Pellet waggler tricks
Match ace Warren Martin’s secrets for big catches
THE thought of fishing the pole shallow at 16m isn’t one that appeals to everyone, especially if you have to ‘slap’ the rig continually on the surface.
Thankfully, there is an easier way to fish shallow for carp, and one that I’d say on its day is even more productive!
The pellet waggler is a deceptively easy method of fishing, simply consisting of a short, stumpy waggler fished a few feet shallow – but, as ever, there’s a bit more to it than that.
Watch a pellet waggler angler in action and it does look like hard work with a constant regime of casting and feeding. That graft will be rewarded when the float flies under and he bends into a carp!
Much of the success of the pellet waggler revolves around finding the depth that the fish are feeding at, something that’s true of all shallow fishing methods. This can be anything from 2ft deep to half-depth in a 12ft-deep swim.
Carp will never be feeding at one depth all day and this can change in the space of a week at this time of year, so you have to be prepared to constantly alter the depth and seek out the carp.
The pellet waggler works on most commercials where you can fish shallower than the actual depth where you are fishing, but I find that it really comes into its own on well-stocked lakes with depths of over 7ft. I have caught over 300lb in matches on it but wouldn’t fish the waggler on a snake lake, or where you are fishing tight to features. It is ideally for open water pegs.
To seek the fish out I set up a couple of pellet waggler rods so I don’t have to keep moving the float down the line all the time. One is set at around half depth and one set at around 2ft deep or even shallower.
I’ll start with the deeper set-up and if I get no bites I will set the float deeper until I get signs. If I get liners but not many or no bites I’ll shallow up until I start catching fish consistently.
If, however, the carp are just under the surface I use my shallower rig which I also use for casting around the peg in search of fish.
Float choice is relatively simple. I prefer the standard cigar-shaped pellet waggler because you can use less weight but cast further, which is important.
A lot of commercial venue fishing is about making plenty of ‘splash’ with your rig or feed, but I think that now the opposite is true and the bigger carp shy away from the noise created.
Therefore, I like to use as light a float as I can get away with, one carrying 3BB to 5BB. On my shallow searching rig, I even cut down the float to make it quieter upon entering the water.
Most pellet waggler rods will work well but I use a 12-footer to help you cast at distance and cater for the depth if it is 12ft or more. An 11ft rod is fine for swims of around 6ft, though. I also like reel lines of 6lb and hooklengths of around 0.16mm for big carp.
Some people won’t use shot on their line, thinking it gives a more natural fall of the hookbait, but I am not a fan. I prefer using around three No9 shot spread down the line when fishing over 5ft deep to give the pellet hookbait a nice curving fall through the water.
For hooks I use Matrix Carp Baggers in sizes 14 and 16.
When it’s time to cast, don’t think that you have to go long. I would generally start at around 20 yards. The peril of going too long is that it can be uncomfortable to cast and feed the swim, especially if the wind picks up or changes direction during the day.
Feeding is easy to get wrong and the mistake anglers make is to feed all over the swim wherever they cast. The best way to keep fish coming consistently is to feed very accurately and in one place for the entire session.
Catapulting three or four pellets constantly, even while playing a fish, is as difficult as it needs to get and even if I am casting around in search of moving fish with my shallow rig I’ll still feed in the original area. This will attract carp into your swim, from which point they will then move around.
Another important point about fishing the pellet waggler is never to use a rod rest. That way I think you miss too many bites, as the carp take the bait very quickly.
If you have the rod on a rest while feeding with a catapult there isn’t an angler in the world who is quick enough on the strike. Therefore, learning to hold the rod while feeding is ultra-important.
The regime is to cast, feed, leave the rig for a few seconds and then give the float a twitch before feeding again. I then wind in an repeat the process. Which size pellets do I use? I try and go for the same pellet size on the hook as I do for feeding, but I slightly dampen the feed pellets to add a tiny bit more weight which helps to improve accuracy when catapulting. I like to use 8mm pellets when big carp are the quarry as they attract only the bigger fish and you can catapult them far enough. I only scale down to 6mm pellets if smaller carp and F1s are the quarry. One tip is that if you are spraying the bait, then practise catapulting in your spare time until you can drop the pellets in a dustbin lidsized area. This will make you a far better angler, especially when using this tactic.
For a change bait, meat can often work as it produces a slower fall through the water, but mainly the waggler is a pellet-based tactic – as the name suggests!
“Much of the pellet waggler’s success revolves around finding the depth fish are feeding at”