“We love to fish sliding corks,” 55-year-old Martin Close said. “They are the best thing that we have ever done.”
The rig Close bragged about had two simple components: Eagle Claw Bobber Stops and weighted-slotted cigar peg floats. Used together, they produce sliding corks, which both Martin and Grayson said have definite advantages over fixed corks, especially since son Grayson adamantly refuses to use jig poles.
Casting with a rod and reel is much easier and more accurate if the cork is near the end of the line with the hook, rather than having the two spaced apart and helicoptering around each other with every cast.
Fishing in water deeper than about 18 inches is also cumbersome with a fixed cork because the line can only be reeled up as far as the cork, and in practice is seldom brought to less than 6 inches from the rod tip to allow weight for casting.
As a result, casting fixed-cork rigs is slopping and inaccurate, a problem that only gets worse as fishing depth increases. In practical fact, fishing deeper than 3 feet deep with a fixed cork on a rod and reel is nearly impossible.
With a sliding cork, any depth can be fished effectively.
One final benefit, especially when fishing in snag-infested waters (where bream love to live), is that hung-up lines can be easily freed by simply reeling the rod tip all the way to the snag underwater. A couple of shakes or shoves will almost always dislodge the hook.
As for bait, this bream-loving family only uses crickets.
“I\’ve never had much luck with worms,” said Grayson, “except catalpa worms — and you can\’t find those anymore.”
They always store their crickets in cylindrical open-top wire cages, rather than “shake \’em out” tubes.
As soon as they get to the camp, the Closes throw a couple of potato halves in each cage to provide food and, more importantly, moisture for their chirping friends.
