Painting the bottom of bobbers black

[Jennie@ifish]

I know a couple people who insist on painting the bottom of their foam floats with black paint.
Anything to this? Opinions?
Especially in low clear conditions...
Jen

[Dr Strangelove]

Dunk yourself under water and look up at the clear blue or gray sky. If you don't want your bobber seen, leave it light. Just a thought...

Dr Strangelove

[CATCH AND EAT]

Leave it white unless you are fishing the Willamette then brown is the color. That way it matches all the turds floating down river

Actually the natural wood color of the new bobbers is pretty cool too. They worked really well on the John Day.

[birdhunter]

Yup, Dr. S. Notice how penguins, steelhead, and other aquatic critters are typically dark on top and light on bottom. Harder to spot if you're looking down or up, respectively. That being said, I'd like my floats to have clear or white bottoms if it was low water or gin-clear conditons. Otherwise, I'm not too worried about spooking the fish. I mean, they see stuff floating over the top of them all the time.

Now if only they could make a float that looked like a pine cone.....

[David Johnson]

Tou think that a fish is going to care what is floating by ten feet over his head? Or that they are even smart enough to know what it is?

[Jennie@ifish]

Yeah, that is why it confuses me. I remember reading once about black and darker colors and how they show up to fish looking up against the light sky..
Some people swear by it though!
Jen

[alwyze fishin]

Look at this way you got a 10 foot or so drop down from you bobber and you see your BOBBER well just think where your baits is its not right under your bobber yes your weight may be but if you got any leader after that your bait is down river. Just my thought on the topic

alwyze fishin no more to be said

[ 12-05-2001: Message edited by: alwyze fishin ]</p>

[GBSkunk]

I've talked to several people about this subject and most agree to leave it light colored like the sky. The only person I know who paints it black is Jim Erickson. I also noticed that he fishes fixed, short (about 2.5') leaders. I don't know why but he DOES catch a lot of fish. Maybe he likes dark bobbers because his river has so many overhanging limbs?

[Lund]

why black?

I've used all colors of bobbers and had fish bite the bobber itself. That was while i used all the brite colors including white or blue! so i started painting them black and quit getting my bobber attacked.
Serious bobber fishermen know that not all fish are caught fishing 10' deep. lots of fish are caught on a bobber fishing 3'-4'.
As far as the color black goes, all it does is make the bobber look like another piece of wood or stick in the water. sometimes very good fishing water is only 5' deep so every little thing helps.

[HOGTIDE]

I say go with a cloud-image camo pattern. I'd even paint a couple little bitty seagulls on there, too. The fish will think they're out at sea and bite more readily.

[Tilla]

Yep, Hogtides got it nailed. Actually if you paint diving seabirds on there the fish will think it's competition for the bait and they will strike twice as hard... Didn't Mark at First cast Jigs cover this issue with the cork floats?

[William]

I too have had fish hit my bobbers. Now all but my clear bobbers are painted black on the bottom.

They will ALL go down if at the right depth for the moment with the right stuff underneath it! :grin:

[ampersat]

i'd believe that a white bobber would show up like the hand of god moving over a fish. dark or natural colors just look like another leaf or stick floating by.

here's a tip: a regular wine cork will stand up just right over a quarter ounce jig. i like to paint the top orange for visibility.

[Amerman]

Jennie,

I guess you can put me and my dad down for the swearing by painting your bobbers black on the bottom. As lund said, sometimes great bobber fishermen fish less than 10 feet deep. For as long as I can remember my dad has been painting the bottom of his bobbers black. Does it help? I think so. I guarantee you when your bobber leans left or right or flips upside down, you can tell because you can see the black.

As a funny story about this, I had a client that always insisted on bringing his own equipment. This guy was known for having a few drinks the night before he went fishing (if not most nights). One day he showed up after obviously throwing his equipment together the night before with his bobber tied on his line black side up. Needless to say he got a little razzing all day from others in the boat.

Black side down, bright side up.

[David Johnson]

I like to think my white bottom bobbers blend in with the shrimp containers floating down river from River Mill. That's my kind of camo

[First Bite]

I like the natural look...corks. During normal flows I don't think it matters. Only when the water is really low and clear is it going to spook a fish. Again that is when I like using small corks. At the end of my drift I'll just let the cork naturally swing towards the bank. a lot of times fish will follow my jig and then hit it on the retrieve. If I was using a bright colored float it might be enough to scare the fish.

Mark

LOL David Johnson! :grin: (Sucks though) Pick up your garbage huh! Wonder how many million years those damn things take to break down bio wise. Probably never. :grin:

[hawgcatcher]

Jennie, for years of fishing for Bass, I have found that the black surface plugs work very well at night and in the day. Fish do see them so I think that they will see the black bobber on the surface. But then it might be something that they get curious about and come up some to take a look. I think that like it has been said, there is so much garbage drifting down the rivers, that no matter what color, they will come.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Maybe there is something to it as far as YOU being able to see it when it tips over?
Seems like black would show up real well from underneath.

[Tanner]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Yeah, that is why it confuses me. I remember reading once about black and darker colors and how they show up to fish looking up against the light sky..
Some people swear by it though!
Jen <hr></blockquote>

Jen,
There are also people who swear that they can't catch fish with bananas in the boat.

[fishbait]

Save you time and paint.....

But do fish a calibrated bobber.

[hustlerrjim]

black bottom is a must,to paint your bobber any black felt tip pen will do The job,
we are now going into the steel head season and we will only be fishing 2--3 ft. above our jig or bait,
steel head are rarely caught in more than 5 ft. of water, and salmon rarely in less than 10 ft. of water.hence the varience in lenghth of leader.
I think the most important thing is the clearer the water the lighter the line and smaller the bait,and don't move your bait or bobber aroud

[DanS]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr> steel head are rarely caught in more than 5 ft. of water <hr></blockquote>

You're not serious, are you?

[Got Fish?]

I was going to ask that same question...

[Chris Nordling]

How come I still like the yellow Bradbury bobbers when I can get them ? I've have caught fish in all types of water conditions with these. Even in 2' of water on the S.Santiam .
Is Jim serious about the 5' thing ? Whoa !

Chris

~ Team U.S.A. ~