Centrepin Fishing - All About Finesse

I’ve been reading recently about a style of fishing that is totally new to me. It is called Centrepin fishing. I first heard it mentioned either in a comment at the Roughfisherman's Journal or over at Tony's, Time by the River.



Centrepin fishing is a technique developed by rough fishermen in the UK for tench and roach. It is a subtle, highly skilled way to present bait, or a fly, drag free.

It turns out that the Steelheaders in Ontario are starting to use the technique with tremendous success.

Any method that can facilitate a drag free drift for the entire length of a pool would probably be deadly for summer salmon here in the Maritimes too.

Here is my understanding of how it works.
The components are a reel, a very long rod and a float. Different floats are used under different conditions.

The finely machined reel which looks like a fly reel built by a Swiss watchmaker is attached to the long rod. The reel is set up so that the line runs freely from the reel with the pull of current. The long rod keeps the line off of the surface; it lets you use a much lighter line and also allows for ten or twelve foot leaders between the float and the fly.

The bit that really caught my interest was the idea of long, drag free drifts. To be honest, what is it we fly fishermen spend our entire fishing lives trying to master? It has to be controlling drag. A few feet of a drag free drift is often cause for delight, a consistent ten feet would make us start to feel like we knew what we were doing but just imagine, a hundred feet of perfect presentation. The mind boggles.

I have got to try this.

I’m hoping somebody will comment on what happens when you get a take.
How the heck do you play a fish on a rig like this?