Slip float

What it is

A fixed bobber is clipped or pegged to the line, so the distance from float to hook is the depth, and that distance hangs from the rod tip on every cast. A slip float is threaded on the line and slides. Jeff Samsel's description on Lure Net, the company that sells Thill floats, is the whole idea: unlike a fixed float, a slip float slides freely up and down the line, like an egg sinker, and a bobber stopper fixed on the line above it stops the slide and controls the depth.

So the rig, top to bottom, is five parts. NYSDEC's walleye page gives the order in one line: "A bobber stop is attached to your line, then a bead, and then the bobber." Below the float go the split shot and the hook or jig. Before the cast the float slides down and rests on the weight; after it lands, the weight pulls line through the float until the stop reaches it, and the bait hangs at whatever distance the stop sits from the hook.

Basis: official (NYSDEC); maker (Lure Net / Thill, Samsel 2025)

Why it beats a fixed float past rod length

NYSDEC puts it plainly: "A slip bobber allows you to use a bobber at any depth; a traditional bobber is usually only good to a depth that's less than the length of your fishing pole." The makers' own how-to goes further. Samsel's 2023 panfish piece says that with a set float "it's very difficult to cast if the bait and float are more than about 4 feet apart," and his 2025 article says it becomes unmanageable even to pitch out or to land a fish once a fixed float is set deeper than the length of the rod.

The slip float removes the problem because the float rides down to the weight before the cast. Take Me Fishing's article on slip bobbers for summer sunfish (C.B. Bylander, May 2019) says you can reel the bobber nearly to the rod tip while fishing 10 to 20 feet deep. Lure Net's crappie article calls the capacity to cast a rig and suspend a bait at any depth "the primary virtue of a slip float rig."

Where a fixed float is still the simpler tool is shallow water. Samsel's own number for a set float is about 4 feet of bait-to-float distance; inside that, a fixed float is quicker to rig and change. That is our reading of his figure, not a rule anyone publishes.

Basis: official (NYSDEC); maker (Lure Net / Thill, Samsel 2023 and 2025); Take Me Fishing; editorial on where the fixed float still wins

Species

• Crappie. Lure Net's crappie article says crappie "can be very depth specific and often most feeding fish will be holding at some key depth," which is the case for a rig that holds a bait at one depth all day. KDFWR's November 2019 column names "Live minnows suspended deep under slip bobbers" for winter crappie on Cave Run's deeper habitat.
• Bluegill and redear. KDFWR's Summer Fishing Tips page: "Worms, crickets and wax worms work well under a slip bobber." For redear, KDFWR's April 2020 column describes small soft-plastic grubs tipped with wax worms fished "on the bottom under slip bobbers for large redear sunfish." Take Me Fishing recommends the rig for bluegill and other sunfish in late spring and summer, when the larger fish move off the bank to deeper weedlines, humps and other structure.
• Trout in lakes. Rainbow trout stocked in lakes take bait under a float. KDFWR's 2019 column says brightly colored dough baits formulated for trout and corn "fished on the bottom or suspended under a bobber also are consistent producers" in the neighborhood lakes. Take Me Fishing's Southern California trout page uses live bait with a slip bobber and a split shot in the cooler months, when trout feed in the upper water column, and switches to a bottom rig in the warmest months.

Basis: official (KDFWR columns and Summer Fishing Tips); maker (Lure Net); Take Me Fishing

Where the agencies say the fish sit

The rig is only as good as the depth on the stop, so this is the part worth reading first.

• Crappie, summer. KDFWR: "Look for crappie to move deeper during the summer. Often, they will be located just above the thermocline," the layer that separates water with enough oxygen from deeper water without it. The same page points to creek channels, mud flats and standing timber, and to a depth finder to locate the schools.
• Crappie, winter. KDFWR's 2019 column on Cave Run: "The deeper habitat is where they will be in winter," and "They sometimes suspend well over the cover or well out from it." The advice is to vary depths and spots near the habitat until you find fish, and to watch the electronics for bait, because "The crappie are going to be where the bait is." On Taylorsville, the same column: "Change the depth of your offering if the crappie will not bite."
• Crappie, in general. Minnesota DNR's crappie page (written for ice fishing, but about the fish): "Crappie typically aren't found near the surface or the bottom"; they suspend somewhere in between, "often slightly deeper than suspended bluegills," and "are often suspended over the deepest holes in a lake."
• Bluegill. KDFWR: look for bluegill "around weeds, wood or rock structure," and "Keep trying different depths until you start getting bites." Lure Net's summer panfish guide sets the stop to suspend the bait "just off the bottom or just over the cover."
• Redear. KDFWR, April 2020: "Redear do not feed anywhere but on or near the bottom." Set the stop so the bait touches or just clears it.
• Trout in lakes. KDFWR's Summer Fishing Tips, on the stocked trout in Laurel River and Paintsville lakes: "Adjust the depth of the offering until trout hit."

Samsel's rule for fine-tuning holds for all of them: "Most fish are more apt to feed up than down." If the bait is sitting even slightly below most of the fish, set it shallower.

Basis: official (KDFWR Summer Fishing Tips; KDFWR columns 14 November 2019 and 30 April 2020; Minnesota DNR); maker (Lure Net)

The parts, and what each one changes

• The stop. Thill describes its Premium Bobber Stops as "high-vis, fluorescent-colored, fine-diameter material" that "grip monofilament" and hold in place. Ready-made stops like these come tied on an applicator tube; Lure Net's instructions are to slide the tube onto the line, slip the knot off, snug it just enough to stay on, and discard the tube. You can tie your own: Take Me Fishing's bobber stopper knot uses "about 6-inches of monofilament fishing line or Dacron fly line backing" wrapped three or four turns around the main line. Tension is the whole job. Bylander's article says to tighten it "with medium tension (not too loose; not too tight)": too tight and it will not slide when you want to move it, too loose and it creeps and changes your depth. Lure Net adds that the stop must be small enough to pass through the rod guides and onto the spool without fouling the cast.
• The bead. Samsel: the bead goes on after the stop to keep the knot from slipping into the hole in the float. Some floats build that in: Thill says the small-diameter insert in the top stem of its Crappie Cork "makes beads unnecessary," and the Crappie Cork comes with the stop already on the stem.
• The float. For crappie, Lure Net's crappie article puts typical floats at 1 1/2 to 3 inches long, built to suspend 1/24 to 3/16 ounce. Shape changes the job: its summer panfish guide calls an oval float better for working jigs and handling a bit of wind or current, and a pencil float the most sensitive in calm water with natural bait; its 2023 piece says the pear-shaped Thill slip floats work well for dancing a small jig without moving the rig off a spot. Thill's Pro Series floats carry a brass grommet insert that, in Thill's words, "allows line to reliably free-fall through float." Weighted floats cast farther (Take Me Fishing) and lighted ones exist for fishing after dark.
• The split shot. Two jobs. First, pull line through the float: Lure Net notes that tiny jigs "often are not heavy enough on their own to pull line through a slip cork," and its natural-bait advice is "a big enough split shot to pull the line through the slip float and to hold the bait at the desired depth." Second, balance the float. Minnesota DNR: too much shot and the bobber sinks; too little and it rides high, or a pencil float lies on its side; "The correct amount of weight is just enough so that you can easily see your bobber" while making it easy for the fish to pull it down. Placement: Minnesota DNR puts it "about a foot above the hook and below the bobber"; Lure Net's panfish guide, "a split shot or two a foot or so above the jig."
• The hook or jig. For bait, a small hook. Minnesota DNR: "hooks in the No. 6 to No. 10 range" for bobber fishing for crappie. KDFWR's bluegill column: a redworm on "a size 6 Aberdeen hook under a bobber." Lure Net: a size 6 long-shank hook for most panfish. For trout, Oregon's ODFW starter tackle list is size 8 bait hooks. For jigs, Lure Net's 2022 panfish guide uses small plastics on 1/48- and 1/64-ounce heads, and KDFWR's bluegill column has feather jigs tipped with a wax worm or a cricket under a bobber. Whatever hangs below the float has to suit the float's rating; Samsel's 2025 article points to the weight rating printed on each Crappie Cork as the way to pick the right float.

Matching float to weight: Thill's own numbers

Thill prints an optimal weight for each of its Pro Series slip floats. Read the rating on the float or the package; this table is one maker's line, not a rule for every float.

Basis: maker (Thill product pages on Lure Net; Lure Net articles by Jeff Samsel, 2022, 2023, 2025); official (NYSDEC, Minnesota DNR, KDFWR, ODFW); Take Me Fishing

Rod, reel and line

A spinning outfit with light line. KDFWR's April 2020 redear column calls for ultralight spinning tackle with 4- or 6-pound monofilament, and 6-foot light-power rods with 6- or 8-pound monofilament in weedy lakes; Minnesota DNR's crappie page names six-pound monofilament on a light spinning rig. The one rod in the makers' material is for walleye: the guide in Lure Net's 2025 walleye article fishes 8-pound monofilament on an 8 1/2-foot medium-light, fast-action rod, partly for a longer sweep on the hookset, and Samsel notes a 7 1/2-foot rod of the same action also works.

A longer rod helps in one more way on this rig: it is your measuring stick for the depth (below). Our spinning setup guide covers spooling a spinning reel, and mono, fluoro and braid covers what the line materials do.

Basis: official (KDFWR column 30 April 2020; Minnesota DNR); maker (Lure Net, Samsel 2025)

How to rig it

The steps below follow Lure Net's two rigging descriptions (Samsel, July 2022 and May 2023); every step is theirs except where noted.

1. Slide the bobber stop's tube onto the line, push the knot off the tube onto the line, snug it just enough to stay put, and throw the tube away.
2. Thread on the bead.
3. Thread on the slip float, line going through from top to bottom.
4. Tie on the hook or jig. A Palomar or an improved clinch is the usual terminal knot; the source articles do not name one, so that choice is ours.
5. Pinch on split shot a foot or so above the hook or jig, enough to pull line through the float.
6. Slide the stop to the depth you want, tighten it enough to hold, and trim the tag ends, but in Samsel's words, "Don't trim the tags super close. You want the capacity to re-tighten, if needed."

Basis: maker (Lure Net / Thill); editorial on the knot choice

Setting the depth

The rule is simple. Samsel: "Whatever distance the stopper is set from the jig or hook determines the depth where the bait will suspend." The trick is measuring it on the water. Samsel's method, from the 2023 panfish piece:

• Under about 5 feet: eyeball it.
• Up to about twice the rod length: use the rod. With a 7-foot rod, the stop at the rod tip sets 7 feet; slide it down to the reel and "that's about 13 feet, based on a 1-foot rod butt."
• Deeper: start from two rod lengths, then hold the stop in one hand and the line in the other and count pulls of a known length through it (Samsel's 2025 article counts two-foot pulls).

To find the depth in the first place, Minnesota DNR's ice-fishing page drops a clip-on weight to the bottom to read the depth, and anglers with sonar "drop their lure to the depth where they see or are marking fish." From a boat with live sonar, Samsel suggests starting with a guess, casting into the sonar cone, and seeing exactly where the bait settles. For bottom-hugging fish, the anglers in Take Me Fishing's Minnesota walleye example set the stop so the bait hangs about a foot off the bottom; for redear, set it to the bottom.

Basis: maker (Lure Net / Thill, Samsel 2023 and 2025); official (Minnesota DNR); Take Me Fishing

How to fish it

The cast. Before the cast the float rests on the jighead or split shot, which Lure Net calls "a compact package that is easy to cast." Most slip floats are lobbed: the 2025 walleye article describes Thill's Sharp Shooter as built for direct, powerful casts instead of the lob it says most slip floats need.

After it lands. "Once the float lands, the weight at the terminal end pulls the line through the float," and then you "reel just enough to keep slack out of the line" (Lure Net, 2022). Lure Net's crappie article: avoid unnecessary movement and reel only to take up slack.

Working it. Mostly, let it sit. Lure Net: "Even the slightest ripple provides plenty of action to bring life to crappie baits," and its summer panfish guide keeps added action to a minimum, especially in choppy water. With a pear float and a small jig you can twitch the bait in place without moving the rig off a spot.

The bite and the set. Lure Net's crappie advice is to set the hook once the float goes under; Take Me Fishing's walleye example says to wait for the bobber to sink. The 2025 walleye article adds the line-control detail: reel down until the rod tip bends a couple of inches, then set with a long sweep, and do not point the rod straight at the fish while reeling down, or a surging fish feels the tension and drops the bait. For trout in lakes, KDFWR says the trout hit "subtly, so watch your line intently": look for a slight pull down of the rod tip, then sweep the rod upward gently.

Changing depth between casts. Slide the stop. Samsel calls changing depths "as simple as sliding the stopper up or down the line," and the 2026 Lure Net piece on crappie jigs calls the stop "a visible measured distance indicator" that keeps the jig in the key depth zone.

Basis: maker (Lure Net / Thill, Samsel 2022, 2023, 2025, 2026); official (KDFWR Summer Fishing Tips); Take Me Fishing

Common mistakes

• The stop too tight or too loose. Too tight and it will not slide; too loose and it creeps and changes the depth (Bylander, Take Me Fishing).
• Tags trimmed flush. You lose the ability to retighten a stop that has started to creep (Samsel).
• Not enough weight. A tiny jig alone may not pull line through the float, so the bait never reaches the depth on the stop (Lure Net).
• Too much or too little shot. Too much sinks the float; too little leaves it riding high or a pencil float lying on its side (Minnesota DNR).
• Bait below the fish. Fish feed up more readily than down; when in doubt, go shallower (Samsel).
• No bead under a plain stop. The knot can pull into the float's top hole (Samsel). Floats like Thill's Crappie Cork are built not to need one.
• Rod pointed at the fish on the reel-down. No room left to set, and the fish feels the tension (Lure Net, 2025).

Basis: maker (Lure Net / Thill); official (Minnesota DNR); Take Me Fishing

Kentucky rules that touch this rig

• Live shad on the neighborhood lakes. KDFWR's Fishing in Neighborhoods page (read 12 October 2026): "Possession or use of live shad for bait is prohibited at all FINs lakes," and cast nets may not be used there to take live bait. Check the bait rules in the current Fishing and Boating Guide for everything else.
• Bait on catch-and-release trout streams. KDFWR's 28 October 2020 column on the seasonal catch-and-release trout streams says "Only artificial lures may be used for trout in these streams" and that organic and live baits "may not be used." A bait-under-a-float rig is the wrong tool there during that season. Check the current Guide's trout pages for the streams and dates before you fish one.
• Creel and size limits for crappie and sunfish differ by lake; this site's crappie and bluegill pages quote them from 301 KAR 1:201.

Basis: official (KDFWR Fishing in Neighborhoods page; KDFWR column 28 October 2020)

In Kentucky

KDFWR's own columns name the slip bobber in three places. Winter crappie on Cave Run's deeper placed habitat, with live minnows "suspended deep under slip bobbers" and fish that may hang "well over the cover or well out from it." Large redear on the bottom under slip bobbers, with Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley called "head and shoulders above other waters in Kentucky" for redear in that column. And summer bluegill with worms, crickets and wax worms. On Taylorsville Lake, the 2019 column's winter advice to change the depth when crappie will not bite is the slip float's job description. On Cave Run Lake, the same column suggests tossing a marker buoy on the GPS coordinate of KDFWR's placed habitat for a visual reference, and pairs that habitat with minnows under slip bobbers. For stocked trout in the neighborhood lakes, KDFWR's 2019 column names dough baits and corn under a bobber, and its summer tips put Laurel River Lake and Paintsville Lake trout on bait at night, depth adjusted until they hit.

For Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley redear and bluegill and for where each lake's crappie sit by season, the crappie and bluegill pages carry KDFWR's lake-by-lake forecast lines. For a bait that hovers off the bottom without a float, see drop shot; for casting and swimming a crappie jig, see jig.

Basis: official (KDFWR columns 14 November 2019, 31 October 2019, 30 April 2020; KDFWR Summer Fishing Tips); editorial on the application

Skill level

Beginner. The rigging is five parts in a fixed order and the depth is a knot you slide. What takes practice is the stop's tension, balancing the float, and finding the depth the fish are using that day.

Basis: editorial

What we don't know yet

• Braid. Thill's stop description says its stops "grip monofilament." None of the maker pages we read says whether a thread stop holds on braid, so we make no claim either way. Status pending.
• Crappie Cork sizes. Lure Net's 2025 article says the Crappie Cork comes in three sizes rated for 1/16, 1/8 and 1/4 ounce; the product page lists no sizes in its text and shows an image labelled 3/8 ounce. Status pending; read the rating printed on the float.
• Thill's rigging sheet. The Pro Series kit page says "Rigging instructions included," but the sheet is not online where we could read it. The steps above are from Lure Net's articles.
• A Kentucky how-to. KDFWR's Summer Fishing Tips page and its columns name the slip bobber but do not describe rigging one. KDFWR's beginner's guide PDF could not be read as text in this run. Take Me Fishing's main rigging page returned "not found."
• Spawning temperatures and depths by the degree. No source we read ties a slip-float depth to a water temperature for crappie, bluegill or trout, and we do not invent one.
• Spots. Nothing here names a brush pile, a bed or a coordinate. KDFWR publishes its own placed-habitat coordinates.

Sources and how confident we are

Section	Basis
What it is; why it beats a fixed float	Official (NYSDEC); maker (Lure Net / Thill)
Species; where the fish sit	Official (KDFWR, Minnesota DNR); Take Me Fishing
The parts	Maker (Thill, Lure Net); official (MN DNR, KDFWR, ODFW)
Rigging and depth	Maker (Lure Net); knot choice editorial
How to fish it; mistakes	Maker (Lure Net); Take Me Fishing; KDFWR
Kentucky rules	Official (KDFWR pages, dated)
In Kentucky; skill level	Official (KDFWR); application editorial

Sources

• Fishing For Walleye - New York State Department of Environmental Conservation - the stop, bead, bobber order; "any depth" versus a traditional bobber limited to less than the length of the pole; the line sliding through to the stop.
• How to catch a crappie - Minnesota DNR - slip bobber to any preselected depth; balancing a float with split shot; shot about a foot above the hook; No. 6 to No. 10 hooks; six-pound monofilament.
• Ice fishing for crappie - Minnesota DNR - threading stop and float, sliding the stop to depth, finding depth with a weight or sonar, where crappie suspend.
• How to fish for trout - Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife - size 8 bait hooks and split shot on a starter trout tackle list.
• Summer Fishing Tips - KDFWR - bluegill under a slip bobber and trying depths; crappie deeper in summer, just above the thermocline; Laurel River and Paintsville trout, depth adjusted, subtle bites.
• Three productive winter crappie spots - KDFWR (Lee McClellan, 14 November 2019) - Cave Run's deeper habitat, minnows under slip bobbers, fish suspended over or away from cover, marker buoys; Taylorsville depth changes.
• Redear sunfish spawn upon us - KDFWR (Lee McClellan, 30 April 2020) - redear on the bottom under slip bobbers; hooks, split shot, line and rods; Kentucky Lake and Barkley.
• Bluegill offer great late spring fishing - KDFWR (Lee McClellan, undated) - a redworm on a size 6 Aberdeen hook under a bobber; tipped feather jigs.
• Fishing remains productive during deer season - KDFWR (Lee McClellan, 31 October 2019) - dough baits and corn under a bobber for stocked trout.
• Fall for trout all over again - KDFWR (Lee McClellan, 28 October 2020) - artificial lures only on the catch-and-release trout streams.
• Fishing in Neighborhoods - KDFWR - live shad prohibited as bait on FINs lakes.
• Try a slip bobber for summer sunfish - Take Me Fishing (C.B. Bylander, 7 May 2019) - sunfish moving deeper in summer; reeling the float to the rod tip at 10 to 20 feet; stop tension; weighted and lighted floats; the walleye foot-off-bottom example.
• Bobber Stopper Knot - Take Me Fishing - tying a stop from about 6 inches of mono or Dacron backing.
• Fishing Weights and Bobbers - Take Me Fishing - slip bobbers and split shot in general.
• Trout Fishing Southern California - Take Me Fishing - slip bobber and split shot for trout in the cooler months, bottom rig in the warmest.
• When and How to Fish With a Slip Bobber - Lure Net (Jeff Samsel, 24 March 2025) - slip versus fixed; fixed floats past about 4 feet and past rod length; depth measuring; fish feed up; Crappie Cork sizes.
• Use a Slip Float to Catch More Crappie - Lure Net (Jeff Samsel, 15 May 2023) - rigging steps, float length and weight range for crappie, tag ends, stops through the guides, "the primary virtue", setting the hook.
• Use a Slip Float Rig for Late Summer Panfish - Lure Net (Jeff Samsel, 18 August 2023) - rig order and the bead's purpose; pear floats; split shot; the eyeball, rod and pull-count depth method; the 4-foot set-float limit.
• Your Guide to Catching More Summer Panfish on Slip Bobbers - Lure Net (Jeff Samsel, 28 July 2022) - rigging steps; oval and pencil floats; shot placement and amount; line after the cast; size 6 long-shank hooks; depth just off the bottom or over cover.
• How to Catch More Slip Bobber Walleyes - Lure Net (Jeff Samsel, 30 June 2025) - 8-pound mono and the 8 1/2-foot rod; the lob cast; reeling down and the sweep set.
• 5 Ways to Control the Depth of a Crappie Jig - Lure Net (Jeff Samsel, 4 August 2026) - the compact cast, the stop as a depth indicator.
• Thill Premium Bobber Stops, Thill Pro Series Slip Floats, Thill Crappie Cork, Thill Pro Series Slip Bobber Rig Kit and Thill Slip Bobber Rig - Lure Net product pages: stop material and grip, the brass grommet and optimal-weight table, the built-in stop and bead-free top stem, kit contents.