Winning tactics
How to beat the pole and feeder
from Des Shipp
IT CAN be very easy to fish almost on auto pilot, turning up at your peg and immediately starting to work out where you would be best off fishing the pole.
That way you’re leaving one of the best weapons for catching early spring carp in the rod bag. I’m talking about the waggler.
For so many anglers this float only ever makes an appearance in summer, fished shallow in its dumpy form with pellets.
However, we’re not quite there in terms of warm weather for the pellet waggler to begin working. Instead, fishing conventional float tactics with the bait presented on the bottom gives you a versatility that the long pole can’t match.
With a waggler you can change the depth you are fishing at, cast into different areas of the swim and react to changes that may take place in the feeding patterns of the fish over a fivehour match. It’s also a far less obtrusive way of fishing, which can pay off on venues where the water is only just beginning to colour up.
I’ve seen this happen so many times, even in swims up to 10ft deep. The shadow caused by the pole is enough to put the carp off getting stuck into the feed, but when you cast a waggler over the top, the change can be dramatic.
The waggler is also deadly when you’ve got an island to cast to. Regular casting and feeding into the shallows ringing the island can produce a quicker response than chucking a feeder, as it can pick off wily big carp that have come up in the water on warmer days. The splash of the waggler draws them in and then they wolf down the bait!
I’ve come to the lovely Alvechurch Fisheres complex near Birmingham to fish its Horseshoe Lake with a waggler attack. This pool has an island well out of pole range, and it screams ‘feeder’. However, with no breeze and carp topping regularly, I reckon the waggler might be the better bet!
WHEN TO GET ON THE WAG
On a warm day I would certainly think about starting on the waggler. Chances are those around you will throw a feeder to the island, but by picking the float you’re offering the carp a very different bait presentation without making the crash, bag, wallop of a feeder landing.
The float is also worth fishing from the word go if you can see fish moving about, and a further bonus is that with the waggler, you are still giving yourself the chance to fish a feeder if the float doesn’t work – basically you’re not doing the swim any harm.
By beginning on a feeder there’s no bait falling through the water and allowing you to change to the float later.
BANDED PELLETS
Pellets are now becoming the bait to use for carp, taking over from the maggots that worked so well in winter.
A banded pellet won’t come off on the cast and can’t be ripped off the hook by small fish, and pellets always produce a better stamp of fish. Hence a 6mm hard pellet is my go-to hookbait.
That’s not to say that other baits won’t produce, and a grain of corn makes a great change.
The trouble with this is, you can’t side hook a kernel of corn when fishing with a hair rig.
At Preston Innovations, we thought about that and have recently released Quick-Change Swivels that allow you to swap hooklengths and baits without needing to lose any depth off the rig or retie another link.
All I need to do is slide the sleeve off the swivel, slot the loop of the hooklink on to the crook and push the sleeve back over. It takes seconds, and will help your fishing no end.
FEEDING
There are two sizes of pellet needed for the waggler – 6mm and 8mm. I’d always try to feed 6mm pellets, as this is the same size as the bait on the hook and I find that it catches a range of fish from F1s to skimmers.
Sometimes, though, the wind or the distance you are fishing at rules this out – 8mm pellets will travel much further, so if you can’t hit the mark, make the change. In terms of how much to feed, around six or seven pellets at a time is ample. That way you’re not encouraging the carp to come off bottom.
REGULAR CASTING
As a rule, I wouldn’t leave the float in the water for too long as I reckon most of your bites will come as the pellet is settling or certainly within a few minutes of the cast being completed.
However, there are times in perfect conditions when it can pay to leave the float out there for up to 10 minutes, normally on harder days when the fishing is tricky. In my experience, though, the natural tow of a lake or any breeze will soon push a waggler offline.
It is possible to catch as the float drifts, but this tends to lead to foul-hooking so you’re better off winding in once the waggler starts to drift.