A bobber by any other name...

[CrappieJohn]

For years we watched the fishing industry fall in line with the likes of the over-the-counter pain remedies and cosmetics by boasting "new and improved" products. Most of the time it amounted to new packaging improved selling logos. Today, however, we are seeing the products being improved upon in such grand a fashion that it has become hard to keep up with the advancements. We have to study up on lines now to know which one is adaptable to this senario and which one is far superior when fishing in this way. It gets mind boggling at times. One of the simplest tools we use while pursuing our pannies and crappies has fallen into the stew, but the result has made it easier to determine just what is right for a given condition.
Mick Thill, started this upward trend several years ago with the introduction of the European "Class" type float. It had many different designs and was , in its own right, a complex issue to deal with. Some were intended to resist wind, others current.Some made casting a nightmare and others could hardly be seen without the use of optics when they rode in the water. They had to be weighted in specific fashions in order to do what they were meant to do. And if you could figure out what you needed for which specific condition, they worked wonderfully. What they did best was to spur a bit of American ingenuity.
My favorite of all the Thill products is, and will always be, the mini-stealth. It is conmpact, light on the line and sensitive as all get out....as long as the air temp is warm enough to keep the guides on the rod from icing. When that begins to occur, I did out the ice fishing equipment and relent to the impending doom of open water fishing for the year. And this is where the real meat and potatos of the float industry comes into play.
In shopping for ice equipment we see tons of floats available, many to lure the unwary shopper.The only feasible type of float to put on the line is one which will keep the line slot or hole well below the frostline so to speak. Even in a house, ice will form in the holes on extremely cold days and cam wreak havok with float efficiency. There are only two floats that I can think of that will serve the fisherman well, and one of those is sold here on this site by the name of IceBuster and the other is my pet. When the weather is cold, the Ice Buster will do the best job...and for several reasons. It will not freeze "into" an ice cap. It has the below surface feature which allows for free line movement at all times and it can be adjusted by cutting down the excess float material. One may wonder what is so critical about the extra floation and it applies to the upward hitting nature of crappies that we are seeing dicussed. If you cannot see that upward hit, you are going to miss a lot of fish. When these floats are tailored to a specific lure, you become truely in tune with the fish and your capabilities. Granted, it will take several bobbers to achieve this critical balance, but the investment is one of the cheapest to make and really, how often do you lose something who's very nature is to come back to the surface.
The secondary intiontion of the float is to return the bait/lure to the depth at which you are hoping to catch fish. With the use of the electronics we have today, you can see where the fish are, adjust the float a foot higher and watch them come to your lure. Nothing is more frustrating than to have to hang that heavy weight on your line to re-adjust your depth os putz with the line using the electronics only because the hole in the float froze up and you succeeded in moving the stop up the line 8 feet while reeling in a fish. Both of the floats mentioned will serve that purpose well, but be advised that the Thill product has a very small hole and getting your line back down while using these ultra, ultra, light jigs can be a burden on your time. The Ice Buster is quick. The need for consistancy is even more pronounced when fishing through the ice and the Busters provide that.
There are other products which have sub-surface stems and will work for you while ice fishing. In my opinion though, there is only one that will give you every option available without have to run to the bait shop again. Thill products and Gapen products are very good tools to have around when fishing if the weater is warm enough to find open water. They can be used for ice fishing, but what you see is what you get....there is no such thing as adjustablility with these other floats unless you are adding weight. You cannot make them lighter. That often times becomes a key element in whether you are to see success or not. This is especially true of upward hitting fish.
And of course there is the issue of drag...the risistance that fish feel while pulling a float down at the hit. Busters are cyclindrical and will sail through the water with little pull put to them. And the fact that they are "tuned" to a specific application makes them even less resistant to the water's drag.
Few things boasting new and improved really are that. Busters are as close to new and improved as you can get. You can up your fish catching score and create totally balanced tackle using these floats. By doing so you will have the ball in your court. And so the readers here will not get the impression that I am making a sales pitch with this post: I do not know the owner of this company. I don't even know what he looks like. The only pitch I am making is that there are many products out there that will act as a bobber, but a bobber by any other name, as they pertain to ice fishing, is called an Ice Buster.

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Sure life happens- why wait....The Crapster....good fishing guys!
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[Guest]

Awesome post Tom!

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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