Australian Coarse Fishing - Float Fishing: Finding The Depth

If I had to choose a favourite type of fishing it would have to be fishing with floats. Watching the top of the float disappear beneath the surface of the water when a fish takes the bait is a sight I’ll never tire of and gives me a buzz which is hard to explain. It means I have got everything right. Correct bait, right depth and bait presentation good enough to fool the fish.

With me, float fishing is not a case of arriving at a body of water and blindly casting out a float in the hope that a fish will swim up to and take my bait. Before I start fishing I want to have a mental picture of what the bottom of the river or lake bed looks like. Sounds pretty far fetched? It’s really not that difficult and no, I don’t have to put on a diving suit and go look for myself.

When fishing a river, many features are obviously visible. Things like shallow runs, undercut banks, overhanging trees, large rocks, etc. are all clues as to the whereabouts of fish; you will rarely find them in the fastest water for they have to expend too much energy to stay there. They can be found hiding behind features like rocks, submerged trees, etc. saving their energy until the water brings food to them.

Lakes, however, are a totally different proposition altogether. When fishing a lake it’s not easy to see the underwater features from the bank but they are just as important to the fish as the features in rivers. Fish in lakes spend most of their feeding hours on the move looking for food and there are places on the lake bottom that are natural holding places for food that not only live in lakes, etc. ie: smaller fish, insects and larvae, crustaceans and the like but also food that ends up on the lake surface such as spent insects, waterlogged insects, etc, all which end up somewhere!

There is no such thing as completely still water. Whether it is wind and wave action on the surface or merely changes in water temperature, there are subtle currents under the surface which should be taken into consideration. For example, we have all seen the action of the wind over water which sends waves onto the shore. Well clearly when the wind is blowing the surface of the water in one direction, it is reasonable to expect that there will be a current on the bottom going the opposite way.

Okay, so how do we find these places under the surface if we cannot see them? The answer is by doing what we call “plumbing the depth”. The first thing to do is to attach a float to the line and tie on a hook. Next, take a rough guess at the depth of the water in front of you and secure the float with split shot at the same distance from the hook that you estimate the depth of water.

Next, attach the plummet to the hook. What’s a plummet? Well, there are two types available. The first is a piece of lead with a small ring at the top and a piece of cork glued into the bottom (see diagram). The hook is passed through the ring at the top and then pushed into the cork at the bottom. The second type is a clip-on version which can be clipped to the hook or clipped on to a piece of split shot near the hook.

The idea is that the plummet is too heavy for the float and therefore, if the distance between the float and the plummet is less than the depth of water it’s cast into, the weight of the plummet will pull the float under the surface.

If the float sinks, simply wind the rig in, slide the float up the line and cast back into the same spot. Do this a couple of times, adjusting the position of the float each time and when the tip of the float is visible on the surface you’ll know exactly the depth of water in front of you.

By continually casting out at various angles and distances from your position on the bank and by adjusting the float as you go, it won’t take long to build up an accurate picture of the landscape of the lake bed. By finding out where the ledges, mounds and holes are, all of which provide both shelter and food for fish, it will give you a chance to determine not only where to fish but also give an indication of where to place groundbait or berley.

Remember that fish in lakes are continually on the move and will visit natural holding places for food on a regular basis, so it makes sense to have something there, i.e., groundbait on the bottom, to both stop them when they do arrive and to hold them there long enough to give them a chance to find your bait, which, naturally is in the same area.

Plumming the depth for 10 minutes or so before you start fishing requires some effort and patience and for many people is probably all in the “too hard basket”. However, if you are prepared to put the effort in, the rewards when you start fishing will be evident very soon, because by building a mental picture of the bottom of the water you are fishing and then deciding exactly where to start putting in the groundbait and at what depth to suspend a bait, it increases your chances of catching fish many times over. Work at it, perfect it, and you will see the results.

If you can’t find commercially available Plummets, then a couple of heavy split shot on the line next to your hook will do the same job.