) then perhaps people don’t understand how water works

Now, we all stretch the truth a little at times, but this got me thinking, that if such a well recognised company could come out with a statement like that (and a magazine publish it!) then perhaps people don’t understand how water works. Anyway, it put the idea in my head, so I thought I would share it with you… The problem that anglers have is that our view of lakes and rivers tends to be two-dimensional. We can only see what is going on at the surface. Like anything that moves, water is affected by friction. Friction works between water molecules, and also when the water comes up against something hard, like the river or lake bed. The molecules will bounce around colliding with each other exchanging energy. When water collides with the river bed the energy is effectively soaked up. What all this physics basically means is that if you take a vertical section through a river the water will be moving much more slowly close to the river bed than it is near the surface. In fact, when you get within a inch or so of the river bed the water is effectively not moving at all. The current speed rapidly accelerates as you move a few more inches above the river bed and keeps increasing until you get close to the surface. Now, the surface can cause all sorts of problems, because it is in turn affected by the wind. A good strong downstream wind will mean that the current suddenly accelerates again. An upstream wind can mean that the surface is moving more slowly than the water below. Fish ain’t stupid, give them a choice and they will sit in the relatively slow water close to the river bed. If more food is passing above them they will move up in the water to intercept the food, but they will then return to the bottom. Sitting near the river bed means they need to use less energy to maintain position, which can only be a good thing. If you want to trot a float down a river at what speed should it be moving? Considering that most of the fish are close to the bottom it is probably a good idea to fish at full depth. If we now trot the float through at the speed that the surface is moving then the chances are that the bait will be being dragged through the swim unnaturally by the float. Instead, it is probably a good idea to slow the float to about half the surface speed, and then experiment by slowing the float down even further! Fishing in this manner rules out the standard shirt-button shotting patterns in all but the most gentle currents. When the surface current gets hold of this lightly shotted set-up the line will rise in the water unnaturally. In fact, one of the best ways of presenting the bait as naturally as possible is to bunch the shot about eighteen inches above the hook. Now the bait will be kept close to the bottom and the amount of drag on the line will be minimised. It might look ugly, but just try it against the favoured shirt-button method and I bet you catch more and bigger fish. How you slow the float down can be difficult. I prefer the slight drag created by line peeling from a close face reel, but if you are fishing at short range then a centrepin can be useful. Alternatively, you can literally wind the float down a swim by backwinding. All of these methods need practice, but are well worth the effort.

You could write a book about float fishing in rivers (and some have) but most of it comes down to trying to present a bait in the most natural manner possible. How you do this will depend as much on your preferred style of fishing as on the fish, so the best advice I can give is to get out on a clear river, then watch the behaviour of your tackle and learn how to get the best from it.