I received some wafters from a well-respected bait company, however, when my sad self decided to test some rigs in the bath they floated a 10-inch rig with a size 6 hook.

I dosed them up with booster liquid but they are still overly buoyant, ie; the hair is pulled tight and it behaves more-or-less like a low-lying pop-up which is not what I want.

To me, a wafter should sit on the deck and not be that buoyant that it risks fishing directly off the lead, or am I wrong?

I emailed said bait company and they sent me out another pot FOC but they're exactly the same.

In reply to Post #1
Try a German rig, size 4 hook and a metal bait screw or swivel to attach the bait. There may just be enough extra weight to sink it.

I prefer overly buoyant so you can tailor it yourself. Poke a hole on it and stuff some lead wire out from the center off leadcore.

In reply to Post #3
I also prefer Wafter sitting up above the hook, even if it angles the hook up a little. (I think that makes really effective hooking) but obviously not the whole rig.
To the OP, put them in a pot and keep using bait spray on them.
Glugs, thick liquids are no good, you want a thin solution.
No good if you don't want to flavour them of course
Or, as above, try get a mini drill, half drill them and stick some leadcore in.
Not totally ideal if they're going to be out along time.

In reply to Post #1
Trim them down till they sit on the deck?

In reply to Post #1
Testing them in the bath is not the same as using them in a fishing situation.
In a lake you will have water pressure pushing downwards, the deeper the water the more pressure.
For that reason unless you swim down and inspect your rig on the lake bottom you will not know how it's behaving.

I gave up on wafters years ago. Your bait may be wafting all over the place as a fish approaches. I prefer to fish bottom baits.

In reply to Post #6
I think this is going to be the answer to be honest.

thanks all.

In reply to Post #5
Tried this, the bait ended up tiny!

In reply to Post #8
I make my own wafting baits and this allows me to have the bait you desire.
Making them yourselves will avoid the struggle buying x different brands to find out which ones suit you.

In general I produce my own wafted from my basemix with some cork dust.
Recipes are shared here multiple times already...

But there are other ways to generate a wafting bait:
(1) topping 3/5 of bottom bait with 2/5 of pop up (small snowman if you would like to call it like that)
Here you have to cut and trim both but this is my go to approach for 90% of the time.
You can tune the visual aspect by picking different color of pop up.

(2) make use of a bait drill (6 or 8mm for small baits) and drill a hole, which can be filled with foam or cork. This will give your bait some ‘wafting' propertie but I don't like it

In reply to Post #8
Yup, never been a fan of trimming baits down. You lose that 'skin', and although they prob give off better attraction they just erode and become very small, and any buoyancy will be lost.

In reply to Post #10
I'm not convinced with the wafter theory , but a static snowman or pop up yes , I've seen countless underwater videos where the pop up is the first bait to be inspected/eaten.

In Austria I fished waters that were as deep as 10m , at 10m there is considerable pressure on the bait , hence the bait firms probably make the baits more buoyant due to this fact , there will be a considerable difference between testing your bait in the edge or a bathtub and in the actual fishing condition.

In reply to Post #3
That I think answers the op's question in my mind. The bait company have no idea what you'd like to counterweight to make the whole rig a wafter, ie negate the weight of the hook, which could be a size 8 light or size 2 conti, so they make them over buoyant to be trimmed down in certain cases.

I don't believe trimming makes any difference to Cork ball/dust/air ball short term in reality though removing the skin will allow for faster water ingress long term.

I don't buy into critically balanced rigs either, if you leave 1 in the margins you'll see within the hour bubbles start to collect on the bait and it starts to rise. Nuisance fish can peck them off which is helpful but you can't rely on that.

In reply to Post #1
Have you tried tungsten kickers, a good way to add weight directly to your hook and have found the hook holds are excellent

In reply to Post #1
Get some fly tying lead wire. Get it in various different dimension, plug the back of the bait with it untill it's balanced how you want.

In reply to Post #14
That's what i used to do but using electrical solder, I tested it a bucket until what I said in post#6

I could never get the hang of wafters but I finally resolved it. I currently use Gemini low level ronnie booms, size 4 muggas, either shrink tubing or large tungsten kickers and a bait screw on the hook. 15 and 16mm wafters now sit perfectly and definitely improved my hooking rate. I tend to only use wafters from Sticky and Mainline as well.

In reply to Post #1
get some nash lead wire, drill a couple of 2-3mm holes,push the lead wire in and trim it off.. test and do another hoke if required

quickest & easiest way is add a bb split shot to the hair just under the bait.

Use a bait screw. Slide a small tungsten bead down the screw until it butts against the ring of the screw. Use the point of scissors to create a cavity in the wafter and screw on your bait. Alternatively place a blob of tungsten in the cavity. Using this method you can also turn pop ups into wafters

Half a pop up and 2/3rds of a bottom bait.
I pre-cut about a quarter of a tub of pop ups in half.

In reply to Post #20
Half a pop up and 2/3rds to 3/4s of a bottom bait out of the bag.



In the testing jar, nicely balanced.

Just had a fish on this. A trimmed down boosted barrel and half a pop up.
Multi rig in a solid bag over a big spread of boilie.
Good food signal from the bottom bait and the half pop up to balance and as a fleck of colour over the bag mix.

Edit; three fish.

Cheers all, im going to fish them hard on the deck, straight out the bag.

The wafters are no good as they are. I have soaked them in a very fine booster liquid and it has made no difference, still floats the rig directly off the lead.

Good point re the manufacturers, they have no idea on their intended use - they did send me another free pot which i am unlikely to use, great service from them in any case.

In reply to Post #23
As you say great service from the bait company
Good luck 👍

I think with wafters it's such a personal thing that it's difficult to please everyone. I personally like mind to sit up off the bottom but not lift the hook up. So that's how I roll them. Other people prefer them to literally sit on the bottom. I think all you can ask of the people making them is that they are consistent and then each individual angler can decide how they want to use them.

In reply to Post #23
I have found the 15 & 16mm Mainline and Sticky wafters are perfect on my current setup. I always check them after reeling in as well and they are still buoyant even after a good few hours in the water.