Floats: fixed and slider
A float looks like nothing more than a signal: it sits on the surface, it dips, you strike. In fact it works only in one narrow state — shotted almost to the limit of its buoyancy, with nothing but the tip left showing above the water. Outside that state it is just a piece of tackle that floats.
One question divides every float
Is the float held on the line, or does it run along it? The answer sets everything else. On a fixed float the attachment does not move, and the fishing depth cannot exceed the length of the tackle: to get the fish out you have to lift the rig clear of the water. On a slider the float runs freely along the line up to the stop, and depth stops depending on the rod.
From that one answer follow the rig, the casting range and the depth you can fish at all. Both are covered in fixed floats and slider floats.
A float works only when it is shotted
The stem or the body has the shotting capacity printed on it — the weight the float holds while staying in its working position. Under-shotted, it stands proud of the water and does not show a cautious touch; over-shotted, it goes under on the wave, and a bite cannot be told from the ripple.
This is the one part of the tackle with its working condition written on it: not advice but a number, and without that number it does not work. Covered separately — the shotting capacity of a float.
Shape answers where the force comes from
In a current the water pulls the rig from below, and a float with its widest part at the top leans on that force instead of lying over. In still water there is no force from below, but there is wind and wave from above — and there a slim, drawn-out body wins, one the wave does not throw about.
So shape is not about looks and not about fashion: it answers where the force in this water comes from. Get the water wrong and the right float starts working against you.
Material sets the bulk at the same shotting capacity
Balsa, foam, plastic and quill hold different weights for the same bulk. A lighter material gives a smaller float of the same shotting capacity, and a smaller float creates less resistance when a fish pulls the bait down.
That is the whole difference in price between floats that look the same — you pay for bulk at a given shotting capacity, not for paint.
Float and weight are one system
In float fishing the weight is not a free choice: it is set by the shotting capacity printed on the float, and leads are picked to suit it, not the other way round. Lighter and the float lies on its side; heavier and it sinks.
This is the only place in the tackle where one part dictates the weight. In every other rig the choice stays with the angler.
What a float does not do
It does not hold the bait at a set depth by itself: the depth is set by the distance from the hook to the point of attachment, and the float only keeps it from changing. And it does not make a bite more visible if the rig is under-shotted — then the fish pulls the bait and the float stands still.
