Systems Of Suspense Are Better Than Most Anglers Can Believe

Braided lines like Berkley FireLine float and can be very good for that reason; but fixed floats and bobber stops slip up and down on the line too much, making it difficult to maintain the precise depth where most strikes occur. A-Just-A-Bubbles work just fine with braids, but with other float systems, setting hooks and fighting fish make the float slide, something you want to avoid. It can be done, but not with the standard sleeves that come with the float. Try experimenting with various diameters and lengths of surgical tubing when using braids. Leaders, usually tied to a small swivel or tied in with back-to-back uni-knots, should be 4- to 8-pound fluorocarbon.

Systems -- Floats & Riggings

The float is chosen to present a specific chosen bait or soft plastic, and to match conditions and the depths being targeted. For most smallmouth fishing, I use the A-Just-A-Bubble. The line passes through surgical tubing, which runs end-to-end through the center. The float is secured by twisting the end cap, which twists the surgical tubing and grips the line. It should be secured tightly enough not to slip on a hook-set, yet loosely enough to slide when depth adjustment is required.

The A-Just-A-Bubble is neither an extremely sophisticated nor an extremely sensitive float. Smallmouths generally don’t require us to approach them the way a European might, with a hundred floats—one for each mph of wind speed, and one for each additional microscopic split shot. When a 2-pound smallmouth decides to eat a suspended offering, it generally attacks with enough aggression to pull down a gallon milk jug, so the A-Just-A-Bubble is about as sophisticated as needs be, even in rivers. It’s constructed with relatively dense butyrate plastic, allowing it to be tossed long distance with no additional weight, when a slow, natural fall is the right trigger. And water can be added to this hollow float by pulling the end cap out a little and submerging it, making the float cast farther and stand a little more vertically.

The A-Just-A-Bubble slides up on the mainline, then a small SPRO swivel is attached. Tie a 3- to 5-foot, 6- to 8-pound fluorocarbon leader to the swivel. A hook or jig comes next. Most of the time, a size #4 to size #2 Gamakatsu baitholder is just right, because it has a fanatically sharp point and a down eye. Baitholders are equally right for wacky-rigging plastic worms and tubes as for presenting live leeches and crawlers. For minnows, I prefer an Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp L143, in sizes #1 through 3/0.

In rivers, smallmouths rarely hold in raging flows or the kind of currents that force steelhead and salmon fishermen to present European-style river floats. But smallmouths often do hold just off the edge of faster flows, right underneath a shoot, or behind big boulders in rapids. That’s when you need a classic European stream float like the Ultra Grayling.

A synthetic-hair jig, a deer-hair jig with rubber legs, or a plain ballhead ranging from 1/16 to 3/16 ounce can be deadly under the right stream float. The pear-shaped body on a wooden stem handles jigs very well when matched correctly. Graham Maisey, owner of Belvoirdale, an outlet for European tackle in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, said Europeans have been “trotting” for ages, applying floats for a variety of species; so I asked which would be most like smallmouths.