ADTV Match Masterclass - Flat Float

Starting the session, the most important part for success with a flat float is your feeding. As I am targeting skimmers and roach, I have decided to use groundbait using a mix of my three favourite groundbaits, to give me a sticky and heavy mix that I can pack my initial 3 balls of groundbait full of particles and be sure that it will get the bait to to the bottom so I can keep the fish feeding over a small area. 

The key is where I feed, as I like to feed slightly downstream so I can easily present my bait over the baited area, because if I fed upstream, I would be unable to do this. Not only that, if the fish are sitting off the bait, I can easily fish my rig further downstream. As the river is moving from right to lef and not currently flowing too much, I have fed my 3 balls of groundbait 2ft to my left. 

So why a flat float over a round bodied pole float? These flat floats are incredibly streamline and when sat in the flow will create much less resistance then a normal pole float, allowing you to easily slow the rig down or hold it still with much less weight on the rig, then if you tried to do the same with a bodied pole float. 

As I am fishing for skimmers and roach, my rig uses a no.5 pole elastic, to a mainline of 0.14mm. The float is a 3g Dave Harrell no.1 Flatty Float, as this size is perfect for the flow of this river, but in a match scenario as the river is tidal, I would probably also set up a 2g and 4g, to cover my options. The shotting is a bulk consisting of a 2g olivette and a series of no.8s below the olivette which creates a boom to stop the rig tangling, and two pairs of no.8s down the line. As I am fishing overdepth, I am using an 8 inch hooklength of 0.12mm to a size 16 Matrix MXB-2. 

Finding where the fish have settled over your groundbait is essential for getting the most out of a flat float, especially when you want to hold the rig still in the flow. Therefore, at the start of the session, I will lower the rig at the top of my swim, and by keeping my pole tip level with the water, inch the float through the peg extremely slowly. 

By doing this, I can search my swim and once I start getting a few bites, a pattern will start to emerge. At this point, I can start lowering my rig on this spot and present the bait static right over the hot spot, to speed up the bite time and catch more efficiently. If bites dry up, I can then search the peg again and find if the fish have dropped further downstream. 

After a couple of skimmers early in the session, I am now into a flurry of small roach that are sat right over my baited area. I have quickly tried running my rig downstream of the hotspot to see if any skimmers are sat off the bait to no avail. Therefore, I need to do something to make a difference and as it is most likely that most of the particles I have fed at the start have been eaten or washed away in the flow, topping up with another ball of groundbait is the best way to go.

This top up is exactly the same mix as before and is packed full of chopped worms and casters to draw and hold any skimmers in the peg. To show how quickly topping up can work, on my second chuck after feeding, with my favourite hookbait of three fluoro maggots, the float has slipped away and a firm strike leads to the characteristic nodding of another chunky Norfolk Broads skimmer. 

This river I am fishing today is tidal, so not only does the river flow both ways depending on the time of day, but the depth of the river will change also. Therefore, when fishing rivers like this and to ensure I am presenting my bait exactly how I would like, I will re-plumb the swim every 20-30 minutes, just to check that the depth has not changed and I am not wasting precious time with a bait presented either off bottom or too far overdepth. 

Today, it is an ebb tide, so the river is flowing out to the sea and the river is getting shallower. As I want to present a bait either static or slowly moving across the bottom, I am fishing my full hooklength over depth with the bottom pair of no.8s just off the bottom to magnify the bites. If this changes, my rig will not be working perfectly, and checking the depth on my rig using a plummet only 30 minutes into the session shows that the depth has already dropped 2 inches. Showing how important it is to keep in touch with the depth. 

So how do you choose the right size float? It can be a case of trial and error, but you want to make sure that the bristle of your float when the rig is in position is sitting straight upright. If the flat float is too light for the flow, it will ride out of the water, lifting the olivette, with the bristle pointing towards the pole. If the flat float is too heavy, the weight of the olivette will drag causing the float to fall over, pointing away from the pole. 

As the session wears on, the flow has picked up and tip of my float is starting to point towards the pole, but there is a quick way to resolve this and it involves overshotting the float. By adding a couple of no.8s, it is enough additional weight on the rig for the float to sit back up correct and ensure my bait is perfectly presented. 

Todays session has been a perfect way to illustrate the effectivness of flat floats, as despite the river running clear with not the most ideal conditions for skimmers, I have managed to keep a steady run of skimmers coming to the net through the day by either holding the rig still or slowly inching it through the swim, culminating in a late run of 7 skimmers in my last 7 puts which I am confident would not have been the case if I had fished either a feeder or standard pole float. 

Hopefully, I have shown you that these floats are not one to be ignored when fishing rivers, and can be used on a variety of rivers for several species such as perch, eels and barbel, not just skimmers and roach like I have been targeting today. So, give it a go on your local river and see how devastating a method it can be for yourself!