Floats for 'The paste'

My three favourite floats for "paste fishing".

The larger one is a "1 gram K.C.Carpa Porth", I like to place all of the shot under the float and fish it dead depth style. It is fine under normal conditions but if the wind and tow really get up then I will switch to a preston durafloat, fished over depth with a big backshot. When fishing this rig in very deep water (10 foot plus), I find it pays to use an olivette, but have a small bulk of no.8's 2 inches from the hook, this shotting pattern registers far quicker on the float.

The smaller one is a bit unusual for "paste fishing" being a "4x14 Preston Chianti". I like to use this pattern when fishing small pea sized pieces of paste. I ike to shot this one with 2 no.8's about 2 inches from the hook,I find this shotting pattern registers instantly on the float.

The third one is even more unusual being a "blob". This float is ideal in shallow margins. The trick to fishing this float is to fish it dead depth, but do not feed anything, instead you strike the bait off the hook after a minute regardless if you have had a bite or not. What you are doing is feeding your swim but not attracting to many fish at once, like you would if you loose-fed. It is a very busy method, but you build your swim carefully and you can put some big weights together using it.

All of these floats are rigged up on 0.16 line straight through to an eyed hook, I like to use size 14's but have used 12's & 16's before. I find a smaller hook pull through the paste easier and gives a good hook hold.

A lot of "paste novices" struggle to recognise bites. With a bit of experience you will come to realise that propper paste bites are when the float dissappears very sharply under the water or on occasion lifts very sharply above the water. Yop will find that all other movements of the float are either liners or what I believe are the carp fumbling the bait when they are sucking & blowing.