Fishing rod float or leash?

Haven't lost a rod and reel overboard yet (knock on wood), trying to decide if I should put a leash on my rods, styrofoam wraps, or both on my rods when I'm fishing on the Yak. I've experimented with both and each have their pros and cons in my limited experience. 

Curious if one is better than the other, each seem to require you to adjust how you fish, or affect the performance of the rod/reel. 

Thanks for the input.

B

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=88732.msg1010735#msg1010735

I only leash my paddle, phone, and transponder. My rods have floats, and the rest I'm willing to loose. I don't want to have a bunch of stuff dangling under the kayak if I flip.

Read the whole thread posted by Spiffy, lots of pro and con advice. 

Float.

Thanks for the tips and advice.  Looks like it going to be a a little of both for me. 

after losing a rod, I put floats on my rods and net, and make sure that everything that doesn't float gets a leash, which is my crab guage on a retractable leash on my pfd, and my mirage drive connected to a clip on the bow and VHF Radio leashed and clipped to my PFD.

I've been twisted up in a rod leash before, never again.  With that said I still do not use a float for my rods and have so far been lucky not to loose any.

Floats is my vote. After rolling at HMB a few years back I saw the value in floats over leashes. I have one leash, and that is for my paddle, everything else gets float.

I use leashes on mine. While I can understand the entanglement issue, I think it's overblown for rod leashes, as they should be very short. Of course, I also have a knife attached to the front of my PFD that I can access in an instant, just in case...

Rod floats for the win. I got flipped in rough waters at GS a few years back. I had line in the water and my first instinct was to throw my rod as far away from me as possible and get back on boat ASAP. The less leashes and clutter, the better. Some situations, you need to act fast.

Last year in Berryessa I "decided" to take a swim while fishing (December).  I quickly gathered up my floating stuff as I got back in the yak.  Once back onboard I took inventory.  My "floating" EGO net was nowhere to be found.  (Trust me, the area was checked for a good 20 minutes.)  My vote is to use leashes for anything that isn't nailed down.  And nail down anything you don't want to lose.
Kudos to EGO because I sent them my story and they sent me a replacement net.  THAT's great customer service in my book!

Anyone in favor of leashes just PM Montana.
If not for others present leashes would have killed him. No joke.
The idea of having a knife handy is fine; until it's not.
It might be fine in a pool setting, nice and calm, but when you get dumped because of conditions and the combo of waves, swell, wind drift, current, kayak banging you in the head because of how you are tangled, not being able to get to your knife because of how you are tangled and not being able to right your kayak because of how you are tangled will give you momentary pause for reflection on your leash decision. That is, if you're not panicking too bad because you are in a situation that has control of you.
As Darwin once said, "Leash up everyone!"

Float.

This works!  I haven't lost a rod yet.   

I prefer a standard roll of foam on the rod. Have you seen moo moo outdoors drop his rod and still land a king salmon? It floated in the ocean for a few minutes with a fish still on it!

I prefer to leash rods, nets, and similar gear to my kayak, because if an item goes overboard you could travel a long distance before you notice that it's missing, and could then be unable to find it.  It's embarrassing how often I've noticed that my net is dragging behind my kayak on its leash.

I use small retractable dog leashes as leashes for my rods and nets.  They work great, and can be purchased pretty inexpensively at Walmart and similar discount stores.  I use small waterproof retractors with cords about a foot and a half long for small items of fishing gear like my pliers, folding knife, shears, fish bonker, and lip gripper. If you use pieces of cord as leashes, the leashes lie around in your kayak and can get all tangled up with other gear and leashes. 

However, I am keenly aware of the risk of getting tangled up in one or more leashes if I get rolled in surf. One way I reduce this risk is by keeping my leashes as short as possible.  Another way is by strapping gear down when I'm not actually using it.  For example, you can bungie your rods into their rod holders so they won't hang beneath your kayak if you roll unexpectedly.  When going in or out through surf, I bungie my rods down on the gunwale of my kayak with the tip of the rod held in a tip protector.  I keep my small gear like pliers in the mesh bags on the gunwales of my Revolution so they won't be flapping around on their leashes if I roll my kayak.

Shown below are pictures of how I attach retractable dog leashes to my rods and nets.  I found that if I attach a leash anyplace near a reel, the leash gets in the way of using the reel and gets tangled in the reel's handle.  So I duct tape a loop of Spectra or Dyneema cord around each of my jigging rods about six inches in front of the reel, which keeps the leash out of the way of using my reel. For casting rods, I prefer to drill a hole in the butt of the rod, put a loop of Spectra or Dyneema cord through the hole, and then seal the hole with Aquaseal or Marine Goop.