Do Floats on Hook Leaders Scare Off Bluefish & Stripers?

[latenight58]

I've noticed very few fishermen on New Jersey beaches using floats on their hook leaders.  I've lost a lot of bunker chunks in recent weeks to crabs.  I know floats hurt casting distances to some degree, but do they scare off bluefish & stripers or make them less reluctant to go for the bait?

[Steelheadmike]

I've had good success on both blues and bass with rigs like that.

[BrianBM]

IMHO, no.  No scare factor at all. 

[Steg]

Small floats are used here (NZ) to keep bait away from the crabs and they're thought to attract fish. A floated bait may be more visible to fish - and the float might work like an attractor bead. Have had them come back with tooth marks from fish.

[crazybellringer]

check the mullet rig you don't get any more float than that. 

 

also the fireball rig has obvious floats.

 

You would need pretty big float for a bunker head. 

[Cfinnely68]

I fish rivers more than surf but float rigs have always worked great for me. Mostly I started using them to keep eels, turtles, and crabs off my bait but actually found the float increased my catch rates for river stripers. My theory being that the float gives the bait more action in the current whereby making it visually appealing. I put a 2" foam float about 4" above the bait then leave anywhere from 24-36" from the hook to sinker. This is for herring strips, for a bunker chunk in the surf look at the billy boy floats bps sells. The 5" ones will hold up a ton of weight. 

Edited May 31, 2017 by Cfinnely68

[Captain Ahab]

[zak-striper]

I can't imagine they'd scare off bluefish. Last June I was fishing a blues blitz from shore. I used white, yellow and parrot colored poppers and they hit all three. Blues aren't very discriminating when they have the food bag on.

Edited May 31, 2017 by zak-striper

[Catch This]

Agree with the above comments. No, bluefish are not cork shy.