Dave Harrell takes us through his float tactics for slow-moving rivers

Open up slow-paced swims and put more fish in the net

OVER the past few years I have fished with many anglers who openly admit they struggle when it comes to waggler fishing on rivers.

So, starting this week, I’m going to take you through the waggler approaches that I have developed over the past 40 years since I first properly got to grips with catching fish from moving water.

In this first part of the series, we’re going to look at waggler fishing on slow-moving rivers, where the current is just about moving the float through.

REEL LINE

Because delicate presentation is often the main requirement on slow-moving rivers, we need to use light mainlines. I use my own 3lb Pro Float line, which has a diameter of just 0.14mm.

This is a naturally floating line, but if I want it to sink, I simply squirt a bit of washing up liquid on to the spool.

HOOKS AND HOOKLENGTHS

In slow-moving rivers, fish have much more time to examine the hookbait than they do in a fast flow. For this reason your presentation has to be as perfect as possible, as your hookbait needs to mimic the loosefeed that you are introducing with a catapult.

I usually kick off with 0.10mm Pro Rig line hooklengths, but I would scale up to 0.12mm if the fish were feeding well, or down to 0.08mm if bites were hard to come by.

Hook choices are always fine-wire size 22 up to size 18.

SIMPLE SHOTTING

I always keep things simple on slow rivers. Most of the shot is used to lock the float on to the line, and then I position a No8 shot for every 2ft of depth.

A 6ft-deep swim would therefore require just three No8s, equally spread down the line with the bottom shot resting on top of a 30cm hooklength.

In slow river situations, keep adding No8 shot to the locking shot until you can barely see the float tip above the surface. This will make the float ultra-sensitive

and enable you to hit more bites, as the fish won’t feel the resistance as much as if you have a lot of float tip showing. I can’t stress this point enough, especially for shy biting roach.

CAST DOWNSTREAM

For the very best presentation, always cast your rig downstream. This will put you in the perfect starting position and enable you to run the rig a long way down the river without having to constantly mend the line to beat any bow that might be forming.

If there is no wind, leave the line floating, but if it’s windy and you’re struggling to control the line, just sink it beneath the surface by burying the rod-tip after you’ve cast in and then give the line a quick sideways flick.

CHANGE YOUR DEPTHS

Always be prepared to work hard when you’re waggler fishing. You’ll be doing a lot of casting out and reeling in, and the worst thing you can ever do is leave the rig set at the same depth for too long.

Fish can be feeding at any depth from just under the surface down to the bottom, so keep changing things to initially find them and then stay in touch with them.

Start off at exact full depth and work up and down from there, changing the depth at least every 15 minutes.

FEED SPARSELY

On slow rivers, you don’t normally need a lot of bait. At this time of the year, two pints of maggots will be ample, although you might use a bit more in the summer months. Feed little and often, and use mainly single maggot on the hook in order to trick the fish into taking your hookbait while it’s dropping through the feed.

One big tip here… if fish are proving hard to tempt, feed first then wait a second or two before casting in where the feed has been introduced. This trick works much better than casting, then feeding, in a slow flow.