Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Pellet wagglers
The tactic is responsible for huge weights of carp at this time of year. But are you using the right waggler?
On a hot sunny day, you can enjoy some fantastic sport catching carp shallow with a pellet waggler. We explain the different types available.
THE pellet waggler as become one of the deadliest tactics for catching huge hauls of shallow-swimming carp up-in-the-water at commercial pools. The aim is to suspend a hard pellet between 18 inches and 4ft beneath a large-bodied float and then catapult half a dozen pellets at it every 20 seconds or so. The constant trickle of bait falling through the water column encourages competing fish to rise up in the water where they find the temptingly-suspended hookbait. Fishing range is dictated by the distance pellets can accurately be fired around the float – anything up to 50 yards. Pellet wagglers are large floats, taking multiple SSG shot (one SSG is the equivalent of 2 x AAA) or preloaded with up to 12g weight, so they can easily be cast long distances, yet still be clearly seen. They also make a big splash that attracts hungry fish. Sensitive bite indication is not an issue here. Big carp competing for food will snatch the hookbait and bury a large float in a flash. The weight of the floats, and the big shot needed to lock them, combined with repeated casting and the pressure of fighting carp often weighing into doublefigures, can cause line breakages at the point where the locking shot are nipped on. One tip is to thread two short sleeves of fine diameter silicone tubing – the type used on pole float stems – on to the line either side of your float. You can now nip your locking shot on to this cushioning silicone to prevent locking shot ‘sawing’ through the reel line. Many tackle companies also sell a range of pellet waggler connectors to solve this problem.