Float fishing with jigs and soft plastics

[SenkoSam]

A few years ago I experimented with a foam float, jig and soft plastic lure. Having caught nice panfish I improved the set up to make it easier to use and more efficient lure use.


Why foam floats? The float has neutral buoyancy because of the lead band at the bottom. Even small fish can pull the float down and feel little resistance as it charges toward bottom. Hair jigs also do well:


But my preference are straight tail grubs:


...and no tail grubs and finesse worms:


What I've found is that a light chop on the surface bobs the float up and down as well as the lure beneath it giving it a subtle action that provokes strikes. I don't do well with float/lures when there is no wind (live bait a different story). If an area I get no action, I retrieve the float 5' let sit for 5 minutes while I casting other lures and then repeat.

light chop 


The problem I solved of line tangling at top of the float when cast is to attach a fluorocarbon leader (4#test) to the bottom of the float and braid main line to the top. The fc line also allows the lure better action and it has less line bow when the lure is moved, which at times gets strikes. Knowing what length leader to use is dependent on the depth fished, i.e. 6' depth / 3' leader.

[wiperhunter2]

Not sure if it applies to all pan fish but a little wind makes a big difference when fishing for crappie. What I have noticed with perch is a little bit of worm makes more difference than the action of the jig. I do prefer fire tiger jigs when fishing for perch, these are some that TubeDude makes that I  have done well with, the color pattern, not the flat darts design.

[SenkoSam]

When it comes to color, I've found that there are basically two water colors that decide lure color: cloudy algae green as seen in summer and semi clear found the rest of the year. If I use the same green color that doesn't contrast with the water color of summer, few bites. Brighter or darker colors do better. At other times of year most preferred confidence colors work and those number a half dozen. Amazing how much confidence in a lure/color combination affects me catching fish. Grape is not one of my confidence colors regardless the lure and never use it.