REVEALED! AMAZING NEW PELLET WAGGLER
Floatfishing legend John Allerton exclusively unveils how to use his innovative new wagglers
PELLET waggler fishing has become more and more refined.
The days of throwing in great big splasher floats are long gone for most, as the fish are well aware of what they are, and even some cigar-shaped floats are starting to become less effective.
For a number of years now I’ve been using clear wagglers almost exclusively for carp. This goes back to my days on the Rivers Trent, Witham and Calder.
I’ve always believed that a clear float offers a real advantage, especially when fishing shallow swims. I can remember how much of a difference they made fishing for chub on the Witham, for example. Fishing for carp and F1s in the top few feet of water is no different, in that any way you can disguise the float is bound to be an advantage.
In the early days of commercials you could chuck just about anything out and catch, but carp have been caught so often now that they are wise to a lot of floats.
The only problem has been how far these more sensitive wagglers dive under the water, even when feathered down on the cast.
A slim traditional waggler has always had a tendency to go 2ft or more under the water before popping back up. When you could get a bite instantly from a fish from just 6ins to 3ft down, this is far from ideal! Anglers have added discs and made wide tops to stop floats diving, but at a cost of adding unnecessary weight to the float.
I knew there was another answer so I began playing with tubes and holes in my wagglers and settled on the Carp Catcher. The float tip is inserted into the open tube of the main body, with a hole in the side to let air escape. When it enters the water, air pushing out of the hole holds the float up as bubbles emerge from the body.
DON’T SINK THE LINE
I’ll usually feed a few pellets, then cast my float straight over the top when fishing the waggler shallow like this. Don’t sink the line or you’ll ruin your chances of getting a bite in that prime time when the float lands and the pellet falls!
Leave it on the surface, and if you don’t get a bite after, say, 20 seconds, try feeding again and reeling it back a few turns.
A depth of around 3ft is a good starting point, but if you’re missing bites come up a bit.
For a typical session I start at a comfortable distance with one of my lighter wagglers, 3g or 4g.
As the session goes on I often clip this off and replace it with a heavier 5g or 6g waggler, to follow the fish as they back off out into the lake a bit. Because these are quite sensitive floats you can leave an inch of the top showing so you can see them better.