A deadly pellet wag set-up

I STRUGGLE with a bad back, so fishing the long pole shallow for carp is hard. Would the pellet waggler catch me more fish and, if so, how do I set it up?

Brian Collins, Maltby

EASIER to fish than a long pole and simple to set up, the pellet waggler remains the pleasure angler’s number one method for catching carp shallow, especially on big open-water lakes where the fish may be feeding at a fair distance.

Match anglers also have a sizeable space in their armoury for the ‘pellet wag’.

An active method, the pellet waggler works well with repeated casting and feeding, fished a few feet deep with a steady stream of 8mm hard pellets being rained around it. The float is left in the water for no longer than 10 seconds before being twitched or re-cast.

Put simply, the float is a stumpy length of balsa wood or polystyrene, both highly buoyant materials, and the finished float will have a very visible top, making it look more like a pike bung than a waggler. The splash that it makes when hitting the water draws the fish in and the loosefeed should do the rest!