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I have never used a cork on my leader, is it very important? #11393813 02/05/16 03:15 PM
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Mark's Fence Repair Offline OP
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Hi I keep seeing people using floats and corks on there leader, is this necessary? What if I use clip on bobbers?

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Re: I have never used a cork on my leader, is it very important? [Re: Mark's Fence Repair] #11393957 02/05/16 03:57 PM
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Mark's Fence Repair Offline OP
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I use the weight at the bottom theory. Just my preference but cork float seems a little too much to me. Here is my rig I made just now with glow beads

Re: I have never used a cork on my leader, is it very important? [Re: Mark's Fence Repair] #11394017 02/05/16 04:11 PM
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Andrew Taylor Offline
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I use a cork no matter what lol. Santee Cooper rig or Carolina rig i'm still floating my bait off bottom.

Re: I have never used a cork on my leader, is it very important? [Re: Mark's Fence Repair] #11394041 02/05/16 04:17 PM
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mjmetro0719 Offline
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I prefer the cork mainly because the lake I fish has a lot of silt and soft mud, I like to bring the bait up off of that about a foot or two on A santee setup and the three way set up, especially if I see fish moving around feeding,I've had success with it so I just stay with it, if I was in an area that had current then it wouldn't be as necessary but the lake I fish has little to no current most of the time, try a couple of rods with and a couple of rods without and see if one is producing more than the other on that particular day, tight lines to you!


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Re: I have never used a cork on my leader, is it very important? [Re: Mark's Fence Repair] #11394764 02/05/16 08:29 PM
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spazm09 Offline
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Here's my opinion. The importance of the float is dependent on a few things.

First, fishing approach (drifting, tight lining from the bank, etc...). I don't have a lot of experience drifting since I mostly fish the bank and from a yak. I'll go out on a limb and assume that suspended drift fishing doesn't really require a float since your bait is already suspended. (others can correct me if I'm wrong about that). But if you're dragging your rig along the bottom while drifting or tight lining with your rig on the bottom, then a float is a must. Keep reading to find out why.

Second, species of catfish you're targeting. This is important because channel cats tend to do quite a bit more scavenging on the bottom than blues. A blue might easily pass right over your bait if its on the bottom (unless its absolutely the only thing to eat in the area). Blues are predators so they are looking for live fish to eat which typically wont be all the way on the bottom.

Third, water depth. If its the middle of June and all the cats are getting busy in 18" of water, I think its fairly obvious why a float isn't AS important in this situation. Now if its March and the cats are in pre-spawn mode, hanging outside the spawning grounds in 5-10 fow... the cats will most likely be suspended somewhere in the middle; therefore, you want your bait up off the bottom.

Lastly, composition of the lake bottom. Have you ever waded into some water and sunk into the mud down to your knees? Well I have. Some lake bottoms are very very soft. In that type of situations, it is very easy for your entire piece of bait to get buried in the mud. Another scenario is you could be fishing in some flooded grass. The bottom 2' of water might be thick thick vegetation with 6' of open water above it. You want your bait above that grass so its easily accessible to the fish. It also keeps your hook and bait from getting caught in the grass.

If I sat here long enough thinking of situations where having a float on your leader is advantageous, this post would end up being very long.


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Re: I have never used a cork on my leader, is it very important? [Re: Mark's Fence Repair] #11394955 02/05/16 09:44 PM
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I also wonder if you can just use a clip on bobber?


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Re: I have never used a cork on my leader, is it very important? [Re: Mark's Fence Repair] #11395860 02/06/16 06:21 AM
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tiny Offline
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getting your bait off bottom is very important ... most catfishermen never took into account what the bottom is like whether it's soft silt mud,, weeds ,, rocky or whatever ... all those can prevent fish from getting to your bait. using a float eliminates that problem and it doesn't matter what kind of float you use just as long as it gets your bait off bottom. a for instance, a dude was out on a mud flat fishing all day and caught only 3 small fish ... I pull up out there and there was fish everywhere ... I boated 10 fish in 45 minutes and the only thing I waS doing different waS using floats on my rigs

Re: I have never used a cork on my leader, is it very important? [Re: tiny] #11397089 02/07/16 02:03 AM
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Sumfish Offline
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Originally Posted By: tiny
getting your bait off bottom is very important ... most catfishermen never took into account what the bottom is like whether it's soft silt mud,, weeds ,, rocky or whatever ... all those can prevent fish from getting to your bait. using a float eliminates that problem and it doesn't matter what kind of float you use just as long as it gets your bait off bottom. a for instance, a dude was out on a mud flat fishing all day and caught only 3 small fish ... I pull up out there and there was fish everywhere ... I boated 10 fish in 45 minutes and the only thing I waS doing different waS using floats on my rigs

Blues? Yellows? During the summer I like to get bait off the bottom after realizing bluegills were starved for oxygen down there. So, Tiny how do you find the right zone (thermocline) to put the bait in? Do you make your weight line longer or your leader to hook longer on a three-wqy rig?


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Re: I have never used a cork on my leader, is it very important? [Re: Mark's Fence Repair] #11397867 02/07/16 03:43 PM
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I use Team catfish sinker slide & bumper on my main line then tie it to my leader.....the advantage of my rig is I can bottom fish..or change my sinker to a slinky weight and drift in about 30 seconds.....no re-tying....I believe drifting sometimes the bright color may catch their eye and chase it down

Last edited by Big Sam; 02/07/16 03:46 PM.

If it ain't broke don't fix it...but go ahead and work on it anyway.....
Re: I have never used a cork on my leader, is it very important? [Re: Mark's Fence Repair] #11398087 02/07/16 05:48 PM
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I catfish alot in creeks and mostly from the bank. I've tried using a bobber and didnt notice it making much difference of course the areas I normally fish have decent current or a sandy bottom so it doesnt affect my fishing as much. You can tell if your on a silty bottom if you rig a 3-4oz storm or pyramid sinker on the bottom and cast it out wait a minute or two and try to pull it back, you can feel your weight pulling out of thick mud/silt. The times I've ran across this I've used a bobber but I couldnt say if it made a difference or not, havent fish that spot much to really tell much.

Seems like the best ones to use are the cheap foam slip floats from academy. I would slid a barrel crimp up above my hook 2 or 3 inches and attach the crimp on my leader to keep the bobber from crowding up on my bait. Seems like that would be better imo.

Last edited by samcaw22; 02/07/16 05:50 PM.
Re: I have never used a cork on my leader, is it very important? [Re: Mark's Fence Repair] #11400042 02/08/16 03:14 PM
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Mark's Fence Repair Offline OP
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I'm going to do a comparison test but I don't know I catch a lot of fish with that rig I posted a pic of and thy usually take the bottom hook only when it is on the bottom. Here's what I got saturday:


Re: I have never used a cork on my leader, is it very important? [Re: Mark's Fence Repair] #11401192 02/08/16 10:13 PM
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Rockdodger00 Offline
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Good pics, nice catch.

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