It's tough to beat an early morning bream fishing trip during the heat of July. My buddy Brooke Knotts and I did just that yesterday morning, and had no trouble getting a cooler full of bluegills by 11 a.m. We used nightcrawlers for bait and fished them under slip bobbers.
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| Brooke shows off a slip-bobbered bluegill. |
Slip bobber fishng is an underutilized technique, I guess because it takes slightly longer to get a rod properly set up with a slip bobber. And when I say slightly longer, I'm talking about mere minutes. It's not a big deal at all, but it's not quite as simple as pinching a fixed bobber onto your line. Once it's set up though, you'll have much better casting accuracy, it will be more enjoyable, and you'll catch more fish.
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| It looks like Brooke is only fishing 6-inches deep, but that's because the bobber slides freely up and down the line, stopping at the desired depth once in the water. |
Most bream anglers are familiar with the standard red and white bobber that pinches onto your line at the desired depth. When you want to change depths, you simply pinch the ends of the bobber and slide it along the line until it's where you want it. This is a tried-and-true method, but it has at least one major drawback. If you want your bait to be 4 feet deep, you've got to set that bobber 4 feet above your hook. Not a big deal, right? Well it is a big deal when you're trying to cast near structure and you're flinging out all that line. You'll either get tangled in the structure, or you won't get your cast in the prime fishing hole. That's where slip bobbers come into play.
With a slip bobber, you tie a knot with a small piece of thread onto your fishing line. These threads usually come in a package with the slip bobbers. Once that thread is in place, you run your line through a small bead, then the slip bobber, then tie on your hook. Slide the knotted thread to your desired fishing depth. This allows you to reel your line in almost all the way to the hook, which will make casting much easier and far more accurate. Once your hook and bobber hit the water, your bobber stays on the surface while your hook sinks until the knot stops your cork from sliding any further. If your bobber doesn't slide all they way to your knot, simply add a split shot of weight just above your hook.
As with all fishing tackle, there are cheap slip bobbers and there are high quality ones that cost a little more. You'll save money and frustration by opting for a high quality bobber like Rod-n-Bobb's (
www.rod-n-bobbs.com), Wing It (
www.wingitfishing.com), or Everlasting Slip Bobbers, a/k/a ESBs(
www.hloutdoors.com). The ESBs have an added feature in that the bead is built in, taking out a step that remains necessary with all other brands.
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| Brooke shows off a frying-sized bream that, well, has been fried by now! |
The first time I ever fished with Brooke, she told me to be prepared for her wild casting. But she didn't know we'd be using slip bobbers. Now all she does is cast right into the fishing holes and pull in bream!
