Attaching Balloon to Line When Trolling

[elnutsmalljaws]

Elwood,
That description makes sense to me, but that has to be a pain to change out if you are changing bait relatively frequently.

By the way, we used the stuff last week. It worked real well except we never had a hit.

Michael

I never thought about using the clips for the balloons so they would slide up the line after the fish was hooked. Great idea and you already have the clips for it was in the extra stuff that I gave you with the balloons, sinkers, beads, hooks, line counter and stuff. You could attach a snap ring to the line to one end of the clip then "clip" the other end to the balloon knot. When the clip is pulled against the fish it will release and then the snap ring will slide the balloon on the line all the way to the tip as you fight the fish.

[know1]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I ended up getting a couple of those EZ Floats and they work great. They cost about $3 each.

Now I just have to actually catch a striper. Took my second trip yesterday and finally caught a fish - 6-7lb. catfish. We were in an area with striper though. Saw many individual jumps or swirls and other striper boats in the area.

[nonamesleft47]

Funny story about balloon fishing. A buddy and I were drift fishing at Guist creek around the dam. There were hybrids marking close to the bottom and every once in a while one would grab a shiner on a down line but I had a feeling they wanted the bait away from the boat. I took out some balloons and we put them out at different depths and let the wind blow them over the school of fish. We caught a couple and then the game warden flys up, knocks into my boat and asks to see our ID and lisense. He's got his ticket book out and flipped open. I ask him what's going on and he ignores me for a second. Again I ask and he says "You can't jug fish here and you're both getting tickets." I get one of the rods out of the holder and reel the bait back in. He got a strange look on his face and handed us back our ID and said "I've never seen anybody use balloons for a bobber." Apparently he didn't get to Cumberland much.

I use balloons all the time, they are great for night fishing for flatheads, you can put a small glow stick in the balloon and float it into a snaggy area where a bait on the bottom would hang up.

[PRO V LE]

Several years ago there were some medical type people fishing out of Grider that did not have any balloons. They used surgical gloves instead, funny as heck with those fingers sticking out.