Back in 1999 I was sitting on the bank of my favorite fishing hole getting ready to tie on a float to do some bait fishing. I have been doing a lot of bait fishing since I gave up boat fishing several years before this. During this time I had taken up European style fishing. Europeans use long, light action rods(12 to 15 feet long) to cast their bait floats. I had bought such a rod and now had a tackle box full of European style floats.
In front of me there was a fish feeder placed there by the state of North Carolina. This feeder dropped fish food every two hours to attract fish into the area. The feeder stood about 70 feet away. An easy enough cast with some of my floats but my problem was how was I going to be able to see the strikes at such a distance. Most floats on the market have two colors painted on their tips with the color red being the top color. To fish these floats properly you must shot these floats so that only the red tips are above the water. So at a distance of 70 feet I would be looking to see if a one-inch long section of my float was being pulled under by a fish. This was very difficult to do because it was easy to lose the float at that distance.
I looked around to see how other anglers were dealing with this problem. Most were using a very large cedar wood float to cast this distance. The wood was heavy which allowed the angler to cast the distance with their short rods and big enough to see but only a fairly large fish could pull it under. Others were using large cigar corks with plenty of shot to make the distance. These floats sat low in the water, which allowed the fish to pull them under easier, but only a small part of the cork was visible and they were hard to cast especially in the wind.
Then I got an idea. I remember reading about a pike float in Europe that had a sail on it. It was designed to allow the angler to drift dead bait into the fishing area using the wind to push it. A sail would not work for casting though. Then it hit me, mount a dart shaft and flight on a cigar cork that was pre-weighted to float right in the water. Thus the Aqua Dart was born.
The Aqua Dart casts like a dream. A 70-foot cast is nothing for the Dart. Children find them much easier to cast than the standard bobbers and are very surprised at the distance they travel plus they think there cool looking. The Dart is ideal for baits such as maggots, worms, crickets and minnows although you must hook the minnows in the lip to keep from tearing them off upon impact with the water. The Dart does not splash down into the water like other floats but slips into the water making very little splash. It is about 6 1/2 inches long and weighs about one half of an ounce.
At first I was just making these floats for myself but soon people started offering me money for them. I have been offered as much as $10.00 for just one. Now I can't make them fast enough.
I hope you will give my float a try. I think you will find it easy to cast and fish and will enjoy it as much as I have.
