Hi guys

I think it was Bazza who mentioned the idea of using a tennis ball as a float to give a bit of weight for casting etc. I am going to be fishing a spot north of Mangawhai that is really snaggy but has good potential for snapper and I will be trying this out for the first time.

Should I tie the trace off the tennis ball or should I have the tennis ball sliding so that it is down on the hook for casting and then the bait sinks naturally until a stopper hits the float?

Should I use recurve hooks or will the buoyancy of the float not be enough to set the hook?

Cheers

Doesn't bill hohepa use tennis ball floats for snaps?

Those cheap kiddies bouncy balls are also good I've found. Heavy for their size and they are pretty much neutrally buoyant. 

fish i wrote: Those cheap kiddies bouncy balls are also good I've found. Heavy for their size and they are pretty much neutrally buoyant.

tennis balls are great, a needle used to pull you mono through, but heres a hint, take the cloth off the out side.

smelli wrote: i also made a mention of similar thing in the post someone started and was titled-say something - or similar... a mate of mine in akl uses this for casting out the little hook/plastic as shown... uses a kids rubber ball about 1 1/2 " across... says he can cast them really far... and they use them in the UK line thru the ball with swivel either side to hold in place

Thats pretty sweet

Im pretty sure it is a hollow ball--will find out from my mate and confirm

the guy who told me about this told me he uses it pretty much just to help cast those little lures further

scuzzymoto wrote: why not use a a normal float????- use them all time- some floats you can add water to them for buoyancy and extra weight, some floats you pass the line right through them and and use the stopper plug or  use power gum as a stopper(which will slide under pressure), or the ones were you attache line top and bottom, I think a tennis ball is just to much mucking around.

Shiat I thought I was the originator, perhaps not so, great minds think alike. Yeah they are the solid little bouncy balls. You can use them sliding on your trace so it falls down to the end of your line for a good cast. When it lands your hook and bait can fall through. Or my mates favorite; no trace and it will fall as far as you want it to. If you had a tennis ball with a hole big enough for your line to freely move through it's gonna fill up with water, plus they are big. You just got to be careful making the hole in the bouncy ball as they split super easy.

I have not used them in years for bait fishing, I just use the little ones for catching piper and squid these daze. They work super sweet being neutrally buoyant and less conspicuous.