# Float n' Finally



## deltaoscar (Apr 4, 2009)

One of the silly, on going fishing goals I have is to try and catch some;or at least one, smallmouth in every month of the year. I've managed every month except of course January and February.

To help change that earlier this fall I decided to dive into a new (to me) cold water technique that I watched a lot of videos on over the past several years. The float n' fly. I started out messing around with it by using a 7.5' fiberglass rod I already had, but after several attempts at that I broke down and bought the ridiculously long 9.5' BPS float and fly rod. I re-purposed an out of favor reel that was lying around, by spooling it up with 8lb. Nanofil. I added a three way swivel, a much too expensive bobber and bought a spool of 8lb fluorocarbon for leader material.

I also tied up a bunch of these things.










So for the past month and a half I been sheepishly taking along this ginormous rod with me when I have been going out. I have been hitting spots that I'm pretty sure are wintering holes either through past experience or research.










Now mind you none of the videos I watched were of guys fishing in a river off the bank or wading. They were all in boats fishing in lakes further south than Ohio. Long story short, I caught squadoosh on the float n' fly.

On Wednesday I saw the weather report for the next several days and decided today may be my last good chance to grab this years December smallmouth. I told my boss that my gout had flared up and I needed to go home and get off my feet. He agreed stating, "Absolutlety young man, you are much too important to this company to be out for an extended peri...blah, blah, blah." Well, maybe that's not exactly what happened, but close enough.

When I got to the river I figured I had about an hour and a half of light left. The water was fairly clear to about three feet and a brisk 35 degrees. I waded out about five feet from the bank into thigh deep water so I could cast to the area I wanted to reach. This spot is an outside bend in the river, I'm facing upstream standing about where the bend ends. The goal is to get my "fly" to "float" under a low hanging tree. I'm no co-angler, SMBHooker or OSG so I won't confuse you by trying to explain it, I will illustrate it instead.










There you go, like they say a picture is worth a thousand dollars. Pay up, suckers.

Well, anyway after about a half an hour of nothing I decided to lengthen my leader to six feet. I continued casting and finally got to where I got my bobber floating under the tree. I'm now an hour in and my bobber is floating under the tree and then it stops floating towards me. That's odd. I jiggle the rod and the bobber bobs slightly but doesn't move otherwise. I thought I actually seen it move very slowly about six inches, against the current, but chalked it up to the slow onset of hypothermia in my lower extremities. Then the bobber went under water, but only about two inches. I could still see it just sitting there two inches under water. What I have learned is that when your lure gets hung up the bobber will do that too, but at an angle. This time it went straight down. "Oh what the hell, let's set the hook." I did, as best you can with a 9.5' rod, standing thigh deep in moving water.

Right away I could tell there was something on my line, but at this point I thought it may just be big stick. Between the way cold bass fight and the fact that I had never had a fish on this rig it took about 10-15 seconds before I was sure I had a fish on. As it swam past me I was sure, and it began to fight as best as it could, which wasn't much. But I seen it and it was a decent fish and I got nervous. I got the fish to the bank as quick as I could and you'd have thought I'd never caught a smallmouth before if you'd have been watching. I was downright giddy to have finally got a nice (or any) fish on the float n' fly.

I held it up and thought, "Wow, that might be a 16"er. I better measure." I was a bit surprised to find out it just reached past the 17" mark to 17 1/4". Happy, Happy, Happy.



















I continued fishing for about a half an hour and think I had another good fish on briefly, but like I said with this rig it can be hard to tell, at least for me at this point.

Oh yeah, one other thing I did to help me with my winter fishing was I downloaded this fishing app. It has this animated character that you can ask fishing questions and it will give you advice and suggestions, or sometimes it just cracks wise, causing problems with the other Apps. Some of the permissions are a little suspect too.


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## GarrettMyers (May 16, 2011)

DO! I love it! Great job buddy.


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

At work I sometimes get to work by myself. I'll put on Pandora. It's just about the only place in the world you can listen to real southern rock and country anymore. Stuff like Chris Knight, Lucero, and the Drive by Truckers. Since it must be against the law to play stuff like that on the radio anymore. The Drive by Truckers are as good as any southern rock band gets, just listen to Where the Devil Won't Stay or GD Lonely Love on youtube sometime. It's raw, real, and sometimes a bit weird or creepy, but always great, bordering on genius. Exactly like Deltaoscar's posts.
I think this one may be my favorite post since House and Bassaddict's Dr Seus post last year.


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## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

Holy Cow Delta!! Thats a nice Smallie especially for December. 
Awesome illustrations


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Congrats delta. That's a great smallie. I keep telling myself that I'm going to winter smallie fishing but I always decide to go crappie fishing instead. Guess I'm too afraid of the ensuing failure. Again, we'll done.

The osg animation is classic btw.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


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## Intimidator (Nov 25, 2008)

I think you should illustrate ALL the River techniques for us! That way all of us "Lakers" can understand what you're talking about! 

Beautiful Fish...Congrats!


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## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

Ya know what's really hilarious??....... That app on yer phone looks just like CO angler!! ....I didn't know he was moonlighting on the side with phone apps. :-D


....helluva fish too buddy! Nice work and technique!


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## SMBHooker (Jan 3, 2008)

Best post of the year!!!!


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## Crawdude (Feb 6, 2013)

SMBHooker said:


> Best post of the year!!!!


I agree, informative and entertaining!


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Great post! I may just have to slap a spinning reel on a fly rod and try this float'n'fly thing! (don't tell any of the guys on the fly forum)


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## Crawdude (Feb 6, 2013)

kingofamberley said:


> Great post! I may just have to slap a spinning reel on a fly rod and try this float'n'fly thing! (don't tell any of the guys on the fly forum)


king, it's funny you say that. I keep thinking about trying this out with a fly rod using a large strike indicator and a weighted fly!


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Tackle-addict said:


> king, it's funny you say that. I keep thinking about trying this out with a fly rod using a large strike indicator and a weighted fly!
> 
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


Nymphing for bass!


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## gibson330usa (May 15, 2012)

Nice try Delta, I saw that artwork in the Louvre last time I was in Paris. Nice story though.


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## co-angler (Jan 3, 2010)

Outstanding report DeltaO!
I've been threatening to attempt this presentation for the past few years but never employed it.
Ever consider doing it from a canoe or yak? I've always thought that Campbell Lakes Preserve would be an awesome spot to try it out.
Again, well done and congrats!


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## Crawdude (Feb 6, 2013)

kingofamberley said:


> Nymphing for bass!


Haha! Yes!


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## trailbreaker (Oct 11, 2008)

awesome delta plus you have OSG on your phone


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## deltaoscar (Apr 4, 2009)

co-angler said:


> Ever consider doing it from a canoe or yak? I've always thought that Campbell Lakes Preserve would be an awesome spot to try it out.


Yes, I did try it a couple times from the yak. It's actually easier to cast if from a boat. You are absolutely correct about CLP. I can't believe I hadn't thought of trying there. Cold, clear water. I think a fish finder would be needed to find em. Great idea, let's do it.



SMBHooker said:


> Best post of the year!!!!


Thanks, but I disagree.


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

deltaoscar said:


> Yes, I did try it a couple times from the yak. It's actually easier to cast if from a boat. You are absolutely correct about CLP. I can't believe I hadn't thought of trying there. Cold, clear water. I think a fish finder would be needed to find em. Great idea, let's do it.


Sounds like the makings of the first annual January Imalt Memorial Fishing Tournament. (JIMFT?? Gotta work on that name...)

I'm in. I think I can catch a bass at CLP from the bank, that and I don't wanna die. So we combine JIMFT with Stamedes get together??? A couple three hours frigid fishing and then a nearby bar?


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## co-angler (Jan 3, 2010)

There's a great VFW hall on Lawrenceburg Rd. That would be a great get together bar.


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## Crawdude (Feb 6, 2013)

I can offer an open seat on my canoe for the cause. I've been wanting to try drop shotting at CLP.


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## SMBHooker (Jan 3, 2008)

OSG, your new Avatar looks familiar but I just can't place it, hmmmm. 

lol. Love it!


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## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

oldstinkyguy said:


> Sounds like the makings of the first annual January Imalt Memorial Fishing Tournament. (JIMFT?? Gotta work on that name...)
> 
> I'm in. I think I can catch a bass at CLP from the bank, that and I don't wanna die. So we combine JIMFT with Stamedes get together??? A couple three hours frigid fishing and then a nearby bar?





co-angler said:


> There's a great VFW hall on Lawrenceburg Rd. That would be a great get together bar.


Theres a Buffalo Wild Wings in Harrison, therere other places in Harrison too but I dont know which ones are still open.


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## co-angler (Jan 3, 2010)

deltaoscar said:


> Yes, I did try it a couple times from the yak. It's actually easier to cast if from a boat. You are absolutely correct about CLP. I can't believe I hadn't thought of trying there. Cold, clear water. I think a fish finder would be needed to find em. Great idea, let's do it.


I have a fish finder for my canoe.....
What I do not have is a 9 ft pole......hmmm.
My research has shown the big bass near steep ledges and structure but this was for spotted bass in Georgia.


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## deltaoscar (Apr 4, 2009)

co-angler said:


> What I do not have is a 9 ft pole......hmmm.


Maybe you'll get one for Christmas. If not we'll figure something out.




montagc said:


> I've got a couple 12 foot pinnacle limits medium action I bought for crappie fishing. I think they'd be great for this.


That's what I read a lot of when researching this. Crappie rods work for FnF, and FnF rods work well for crappie.


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## IGbullshark (Aug 10, 2012)

Epic post revival!


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

deltaoscar said:


> That's what I read a lot of when researching this. Crappie rods work for FnF, and FnF rods work well for crappie.





montagc said:


> I've got a couple 12 foot pinnacle limits medium action I bought for crappie fishing. I think they'd be great for this.


So it's been a year, did you guys use our crappie rods to float n fly or your float n fly to crappie fish?


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