Float Bags

A forum for people who are new to commercial fishing and for talking about the fundamental rules and regulations.
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akfisher1978
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Float Bags

Post by akfisher1978 »

How far back do you run the float bags? I am assuming since you can run up to 6 fathom leader/bait you would run them an extra maybe 15 ft or so behing that to avoid tangles? Or am I way off?
Abundance
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Re: Float Bags

Post by Abundance »

I usually run mine eight fathoms from the float bag to the clothespin. I can reduce my length to four fathoms with chum gear, running slow with short leaders. Running long leaders, deep with high speeds for kings, you might go up to ten fathoms back. I am sure that everybody finds their favorite length, based on the tides where they fish and they weight of their leads.
Garrett Hagen, F/V Abundance
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Re: Float Bags

Post by Salty »

Great question. The answer for me is that it depends. Now that I have bowpoles I run my mains from no floats to 20 fathoms back depending on the situation. Mostly I run the floats from 12- 18 fathoms back fishing kings. Occasionally when fishing coho I will suck them up to 4 fathoms but if I start to get closer than 6 now I just leave them off.
Then there is the question of whether you run them the same length back on each side. Then there is the question about whether you run floats that shear out or switch them so they shear in. Or buy the ones that don't shear. I swear someone could write a fairly long book on running float bags trolling.
akfisher1978
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Re: Float Bags

Post by akfisher1978 »

Thanks for the reply guys. Looks like its kind of a trial and error thing like most things are.
Abundance
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Re: Float Bags

Post by Abundance »

Huh. 20 fathoms back. I find myself running out of patience standing out there in the winter cold waiting for that floatbag to get in to the boat as it is. That would let me run my heavie's leaders at a more appropriate length though, when I think about it.
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Re: Float Bags

Post by Salty »

My old friend, now deceased, Ralph Guthrie turned me onto running the floats 18 fathomes back. With the 1.5 fathom marks I often run them 10 or 12 marks back. When scratching kings we often use long leaders on all four lines and spread the gear out.
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