What is float fishing?
Float fishing (Swedish “mete”) is passive fishing with natural bait on a hook. You present the bait at a chosen depth — under a float, or on the bottom with a weight — and wait for the fish to find it.
The technique is best known from lake and pond fishing for bream, roach, tench, crucian carp, carp and perch, but it works just as well for pike (on deadbait) and zander.
Tackle
A 3–4 m telescopic rod, a simple reel or even a hand line, floats in a range of sizes, hooks in sizes 8–14, small split shot and a couple of bait tubs — and you are fishing.
Float fishing is one of the cheapest ways into angling. A complete starter kit often costs under SEK 500.
Baits
Worm (lobworm, brandling) — the universal bait, taking everything from perch to tench and bream.
Sweetcorn and paste — the classic sweet baits for carp species and bream.
Prawn and mussel — sea fishing for cod, flatfish and mackerel.
Deadbait (roach) — pike, zander, burbot. Especially good through the winter and in early spring.
Where and when
Coarse fish (roach, bream, tench, crucian carp) move into shallower water to spawn in April–June — that is when float fishing is at its most productive. Early morning or dusk give calmer water and more active fish.
Sea: jetties and breakwaters on the Baltic produce flatfish and cod on simple ledger rigs all year round. The west coast offers the same, plus wrasse and mackerel in July–September.
