Wafters fishing

[Freezyone]

When fishing wafters should the hook sit tight to the bottom or does it matter if it lifts slightly?

[hutch]

Probably more down to personal preference, I have them set with eye just lifted slightly off the bottom (using a D Rig, or Hook Ring Swivel and Bead set near the eye), as the bait causes the eye to be lighter therefore the hook point is heavier, which in turn makes the hook sit in the optimum hook position when the bait is sucked in.

 

Thats how it goes in my head anyway , Im sure others will have there own favoured method for presenting this type of bait but this mine. 

[newmarket]

In my experience each "Wafter" has slightly different buoyancy therefore each hookbait has to be individually trimmed or customised to suit your terminal tackle .

I found the best way was to ditch the actual Wafter hookbaits and use a pop up with a shot on the hair fished KD style .

Yes , in that scenario , the hook lies flat to the lakebed .

 

To me , if it doesn't implies that the hookbait isn't critically balanced enough , if that makes sense , and if the hook is lifted slightly means the hooky is slightly too buoyant .

 

Whether it would affect your chances of catching I doubt very much

[yonny]

Honestly, I don't think it matters that much.

newmarket is spot-on, each wafter is different.

As long as the hook is at least partially on the deck it's fine for me. I'd probably prefer the eye to be lifted slightly but wont start messing around if it's sitting flat. The critical bit for me is that that hookbait is lighter than the freebies, which it will be assuming the wafter is a half decent one.....

At the end of the day we've all caught loads of carp on bottom baits straight out of the bag so I prefer to concentrate more on where I'm putting the bait rather than worry about a couple of millimeters here or there off the deck.

[cyborx]

 

Thats how it goes in my head anyway ,

 

if it catches you fish Hutch then how it goes in your head is working

[hutch]

 

if it catches you fish Hutch then how it goes in your head is working 

 

 

Its one of most efficient rigs I have used John, both version proper nail em 

[salokcinnodrog]

What's a wafter?

Critically balanced to me.

 

Seriously I bet no matter how you think your hook and bait is sitting, the reality is very different, unless you place them in by hand!

 

I honestly don't bother with how a wafter sits on the lakebed, as long as the hook sinks the bait, just!

I have actually tested some that took almost a minute to sink in a full bath, seriously critically balanced

 

Actually what rigs you use may occasionally change the hooking potential; I think pop-ups and wafters are far more critical to be rig savvy than bottom bait rigs, because a bottom bait rig most important is the hair length. With pop-ups and wafters you aren't likely able to rely on that as you aren't feeding or fishing the same.

[Freezyone]

Im fishing with a krank hook size 6 with the hair straight off the back of the hook. The hook sits up off the lakebed with only the point touching the bottom. Im guess over time in the water the hook will settle.

[yonny]

I have actually tested some that took almost a minute to sink in a full bath, seriously critically balanced

 

 

Here's a question:

Is it possible to over-balance a bait?

If a bait takes a minute to settle could that not render the rig ineffective under turbulence? With a couple of bigguns swimming around the hookbait could the disturbance in the water send it flapping around all over the place rather than sitting patiently on the deck? We've all seen light food items (hemp for e.g.) being kicked up during heavy feeding activity, could the same happen to a bait balanced so well it's almost weightless?

 

Not saying it will, just after opinions.....

[salokcinnodrog]

Here's a question:

Is it possible to over-balance a bait?

If a bait takes a minute to settle could that not render the rig ineffective under turbulence? With a couple of bigguns swimming around the hookbait could the disturbance in the water send it flapping around all over the place rather than sitting patiently on the deck? We've all seen light food items (hemp for e.g.) being kicked up during heavy feeding activity, could the same happen to a bait balanced so well it's almost weightless?

 

Not saying it will, just after opinions.....

I reckon it can, especially over gravel or smooth hard sand or clay lake beds.

 

Not just hemp, it can happen with boilies!

 

I was sitting in the snags at Brackens hand feeding boilies, and watched a carp swirl off that I hadn't originally seen as I dropped a boilie on its nose. It didn't spook spook, but as it moved away before coming back, it's tail swipe lifted a number of boilies off and up into the water, which then dropped back down in a random manner to the bottom; I say random, but you could see the current created by the carps tail.

 

A very critically balanced hookbait and rig may then be ignored as it didn't behave in the same manner, being tethered by the lead, compared to the boilies that looked like an explosion going everywhere.

 

I actually got to the stage that I preferred over weighted pop-ups!

A total contradiction of the paragraph above, about the tethering and movement, but that does often work better with a bed of particles or groundbait, sitting very low to the deck where fish are taking mouthfuls of bait by close vacuuming, just taking in mouthfuls of detritus as well as food.

[beanz]

Over or under balanced both work, now after reading Yonny's comments I think it could work against us at times also. Slow sinking, I'm expecting the bait to move if stirred up and act more natural, like the rest of the freebies, That's always been over particles though. I don't balance boilies, or it very rare......Pop ups I will over weight ... I guess that's the same.

 

I watched swans kick up all types of baits I'v put in , in deeper water than they can reach. Makes me wonder what actually happens when fish stir up baits...though these days I'm always wanting a resetting rig as its hard to keep a rig in the water for long with the bird(thug for) life 

[newmarket]

If a fish can move Boilies with a swish of its tail then the hooky will fly up into its gob faster . Even better