jig/worm. Fished with 30# power pro mainline and 12# - 15# maxima ultragreen leader

Summer - 1" round cork painted yellow - fixed, fished with 8# - 10# Berkely Trilene XL in the clear color. No leader, just the mainline straight through the float  to my jig.

[Roadtrip]

Wrap around dink, with a sliding egg sinker above the swivel and a cople of beads as bumpers on either side of the sinker.  Its fixed although it does not take that much to move it, I don't have the problem of slippage that I used to with stopper knots.  Oh yeah, I'm back to the site after a little time away and I'll post more if Bugnuts keeps his avatar!

[Andrew]

Always changing...

Used to be I'd fish one of those hydrodynamically countoured foam floats sliding above a 2-3' leader all year round (granted I mainly fished in the winter). I liked them because they were fairly inexpensive but still really easy to read (jig dragging, drifting ahead, etc).

Last summer I checked into the round corks and I've liked them pretty well so far. This summer I spent some time experimenting with homemade floats that operated on the one-knot idea of the round cork--painted styrofoam balls fixed with toothpicks at first (found somewhere in the depths of the tutorial forum) and more recently with whiddled-down wine corks. I might do a little more experimentation with these next summer, as I really liked their stealthiness (the round corks always "pop" along the surface for me).

Last winter I tried sliding dinks. I liked them well enough, as I could add more weight to get more casting distance than I could with the contoured foam floast mentioned above, but...

I think laziness (and cheapness) is going to drive me to a fixed dink this winter. The prospect of running 20 lb. Power Pro to an inline weight and losing 1 or 0 floats/weights all winter is pretty appealing.

I've been doing way too much typing about fishing with not enough actual fishing mixed in. I'm seriously deprived up here, and the weekend looks to have the rivers blown. If it keeps raining like this I might have to go try and get a drift down 45th St.  

Andrew

[BC Steel]

I dont mind spending some $$ on floats and terminal tackle because I can usually use the same stuff over and over again. I've been using the same cut down foam float for low water for 6 months up until the past couple weeks when I took it off and replaced it with a balsa that I had laying around. I usually only go through about 3 floats per year; 6 at the absolute tops.

[rvrfshr]

Winter; 4-1/2" by 3/4" homebrewed tapered dink/West Coast style center slider, 3/8oz. sleeved egg sinker on 30# P. Pro and 10# Izor leader.

Summer; 2-3/4" by 5/8" home made same style as above, 1/8 oz. lure body style lead on 20# P.Pro and 8# Izor leader.

I like to almost always be a creature of habit on these. (Never any unexpected surprises or learning curves to deal with that way)      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Joe          

[Jeff]

Since I learned float fishing from Brian's excellent write-ups you can get to from the home page, that is pretty much my set-up.  Same line/leader combo as Joe, with Maxima instead of Izor.  I wasn't real happy with how far I could cast with the round cork style float and 1/16 oz jig for the summer run's, however, so I may try something different next summer.

I tend to lose a few floats during the year because some of the best drifts around here and other smaller rivers I fish tend be up under overhanging limbs.  It's amazing how many wraps of line can whip around an unexpected limb in microseconds!!!  Plus I have Jonnyhook to contend with who hasn't mastered the sidearm cast yet, so he reverts to the overhead cast at time.  He can put a float/jig combo so high I've taken to putting flashing lights on them so aircraft in the area are safe

Jeff