drifter float?

hello lads, i am fishing a big water at the weekend and just thought i would ask if its worth giving the drifter float ago and whether anyone has had good catches on the method?

ive caught plenty of fish on the drifter one of my favourite mehods you can cover a lot of water with it
i prefer a windy choppy day ,braid 30lb floating , but dont fish extreme range is my advice dont forget if you hook a very large pike you have got to get it back think of the snags , islands submerged obsticles .depends on the venue really.

thanks for the reply, i have used it a couple of time but not had anything to shout about what would you sat was the best bait to use on this method? if you dont mind me asking

If im using a drifter float then I like to use a smallish roach as bait. I just assume pike are used to picking up drifting course fish, cant imagine a drifting half herring being natural to them.

matt859 wrote:If im using a drifter float then I like to use a smallish roach as bait. I just assume pike are used to picking up drifting course fish, cant imagine a drifting half herring being natural to them.

now that is a fair shout. Thinking about it, its obvious reference what bait to use when drifting.

i would use a coarse bait (roach, skimmer, dace), BUT my question would be, what depth??

high enough so that the bait doesnt snag in the weeds on the bottom and low enough so that any pike waiting in ambush in the weed have a chance of getting to them with a quick attack. I start off about 2/3rds down.

I'm sorry, but I'm not having that. A pike's got a brain about the size of a pea, a small pea, and I'm pretty sure they don't know that herrings only live in the sea, or what a herring is, or what a sea is.

Whatever you do use for bait, you'll find it easier to use if you fish it head-up the trace. It'll make no real difference to your catch rate but it'll be a whole lot easier to reel in from 200yds.

Lovely method, caught my best ever pike on it (not the biggest).

Oh what a very argumentative retort Eric. I dont really care if your having it or not, I suggested Roach as the pike are more likely to find them than they are Herring. I have a brain a bit bigger than a pea and its what I think. If you dont agree then tuff.

Easy boys, its all gone a bit PMT on here. Anyway – i fished last week with 4 deadbaits on a large reservoir which only allows you to fish two banks. I have taken a drifter with me over the last two seasons. The wind is always in the wrong direction. All of a sudden leaves started blowing past me and within seconds i had a rod in, drifter and livebait on and out it went. Slowing the drift down i covered a lot of water in excess of 300yds. The other fisherman on the bank were gutted, as firstly nobody were prepared as the wind is always in your face. Unfortunately i did not catch, but every second i felt as though it would go. It is an extremely underused method and i have caught many low doubles on other waters. Another good way of fishing the win is with a balloon and dead bait that allows you to dump the balloon at distance leaving your dead bait at range where there is little pressure from other fisherman. With either technique i would always recommend braid as it allows total control and instant contact. Give it a try this weekend if conditions allow. It’s an exciting and stimulating way of fishing.

No PMT from me Sainty. I have also used a balloon (well condoms actually) for drifting a bait out, but like you say the wind has got to be in the right direction.

Great technique, however i cant image the abuse i would get if my wife found empty condom rappers in my tackle box.

Now don't get a cob on. Anthropomorphism leads you nowhere in piking, that's all I'm saying. A pike's not going to refuse to eat a herring just because they're no normally found in the water, like I say, they don't know what a herring is.
If it works for you then do it, but it doesn't work for me.

thanks for all the replys this information is well needed, most of my fish caught on drifter where roach just of bottom like couple of inches off touching silt weed, drifter seems for deadly than what i thought

crocadile dundee wrote:thanks for the reply, i have used it a couple of time but not had anything to shout about what would you sat was the best bait to use on this method? if you dont mind me asking

done well with small skimmer bream and very small joey macks small trout

Had my only 30 using this method on a 5 inch live trout fished down a 30ft gulley on a large mere. In pre braid days with a line greaser remember them. The only problem i found with the method (ET Drifter) was when the wind blew the vane sideways you cant see it yes you can correct it, if your attention is only on that rod as it should be to prevent deep hooking. But we all know in practice you usually have more rods so your attention is divided.
I agree with the previous point made restrict the distance fished to a managable one depending on weather i would gues about 150yrds my own 30 was taken at 200yrds and i used binoculars to watch the float i still struggled to see it because of the waves.So keep the float within easy sight.

something else for the xmas wish list.

anyone else have to google 'Anthropomorphism'?

micpiker wrote:something else for the xmas wish list.

anyone else have to google 'Anthropomorphism'?

Yes I'm about to