New Jersey, New Year
Live and Die by the Float and Fly
January 13, 2009
I got a great gift for the holidays this year. I received a great education from Ed Tomosi and Jim Mayberry about the Float-N-Fly system.
It's fair to say most bass anglers have never tried the Float-N-Fly and the few who have tried it, it's unlikely that they use it the way that Ed Tomosi uses it.
You can say that Ed has modified and developed a unique application of the Float-N-Fly system specifically for northern winter fishing for largemouth in local Jersey waters.
The first departure from what you'd normally expect is that Ed and Jim omit the float about 65% of the time. When conditions are calm or relatively light winds, the bobber isn't used and this bobber-less approach is called 'dragging' by Ed and his tournament fishing partner, Jim Mayberry. They only uses a float about 35% of the time, and that would be when there are windy or choppy conditions or whenever a belly in the line would make it difficult to directly feel the jig dragging bottom without a bobber. So the bobber makes for a more effective presentation mainly when it's windy.
Ed's second departure from what's so-called 'normal' convention with a Float-N-Fly is that Ed would never fish one without a soft plastic trailer added to the jig.
Since Tomosi targets largemouth with the Float-N-Fly, the addition of a trailer was a big breakthrough for largies with the Float-N-Fly system for him.
Largemouth need something more than the plain fly to trigger them, and Ed discovered that a tiny trailer gives the jig more body and substance. His confidence is with the little trailer Ed adds, often black for contrast.
Ed's third departure from the norm of Float-N-Fly convention is that he fishes it right smack on the bottom.
In other regions where the Float-N-Fly is used, such as the southeast, it is a technique reputed to take smallmouth suspended in mid-water, often holding over deep water.
"When I first read the original article in Bassmaster about the technique some years ago, I called up the company and got some of their flies and the floats and I talked on the phone with the original innovator of the Float-N-Fly system at that time," says Ed. "What I deduced from the article and the phone conversation was my understanding, right or wrong, that smallmouth in deep impoundments may rise or move laterally 8-10-12 feet in gin clear water to take a Float-N-Fly suspended above them."
"It took me a few years to figure it all out," says Ed, "but what I discovered with this system is that largemouth won’t rise off the bottom in winter. They'll stay with their nose on bottom, semi-buried in vestigial winter weed beds, just laying there looking up for food. You have to present the jig right in front of the fish’s face mainly in 7, 8, 10 feet of water, like a vertical jig dancing in the fish’s face, dancing away like a little minnow until it just clicks with the fish. The hair on the light jig constantly undulates. It doesn’t spook the fish. It's not threatening. They allow it to be there. It suspends and dances in their face and if it gets right in front of their mouth, fish will swat at it."
Ed and Jim like the fly to be ticking barely above the low-lying, dormant but still green grass of winter, just peeking and poking in and out of the grass, which is exactly how a wary minnow would move through the cover.
One of their keys is to be fishing structure such as points or the edges of flats the whole time and concentrating on dormant but still green grass beds on the structure.
You have to keep the jig within bottom reach by adjusting the leader length, meaning the distance from the float to the fly has to precisely match the depth you are targeting. So with a weed edge growing in 8 feet of water, you'd hold the boat over water that's 10 feet deep, throw your Float-N-Fly up into the area that's 6 feet deep, and work it out through the weed edge that's 8 feet deep.
Also, to present the jig so it dances right within the fish's strike zone (within reach of its mouth), we always have to make adjustments to the float. We constantly adjust the float to the exact depth required by the fish to match the depth being fished. Boat control, knowing how a spot is laid out depth-wise just takes experience and familiarity with each lake point or piece of bottom structure. It's a game of inches and always presenting the jig within inches of the bottom.
Viva La Regional Differences
"Bass fishing is regionalized," explains Ed. "The Float-N-Fly works so great on our northern lakes, but we have to do it different than how the originators and practitioners of the system use it in the south for smallmouth.
"In this part of Jersey, we're not fishing massive man-made deep impoundments that are thousands and thousands of acres and 40, 50 or more feet of deep clear or lightly-stained water. Fishing here takes place on local ponds and lakes that are 10, 25, 50, 100 or 200 acres at most. Very few local Jersey lakes have populations of smallmouth worth targeting, no spotted bass, so its all about largemouth. Most places max out about 20 feet deep, but the average depth is much less. To top it off, the water's not that clear here."
"You have to take what a lake will give you. Make the adjustments. If you do, the Float-N-Fly will work for you," advises Ed. "We also use it in winter on the Delaware River, in the backs of coves, marina harbors, out of the current."
"It's a numbers game of attrition," adds Jim Mayberry, meaning that "You'll catch 20 crappie for every one bass you catch on the Float-N-Fly plus plenty of perch and pickerel. The pickerel, crappie and perch are more active than bass in the cold water. Ed and I commonly have 50, 60, 70 fish between us on a good day, and we're usually trying to work out a way to end-run the other species if possible to get through to the bass."
"It's mind-boggling how many crappie are in our Jersey lakes. They really are an untapped resource here," says Ed.
"Pickerel become primary predators or the apex predator on some points or spots, and if that's what you're catching but you would rather catch bass, you need to move," says Ed. "I'll motor past some guys in a tournament and they'll say all they're catching are pickerel, and I tell them they need to move then. Some winter days, you'll find a point that's being ran by schools of hold-over trout (they're stocked in Jersey lakes) and they're all over the Float-N-Flies, but mainly it's going to be crappie, perch, pickerel and bass in about that order."
There tends to be alewives in many Jersey lakes, and marking alewives on the electronics can lead to some good fishing in winter with the Float-N-Fly.
Even when alewives aren't marked though, there are going to be minute minnows, baby perch, baby bass, crappie and sunfish no bigger than a postage stamp present in the low-lying green grass beds, and that's what the Float-N-Fly ideally mimics - mini minnows and itty bitty panfish and bass fry hiding in the grass.
The whole concept is everything's small. The minnows, the tiny bass and panfish fry, the Float-N-Flies. When people say to downsize bass lures in winter, people say a 4” worm is small, or a 4" grub on a jig – but those are huge compared to a small minnow or a Float-N-Fly.
If you throw crappie baits, small brightly-colored tubes, gaudy grubs and so on, yes, you are going to get crappie, but you'll get even less bass on colorful crappie baits than on the Float-N-Fly. Those bright lipstick colored tubes click with crappie but not with bass in winter. You have to realize that as small as the Float-N-Fly is, it is a bona fide bass lure. The fly or jig is designed to get bass, not crappie. The flies are intricate and more detailed color patterns than other bigger bass jigs in fact. The Float-N-Fly patterns are aimed to attract bass and resemble winter bass prey. The jigs are designed to get bass to swat at them. Even still, the Float-N-Fly is a game of attrition the way it gets played in New Jersey, with its huge untapped crappie population - but it's still bass fishing. Best of all, the Float-N-Fly heats up just about when other mid-winter bass lures (blade baits, spoons, jigs and so on) go stone cold.
In terms of the Bullet Lures brand jigs that they most often use, fire tiger (for low light) and more natural colors (for sunny skies) like baby bass and perch (which is like a white color) are a few of Ed and Jim's favorites.
When using the float, it's all about leader length. "The jig will pendulum up or drag and lag behind the float. Without a chop or ripple on the surface to activate the float action, shaking is applied to make the bobber bobble and bounce on the surface. Pauses in the shaking process let the arcing, undulating jig settle back down which is when you watch the float intently for a strike'" instructs Jim Mayberry, who adds that "Shaking is not done when a bobber is not used. There is going to be enough movement to the jig just from holding the rod, reeling it in, the line's moving all around and results in light, little movements of the rod and reeling telegraphing down to the jig to make it dance. With a bobber, a lot of that line quivering and the constant rod movement would get absorbed by and not get past the float. So you shake the float to telegraph that shaking action on to the jig. With the float, imparting action is a little more awkward than the direct bobber-less connection from rod to jig."
When not using the float (what the guys call ‘dragging’) which is 65% of the time, the jig is so light that it lays on top of the weeds - but you have to keep it moving so it won't sink or settle deeper into the weeds. Ed used to do this ('dragging') at first with 6 lb test but found it too hard to feel bites with any slight wind. So 4 lb test's the norm nowadays. "The jig just lays on the weeds and you drag it across, almost slithering it (hard to describe) or snaking it across without grabbing or burying in the weeds, and once you feel the jig fall off the weed edge and pull free, pause and that’s the moment when the line just gets a tick or a little pressure in it (a strike)," describes Ed. "As I say, fish are just not going to rise up to take it."
Rods and Line to Use
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Anywhere from a 4’9” Charlie Brewer Slider rod
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Shimano CVS-60M 6’0”
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Shimano Crucial DX72M 7’2”
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Daiwa Heartland 8’6” Model #HL-S SS862LSS $70 two-piece salmon noodling rod that’s ideal for the Float –N-Fly technique
Ed's four rods above are approximately 5, 6, 7, and 8-1/2 feet long. The length of the leader (from the float to the jig) is going to be predetermined by the length of the rod. That is, the float can't really be set much higher than the rod is long. So if Ed's going to be using a float, he uses the length of the rod to adjust the length of leader. The four rods above let him use leader lengths up to a max of 5, 6, 7 and 8-9 feet respectively. So depending which rod he picks up, he can fish bottom at that particular depth. For any depth, you need to make sure the fly is dancing barely in or above, but not grabbing or burying into the weeds.
With a bobber, 4 lb test line is routinely deployed. The bobber puts some stress on the line, but 4 lb test can handle it.
Keep in mind that Ed and Jim only use floats about 35% of the time. Without a bobber, 4 lb test is also the norm, but Ed will go down to 2 lb line without a bobber when winter fishing's at its toughest, which tends to be on calm, windless and bright 'bluebird' days. A couple of line brands that Ed uses include 4 lb. Berkley fluorocarbon and Berkely Trilene XT 2 lb test.
This may seem like incredibly light tackle. Indeed it is under normal conditions, however there's so much cushion and shock absorption is in these rods, the line doesn’t take the strain. Ed says that even if you wanted (but who would?), you can’t force a fish hard enough to snap 4 lb line. The rods give so much that a 4 lb fish cannot break 4 lb line. In spring, summer or fall, when fish are more aggressive battlers, that may not be the case, but in winter it is.
Float-N-Fly Season
"The Float-N-Fly has opened up a whole 'second season' for me," says Ed Tomosi. "It fills in that void when other lures become borderline ineffective for cold water bass."
Everything is relative to water temperature, and once those temps drop into the forties, which could be late October some years, the Float-N-Fly deserves consideration. Certainly by Thanksgiving, the Float-N-Fly is going to be Tomosi's preferred tactic until water's ice over. Then again, as soon as the ice comes off, the Float-N-Fly bite is incredible. Perch are up on the flats ready to spawn at this time, and crappie and bass are willing takers of the Float-N-Fly from right after ice out and for a couple of weeks thereafter, until about March. Once water hits 48-50 in March, jerkbaits and lipless become more effective, and Ed never looks back. He doesn't crappie fish in the regular season, and puts his float-n-fly gear up until next winter.
Float-N-Fly Conditions
For Tomosi and Mayberry the Float-N-Fly has become their whole theory of how to catch fish effectively in winter.
However, the conditions for success are no different than anything you'd look for in any other season. A good understanding of where the bass could be located (and why) remains paramount.
On their northern lakes, they're looking primarily in up to 8 -10 feet of water for weeds or any kind of cover on structure, and they're looking for signs of bass and bait on the electronics.
Even in winter, high pressure, bright sunshine makes it tough to catch.
"Give me an overcast day and a front coming in. If the weather's going to get a little inclement, the fishing's going to have possibilities," predicts Ed.
Cold, breezy, snowy, rainy, falling barometer, overcast and a little wind pushes everything in a lake up against points, which brings in bait and predators even in winter.
Low light, early morning hours still work as well in winter as during the regular season, as does dusk.
"The Float-N-Fly system is a singular approach. Once you commit to it, there's not a lot of variety in terms of lure choice - just the standard fly and trailer. You can get on a good early morning bite, catch 25 fish, and all of a sudden, something changes and the bite shuts off. Your only options are to tone the fly color up or down, based on light conditions. You usually want a bolder, brighter or darker fly under lower light conditions and a pale, subtler, more natural white-bellied baitfish pattern fly as the sun gets higher in the sky or the wind ebbs or the clouds thin out. Sometimes just boom – the bite turns off for no apparent reason and you never get it back. Other times, a color change can be dramatic. Sometimes a few extra strands of crinkly, sparkly Mylar flash material works wonders. Other times, its all natural hair, no flash they want. It's not that they shut off, it's just that conditions changed and you need to change with them. By change, I really mean color or visibility," says Ed. "It all comes down to the visual attraction of the fly."
Very muddy water will not work with the Float-N-Fly. Its only attraction is sight. So if fish can not see it, it will not work.
Positive, Negative and Neutral
"There's a popular theory that bass persist in positive, neutral or negative moods. In winter, it's unlikely that bass will be in a positive mood very often, but there will be a few, and they're the ones you're likely to catch with conventional winter lures such as blade baits, jigging spoons, lipless or jigs. Most winter bass will persist in a negative mood most of the time. However, lack of sunlight such as an ovrecast day or low light period, for whatever reason, puts fish in a more neutral mood and when they're in a neutral mood, you can get them to bite the Float-N-Fly," say Ed. "Once you get on them and conditions are right, it can be non-stop. A fish on every cast for an hour."
The whole challenge to winter fishing then is when winter fish are in a negative mood, which is most of the time, to try to get negative fish to bite under bright, sunny skies. There are still teeny little fish fry and minnows all around them, and nothing mimics that more than a fly. So you have to present it almost within swatting distance of a fish’s face. These negative largemouth won’t move to take it. That's why the fly needs to be right on the bottom, and right in the cover, right in front of the fish.
Jim Mayberry (left) and Ed Tomosi are fellow members of the Big D Valley Bassmasters.
Mayberry learned the Float-N-Fly from Ed. "The Float-N-Fly or any new, unfamiliar technique, is one of the easiest to put down. The long rod and long leader is hard to wield. The perseverance has got to be there. Keep in mind the Float-N-Fly is usually used at the worst times under the toughest conditions when all else fails in winter. When first learning it from Ed, I had to humble myself, had to realize everything else I had in my winter bag of tricks was not going to be as effective most of the time when the Float-N-Fly shines. I had to step back, stand back and start listening to the fish and listen to Ed's experience, not mine."
55 years old Ed Tomosi is a local Jersey angler. He's won about 150 tournaments ranging from weekday evening draws, weekend opens, club, team and trail events, and Ed has qualified for the Jersey state team several times.
Ed is on the water about 150 days a year. Some days are just a couple of hours on the lake (shown above) in front of his house. The launch ramp is about 100 yards from Ed's garage where he parks one small tin boat with trolling motors fore and aft for electric-only lakes and a second full-size fiberglass bass boat with a high performance engine for bigger waters.
Ed constantly tries new techniques, often trying to take tactics used in other regions, and apply them to his own. Reading magazine articles provides the main source of out-of-state information for Ed, and then he takes what he reads and applies it to what he fishes. When Dee Thomas first started flipping jigs years ago, Ed read about it, phoned out to California to get flipping jigs, and Tomosi won 50-60 tournaments flipping jigs before anyone else in Jersey even knew what flipping was. Back then it was flipping that first made Ed's reputation, Today it's the Float-N-Fly. "Most guys are not going to make the phone call to get what's needed. They're not going to gear up, and not going to stick to it after it fails the first few times, which it will, as it did for me," smiles Ed.
"Casting accuracy is as critical with a Float-N-Fly as it is with a flipping jig or with any other technique. One of the biggest errors overall that I see is the inability of some anglers to put the lure where you have to put it. It's hard to wield a float and fly on a long leader, but you'll get used to it. Being a proficient caster with any lure or tactic is paramount."
"Another huge error I see with the Float-N-Fly is anglers don't make the constant leader length adjustments that are necessary to keep the fly right on the bottom, ticking but not grabbing the bottom. This could be the difference of a few inches sometimes, and most guys are not going to take the time to constantly make the minor length adjustments in between casts until they are precisely right."
First, the Float...
The Float-N-Fly system includes both 7/8-inch and 1-inch floats to dangle relatively smaller or bigger jigs. Ideally, you desire to match the lighter 1/16th jigs with the smaller 7/8" float. Use 1/8th jigs buoyed by the bigger 1" float. There is a delicate balance. Usually the bobber will go straight down and sink with a bass on the line. Crappie will give a tick that can be tough to detect. If you think your float just did something funny, it's probably a crappie; so set the hook. Yellow perch give a more aggressive bite that bounces the float around. Remember, Ed and Jim only use a bobber when they can’t control bottom contact due to wind or line belly.
'N the Flies...
Ed's wide assortment of Float-N-Fly jigs. He's a big believer that you have to keep the fly looking as natural as possible - but at the same time, it needs to feature visual attractants (read the next paragraph). Bottom line, not too gaudy.
Take a look at these flies closely. Sit back and take a moment to make an opinion of what catches your eye most on the jigs in the photo. First, the painted black dots, what the human mind interprets as eyes (whether the fish see them as eyes or simply sharp black dots doesn't matter but the contrast does). Also note the black thread wrappings offer sharp contrast to the rest of the baits. Ditto the fluorescent chartreuse heads, the puffs of blaze orange dressing on some of the jigs. The sparse strands of crinkly flash. These elements are all fish attractants - visual attractants.
The guys use a wide variety of jigs from several vendors but their mainstays are the flies by Bullet Lures and Ed supplements them with some special custom colors tied by Ed's neighbor and fishing partner, Dave.
One of Ed's tip to make flies last longer is to clear coat the thread wrappings with clear nail polish. That's the first thing he does with one. Otherwise, fish will pull the hair out, and soon you’ll have no hair left.
Tomosi does not fish a fly without a soft bait trailer. Tomosi's confidence is with straight tail trailers for winter bass. A tip of a Yamamoto 9P Pro Senko is shown rigged on the middle jig in photo.
If he get a lot of bites and miss them, and Ed can see where tip of the trailer is chewed, he will shorten it.
Ed favors trailers that are not too active. Small curly tail grubs or other types of action tails will work, but will mainly attract razor-toothed pickerel which will cut your line or give your fly a close crewcut.
Ed and Jim like to add a very light rub of MegaStrike attractant to the jig head and the tip of the trailer's tail, by rolling both between their thumb and index finger with a tiny dot of MegaStrike. They don't apply attractant to the hair, but eventually, the hair will get a little sticky from the head or trailer. That's okay.
For trailers, you may salvage the still-good tail tips off slim worms like 9P Pro Senkos (shown), smaller Kut Tails (series 7, 7S) and others that have been chewed up.
The light line will be able to slip through the float from the inertia of casting and that'll throw off your depth, says Jim Mayberry. So Jim doubles over the line in a loop as shown on at least the bottom spring clip. On very blustery days when you have to cast even harder to get the system out there, Jim loops the line on the spring clips on both sides (top and bottom) of the float.
Jersey boy Bobby Uhrig of MegaStrike practices livin', dyin', float'n, fly'n on a dank and foggy day. It works!