# anyone tried, soft plastics under a float?



## DougOut (Dec 31, 2006)

Found this photo on the US native kayak forum.
The guy fishes Florida's saltwater creeks (with a fair degree of success apparently )
Note his rig: it's a soft plastic, under a rather large weighted float.
Anyone see or used this Rig with artificials before ? Not me :? 
I've sent him a post this morn. and will let you know, what if anything he has to say about it. 
He may be fishing over a rocky bottom with a constant depth,
a bit weird but possible worth a try. :shock:


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## redman (Jun 5, 2008)

I've had Barra come up and look at the float rather than my bait before so anyhtings possible............It just sat there and looked at it for about 30sec before swimming away. Obviously foam is not a delicacy in the fish world


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## DougOut (Dec 31, 2006)

DougOut said:


> I've sent him a post this morn. and will let you know, what if anything he has to say about it.


Following being his reply:

That one rig you saw in the pic is a Cajun Thunder float with a clear mono leader tied to a circle hook. The bait is a Berkley Gulp! (flavored) shrimp. I fish artificials 99% of the time. I prefer to cast and keep moving. I rarely use live or fresh bait when I fish from my yak. But, sometimes I like to stake-out with a cajun anchor/sop near a creek mouth or oyster bar and let the float rig with a Gulp! shrimp drift with the current while I cast a jig with a different Gulp! product or Mirrolure and work the entire area. Something almost always hits the float rig, usually sea trout, or a redfish if it floats over an oyster bar, but casting and working a lure is always more productive for me.

If the Gulp! products are available in your area and you normally fish with shrimp, you should try the 4 inch Gulp! shrimp. They're very effective here for Redfish, Sea Trout, and Flounder to name just a few.
_________________


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## bombora (Mar 8, 2006)

Played around with similar yankee concept of popping corks. Similar rig but the float has some weight and a cupped face, like a popper. Also the float isn't on a fixed length of trace, but is used with a stopper knot, or is stopped by the leader knot. The popping cork runs down to the lure when "popped" on retrieve so the plastic sits right behind the cork. When you stop or pause the retrieve the plastic then slowly sinks behind/below the float, right into the face of the fish attracted by the popping cork. That's the theory. This rig is commonly used in shallow backwaters in US like in the pic. They also use live prawns and lip hooked poddy mullet etc instead of a plastic. Made my own "popping cork" out of dowell. First thought it would be great to put an eyes fly behind the popping cork for fussy Sydney sambos. But the plastic or bait, or fly, needs some weight to let the line draw through the float and slowly sink when paused or stopped. So the eyes fly didn't work until I fixed the popping cork about a metre from the fly, like the fella in the pic. Worked on some sambos but pendalum (spell) effect of popping cork made spitting the fly easier. 
Using the non-fixed version, got smashed to pieces by something nasty on a north coast creek once playing with this rig next to a snag. Also got some kings off Sydney with a beefed up version, with sluggo style plastics behind the float, but in the king's case they would have taken anything on the day. Fun to experiment with. I wonder if scaled down would work for popping whiting and bream across sand flats if they get fussy?? Cheers.


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## grinner (May 15, 2008)

been surprised when black bream fishing just what will hit a bit of weed under a float so the presentation may be quite good and lets face it fish must be getting used to slowly descending plastics by now so there may be something in it cheers


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## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

I just use the yak as a big float, have the rod as as horizontal to the water as I can and just run out enough line so the SP doesn't snag on the bottom. Its just as productive for me for catching snapper as cast and retrieve.

I could see it working fine.

Is there any set up you can have where once the bait is taken the float slides freely up and down the line? When balloon fishing with a few meters of leader out the balloon often gets in the way and becomes a pain in the arse.


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## solatree (May 30, 2008)

I've quite a bit of success fishing for Aussie Salmon with soft plastics under a small float. Works well in reefy areas where snagging on the drop is a problem. Still twitch the the SP. Salmon can be quite agressive and not turned off by the float. Quite the contrary. Not sure how well it would go with other fish species


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