article in pole fishing by Jon Arthur covers the whole subject matter of fishing shallow in this months pole fishing.

mick wilkinson petit poi

garbo (and a few others) do a pea float, or some people use poly blobs.

Map are doing some floats that should do the job

Hillbilly slim shady, perfect!

Hillbilly slim shady! This float takes no shot & will sit perfectly with an 8mm hard pellet. really well made & extremely tough.
Regards Peter.

Crowquill, you dont need bristles whan fishing 6 inch deep, they will tangle whilst shipping out if you use bristle floats so shallow.

It is the Shady Shallow, however for F1s you might be better off with a Ratcatcher 2 .

Sconeys Wellardz,pure class.

Garbolino DC20 (pea style) or DC21 if you need a bit more stability.
Perfect!!

Check out mf floats.. The decoy dinky is 6cm in length spot in floats not had one break line cut or damage at all yet.! Cheaper than all others too

@crowquill wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions.
I have looked at them all on the various site’s and the one piece of information that is not given is the length of the float. I know that the Garbo DC 20 looks very short, is the length of float critical fishing at 6″. I like the look of the wellardz because my sight is not what it used to be and it looks very visable.

YES the length of the float is critical when fishing 6 inches, you want no bristle and no stem as if the fish are so close to your float the stem will spook them, a pea style float is perfect either MW or Ackoo sell them, the Hillbilly slim shady and ratcatchers are GREAT for 1-2 ft deep but 6 incehs you need a pea style float mate 😉

@hookpulledagain wrote:

Check out mf floats.. The decoy dinky is 6cm in length spot in floats not had one break line cut or damage at all yet.! Cheaper than all others too

Decoy dinky???? you sure??

A few years ago I used to fish shallow a bit, as little as 3 inches deep with hair rigged baits. The floats I used were dibbers with the stem cut down a bit, mostly drennan but also mossella. I preferred the fact that they took a bit of weight which i’m convinced helped with the bolt effect, slapping and also long lining. The only problem with them was the eye pulled out easily, so i dint bother with it. I used a rubber on the tip instead and varnished the floats with hard as nails. They were alright then.

Psb182..

Decoy dink!!! Yea why?

It’s a up in the water float

@psb182 wrote:

@crowquill wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions.
I have looked at them all on the various site’s and the one piece of information that is not given is the length of the float. I know that the Garbo DC 20 looks very short, is the length of float critical fishing at 6″. I like the look of the wellardz because my sight is not what it used to be and it looks very visable.

YES the length of the float is critical when fishing 6 inches, you want no bristle and no stem as if the fish are so close to your float the stem will spook them, a pea style float is perfect either MW or Ackoo sell them, the Hillbilly slim shady and ratcatchers are GREAT for 1-2 ft deep but 6 incehs you need a pea style float mate 😉

I must have been going wrong all these years then using Wellardz and Hilbillys for fishing ultra shallow.

I honestly cant understand the statement that you NEED a pea style float.

Sevaral reasons, first the float stem spooks them, as stated, also using a bristle implies fishing top and bottom. Bristles are prone to tangle when you short line. If I fish 6 inch deep I will probably have only 12 inches or less of line from pole tip to hook. If you can ship out a top and bottom bristle rig on that you are a very good stable angler in my opinion.
I also wonder what possibe advantage a bristle will give, lets face it you are not going to get lift bites. Dibber type floats or peas are much less likely to show false bites like liners too.
However if bristles work for you then thats fine but I would not advise inexperienced shallow anglers to go down that road from the start.

John, totally agree.

It has to be what works for you, there is a lot of advice thrown around on forums where someone says you NEED to do certian things and there is no neccesitiy to actually do it.

I find its rare these days that you can fish very short rigs as most commerical fish have wised up and sit around the feed.

I would also question that if fish are feeding hard enough to take bait under the pole tip then a few CM of float stem in the water wouldnt make too much difference.

Again though its all personal opinion.

A few years back the floating pole took many venues apart but not so many now.
The fish obviously wised up!! I too am finding the need to fish longer and to swing the rig to fish on the edge of the feed. In this months MF a huge weight came out of Hallcroft on the Maver doing just that. John Arthur also last year at Viaduct if memory serves. Shallow fishing is becoming a mugging game with no feeding, thats how much they have wised up.
Some of the floating pole advocates in our club are now having to hold their poles off the water to catch. These however are not F1s that the poster talked about these are wise old big mirrors and commons 10lb plus.
I think Slider we need to give posters some space, not all of us are great writers but all I think want to help each other.
Fish that are ultra shallow are not easy to catch so maybe by modifying feed he could force them down a bit 12 inches to 24 inches deep makes life much easier and at those sort of depths bristlles come to the fore. 12 inches or less to me means pea type floats and short lines, feeding just short of the pole end, forcing feeding fish to come to my bait or risk not getting any feed at all..