Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: ICA on October 27, 2011, 08:37:32 PM
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Fellas, this is for my own education and my question is what in your opinion is the best set up when fishing a Colorado blade under a float. Please be specific and give me some idea as to weight and length of leader. Please also tell me how do you drift this because I am wondering if you have to slowly retrieve or just free drift. Is it better with a CP or LW. I have tried many times but without any success. Anyone willing to help? Not asking for a fishing spot, so I hope no one will take offence to this questions. ;D ;D ;D
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X2 i have wondered the same thing.
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I had no clue ether. but after catchn my two chum I dinked around putting pencil lead on my main line about 2 inches with a swivel, and then a foot and a half of leader. First cast HOE. I know it isnt what you were asking (float) but I havent had any succsess with that yet. All varies on your water as what I was fishing was 12 feet plus and fast
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Fish the same or a little bit less weight than you would for float fishing roe / wool etc. You want about a 2' leader, I don't see any point in fishing flurocarbon if you are fishing a blade, regular mono is fine. You want to size the blade to the amount of flow in the run you are fishing, bigger flow, bigger blade, what you are aiming for is a slower rotation, not a really fast spin. If you want to dead drift set the float depth at least a couple of feet shallower than the run, otherwise because the blade is heavier than roe or wool you will hang up or be snagging fish if they are stacked up. For faster water you can go deeper and for shallow you may have to go a lot shorter to prevent this. For dead drifting don't hold back just let the float go, I find i works better if the weight is leading the blade down stream. If you want to swing it across stream or retrieve it you can afford to go a bit deeper as the current or retrieve will lift the blade up. If it is obviously on the surface go deeper and it you are hitting bottom bring it up a little. There are no hard and fast rules so just experiment with different presentations, colours and sizes until you find what works for you.
Cheers,
Nick
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These use to be one of my go to steelhead lures, and still remains in the box.
I tend to dead drift them. Sometimes I slightly hold back just enough that the float creates a small wake.
They also work well on a light spin casting rod, cast them and nothing else (no weight, etc) into a backwater and let it sink to bottom then retrieve slow.
As for depth, when dead drifting set your gear around 1-2 feet off the bottom (typical answer). They spin quite well with just currents in the river. Indiana blades are better for dead drifting I'v heard as they catch more water, but I'v never had a problem dead drifting Colorado's and this is my go to method for them.
If holding back set you float to JUST tapping bottom every 10 seconds or so (tick here and there).
This will ensure that when holding back your Colorado will still remain 1-2 feet off the bottom (it will rise if you are holding back).
Once I get to the tail-out I tend to lock my reel and let it swing into shore (in faster runs), then start reeling. You wouldn't believe how many I have hit in the 1st 3-4 cranks.
Weight... it depends on float size.
I run a stubby float 4" with a shaved/tapered bottom. I normally run 4-5 split shots in size 4 about 1 inch apart from each other.
Leader Length.
-I use to run (and still do at time when picky) a 2-3 foot flouro leader in really high vis (6+ feet vis) conditions. I find Colorado's sink fairly well so they don't float up out of the zone unlike roe would (assuming you are not holding back on the Colorado).
-Normally a 12 to 16 inch leader will work fine.
Size of Colorado.
Steelies like size 4 I think it is (I go on sight, but it's quite large).
Coho I use both large and small, it depends on what they want that day. I like silver, gold, and dark blue.
I have also seen guys bottom bounce aka drift fish these.
a couple small weights and a 1-2 foot leader and let it tap bottom while drifting, sometimes slowly reeling in as you would a spoon.
Hope that helps,
Cheers,
Dan
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Fellas! You guys are awesome! Thank you and truly appreciate for taking time to describe in such details. I will experiment with all your suggestions and I am sure I will get my fish one of these days, perhaps a steelie would be nice. ::) ::)
Tight lines yall!
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Blades have been killer this year. Just dead drifting them and holding them back slightly at then end of the drift, had a few fish grab it when retrieving at the end of the drift as well. Ive kept my leader short when holding it back slightly. Also, slowly pulling your rod back 2-3 inches a few times during a drift and then dropping it back just for action has worked, like your almost jigging it a few times.
Cheers
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Looks like im taking tommorow off work. Thanks guys
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Surface layer of the water moves faster than the bottom layer where fish hold normally. Letting the float drift naturally on the surface (with the reel in freespool) is actually pulling the blade downstream. Let it drift! You're set up should be the normal float fishing set up as you would roe, just tie the spinner on a 2 foot leader and shorten your depth to account for the sink rate of the spinner.
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Anybody float fish using Indiana blades ?
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I do, we were slaying pinks on the size 3 hammered brass. Haven't tried them for Coho or Springs though.
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I wrote this article a few years back, hope it helps.
http://bentrods.ca/fishing-spinners-under-a-float
Remember this article is from a few years back, so I hadn't yet discovered the deadly "sickle" hooks, or how deadly effective airbrushed painted finishes on blades could be.
You might want to check out this link as well for those interested in fishing blades.
http://bentrods.ca/fishing-spinners/spinners-prices-ordering-info
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Anybody float fish using Indiana blades ?
I do. These are now my go to spinner as they are the only ones I can get from a supplier in pro-series, they are alot thicker then your regular ones. I fish them dead drifting just like described earlier. Great for coho and steelhead.
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I wrote this article a few years back, hope it helps.
http://bentrods.ca/fishing-spinners-under-a-float
Good read, thanks for positing the link. I've had good success for Coho fishing Colorado blades, as well as short floating, but never any luck combining the two. I think I'll try making a few small changes based on what you wrote and see if that makes a difference this weekend!
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Fist pound for 'Every Day' for going into such detail and Bent rods. I have a better understanding as well now.
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I know that this might be kind of off topic but it might save another post.
For this float & spinner technique, would I be able to use other spinners like vibrax or koho?
My guess is that they might be too heavy and will not perform as well.
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I know that this might be kind of off topic but it might save another post.
For this float & spinner technique, would I be able to use other spinners like vibrax or koho?
My guess is that they might be too heavy and will not perform as well.
Vibrax might work, I know people tend to do blue foxes under floats and they can work well.
Koho as far as I know only make spoons (although I could be very wrong on that one). Spoons won't work very well under a blade if at all.
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If you need to get down in deep with a spoon just add some weight, I was always told it wrecks the action but some wiser heads turned me on to this and it works well in deep canyon water - with a float its harder to tell what the spoon is doing, I like direct contact to feel that fishy bump bump action. I've tried using using blue foxes but they always want to ride up in the water column, to get them down I prefer to use no float cast them upstream and dead drift them downstream and then swing them out at the end.
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I have used spoons under floats with some success. Its all about presentation. You have to fiddle around and figure out what technique creates the action you want. Dead drifting a spoon probably will not work unless the current is really really heavy.
When I put a spoon under a float, its usually a hailmary attempt after I've tried everything else. One recent example came last steelhead season. A buddy and I had pounded a run with everything... I decided to throw a large ironhead spoon under my regular float and split shot setup....few casts later, FISH ON!
(http://i1017.photobucket.com/albums/af297/MrPhotos/d3ff9764.jpg)
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Nice fish!
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Thanks for all the tips guys. This turned out to be a great resource of information on the topic.
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x2
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I have used spoons under floats with some success. Its all about presentation. You have to fiddle around and figure out what technique creates the action you want. Dead drifting a spoon probably will not work unless the current is really really heavy.
When I put a spoon under a float, its usually a hailmary attempt after I've tried everything else. One recent example came last steelhead season. A buddy and I had pounded a run with everything... I decided to throw a large ironhead spoon under my regular float and split shot setup....few casts later, FISH ON!
(http://i1017.photobucket.com/albums/af297/MrPhotos/d3ff9764.jpg)
Not always so. Last weekend on the Vedder ALL my hits were dead drifting light colorados in slow current - it surprised me. Until this season I would have agreed with you.
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Oh, I agree...dead drifting blades and spinners does work. Even if very light flow colorados will spin on their own.
I was talking about spoons....koho, croc, ironhead, whatever. I can't see those having much action being dead drifted unless the flow is heavy.