I think the problem is your incorporating too many things into what "You" consider "unethical"!!!! Bottom bouncing is a term for your weight ticking along the bottom down here....How is that unethical? Short floating is only one method of fishing..It to me is old fashioned and out of date...to preach it's the only way to fish is IMO elitist... That's what bothers me on this subject.... I'm sick of reading how guys are" ticking bottom and then adjusting their floats to be just off that and fishing 18" leaders"....and then showing pictures of steelhead they SNAGGED with the roe bag uncrushed and the hook on the outside of the mouth....pure b.s. ( but that's been shown enough on 2:40's site )
We are fighting a war among st ourselves over what is deemed "ethical" by a select group...What we really need to be concerned with is not division but pulling all angling groups togeather to stand up as one...Whether it be fly, float, etc. Your resources are going fast and your pissing into the wind over leader length. We catch the fewest amount of fish and yet spent the most for local economy's etc. We aren't heard because everyone is always pointing at someone else as the cause...That's the real problem in a IMHO..
Golfman, you are right, bottom bouncing is a legit form of angling, used in very deep portions of water on the vedder... I used to do it myself in Allison Canyon, where floats could not get down deep enough.
The problem is that flossing has appropriated the term, and before sockeye, bottom bouncing was done with a 1.5-3 foot leader, to allow the bait to swing freely in the current.
Bouncing betties were never used back then, it was more pencil lead and slinkies.
So until there is some sort of restriction on leader length, this debate will continue.
New anglers (by new I mean 10 years or less) may know nothing better than flossing, and they need to be educated.
Or else they'll think it's okay to floss everywhere, and I think we can all agree that is not right.
Cheers,
Nicole