Quick and easy floats for carp

Float fishing is a very effective technique for catching carp. There are a large variety of floats used made mostly in Europe and Asia. Most tend to be elongated. They are usually not available in your average multi species tackle shop. So I made a couple up from some very common materials. They are simple and easy to make. You will need to find some of these reeds.
You pretty much see them everywhere.



Cut a straight section out of the reed. You can see the joints just like bamboo. You will also need some heavy thread, nail polish both clear and coloured, some bamboo skewers , some soft wire , some glue either epoxy or hot glue will do. You will also need something to drill out the reed at the joint so the bamboo will fit inside the reed. Even a small nail will do.



If you want to give float fishing for carp a try and these type of floats are not readily available you can make these up in one evening. There is no sanding or finishing involved except a good coating of nail polish..

thats pretty cool hammer, im gonna try this I've got those reed things right outside my house

yep, make them all the time, those stems off of goose feathers work great too, great for fish that bite light, not just carp.

oops.

hammercarp said:

Float fishing is a very effective technique for catching carp. There are a large variety of floats used made mostly in Europe and Asia. Most tend to be elongated. They are usually not available in your average multi species tackle shop. So I made a couple up from some very common materials. They are simple and easy to make. You will need to find some of these reeds.
You pretty much see them everywhere.

798px-Phragmites_snow_ehm (798x599).jpg

Cut a straight section out of the reed. You can see the joints just like bamboo. You will also need some heavy thread, nail polish both clear and coloured, some bamboo skewers , some soft wire , some glue either epoxy or hot glue will do. You will also need something to drill out the reed at the joint so the bamboo will fit inside the reed. Even a small nail will do.

HPIM1822 (800x601).jpg

If you want to give float fishing for carp a try and these type of floats are not readily available you can make these up in one evening. There is no sanding or finishing involved except a good coating of nail polish..

Click to expand...

Why do you need the elongated floats? I have never caught carp before and dont know a thing about em except that they are kinda gross

carp bite lightly a lot of the time, a larger float will experience more water resistance when a fish is pulling it down, slim floats will "shoot" down into the water even with a light bite.

Ditto what Christopher said. Carp take the bait differently than most of the fish we catch here. You set up your float rig so that the bait is laying on the bottom. The carp suck up the bait . They can do this vigorously or very gently. and they generally pause swimming when they do this. So your first indication will be the float moving down or sometimes up only an inch or so.. The float will move up when the carp draws the bait into their mouth and lifts your weight off the bottom . This is called a lift bite.
Also because you are using bait that does not move around like a minnow would you can fish a very sensitive float and not get a lot of false indications . A float like those shown would make you crazy with a minnow on as bait.
Long floats are also less subject to bobbing up and down with wave action.
The ideal set up with floats like these would be with your rod tip actually in the water. This will sink your line and make the line less susceptible to the wind and surface currents caused by a light wind. This will help again with eliminating the line pulling on the float and giving false indications..

I actually fish carp in the spring quite a but and the 20+ pounders all come on bottom with a big sinker and a few hooks, with no float, dough, worms, corn, even minnows and lures work for the big guys in the spring when they're spawning. Little ones from 2-10 pounds come mostly on a float for me, i use any float and it works but the waters i fish hold quite a bit of these guys like a few close ponds and the holland river. I like the longer ones more and yes generally they do bite upwards and usually your float just lays flat then moves off to the side and thats when you know to set the hook, bigger goldfish also bite like this.

i would actually like to try and target carp, i have got them on accidental catches, but never actually went and targeted them. needle floats can also be useful with river fishing as well

yep used them for river fishing as well, work great if you're going light like using a fly or a very light set up!

Never float fished for carp always just cast out sinker and bait and watch my line..
it works none the less but im starting to enjoy float fishing more and would like to attempt this

this is interesting for me thanks for posting