The Float Fishing Side Drag Problem

There is a natural tendency for your float to slowly pull towards the bank that you are standing on, and this can be a problem since you want to keep the float moving in straighter lines.

The Float Fishing Side Drag Problem And How To Prevent It

The bigger the pool and the further across you need to fish, the worse this problem gets. It’s a problem because I have determined that the more a float travels in an unnatural sideways direction, the less fish will bite the baits.

So, how do you prevent the float from pulling or drifting sideways during a drift?

It’s not uncommon for me to stand with my clients in one spot to start with and then slowly move further out into the pool as we start fishing further away to keep the float tracking in straight lines. The more your float is running in lines directly below you, the less side drift will happen.

But it’s not always possible to keep moving further out into the river to prevent side drag from happening, so if one day you find that your float is tracking sideways, these are some things that you can try.

• Get further out into the river so you are not as far from the float – The more straight up from the float, the better.
• Hold your rod tip further out towards the middle so your float is more straight down from you than across from you. This helps a lot.
• Use a longer rod for more reach and to get your rod tip further out to the middle of the river and directly above your float.
• Ensure you are not applying too much pressure on your float, which will pull it more sideways. Take some pressure off and see what happens.
• Use a bigger float or a ticker float that has more body and sits deeper in the water.
• Weight your leader more so it sinks your float deeper into the water with as little of the float showing as possible. The added weight and the more float buried in the water, the more the water will help keep in in the same line.

Even with a wider float that tracks straighter, and even if you try all the things I mentioned above, there will still be times when your float will pull sideways. I tell my clients that the best thing they can do in this case is to make sure it pulls sideways as little as possible and to keep working on it or try covering the water in short drifts.

I will discuss short drifts versus long drifts below.

Tight Lines

Graham