IF YOU TRY ONE THING
Pick up the waggler rod to reach those long-distance fish
THERE can be no doubting the effectiveness of the pole when it comes to bait presentation, placement of the rig and accurate feeding.
But the truth is that fishing with 13m of carbon isn’t always everything it’s cracked up to be.
Strong winds can make it an expensive way to fish in terms of broken sections, not to mention hard work wrestling with the pole itself.
A more common problem is evident on days when the fish aren’t to be found within pole range, instead feeding 20m or 30m out into the lake. There is salvation, though, and it comes in the form of the waggler.
Any distance can be cracked with this rod-and-line approach and it’s also a highly versatile method, allowing you with one rig to change from fishing for bream with a bait well overdepth to small roach and the odd carp off the bottom if things change during the day.
Heavier loosefeeding than a pouchful of maggots or casters every cast can come into play, for example, if there are a lot of very small roach feeding off bottom that will prevent much bait getting down to the bigger fish unless you feed the little chaps off.
Provided that your tackle is balanced, big fish can be landed with relative ease, and a good happy medium is to use a size 18 or 16 hook like the Guru F1 Pellet to a hooklength of 0.10mm and a mainline around 4lb.
Matched to a soft-actioned rod, there’ll be no dramas when a carp is hooked, but the set-up will be delicate enough to keep the roach and skimmers coming on a mixed stillwater.