Eight steps to pellet waggler success with Steve Ringer
Get Feeding!
The secret to pellet waggler success lies in the feeding. As a guide I like to kick off feeding on a little-and-often basis, say 4-6 pellets virtually constantly.
The constant noise of the pellets landing on the surface helps to pull fish into the swim. Carp on most commercials are totally tuned into the noise of bait hitting the water, and feeding the way I recommend takes advantage of this fact.
Of course, if I start to get a good response to this initial feeding I will look to increase the amount of pellets to try and pull even more fish into the swim.
Big Float, Little Float
For the pellet waggler I often set one rod up with a big float and heavy mainline and another with a small float and light mainline.
Early in a session carp tend to be easier to catch, so a big float and heavy mainline are perfect. Once a few carp have been caught, a little more refinement is required. Now a light float comes into its own.
It goes in a lot quieter on the cast, which helps in terms of not spooking any feeding fish in the swim. Effective as a big float can be in causing a splash which the carp come to, on pressured waters this can spook fish – but two set-ups will cover all the bases.
Get a double 'plop'
One of the most important aspects of pellet waggler fishing is what I call getting the ‘double plop’ on the cast – separate splashes from float and hookbait.
With a good separation between the two, not only are you fishing more effectively but there is no chance of a tangle either.
To achieve it, all you have to do is feather the float into the water and the way to do that is to lightly place your finger on the spool of the reel just before the float hits the water.
This has the effect of slowing the float’s progress through the air, so not only does it land more quietly on the water – it also gives that separation between the hookbait and the float which is so important for a successful cast.
Try a wafter
Without doubt the number one hookbaits in the last 12 months have been wafter-type baits – for waggler work a Pellet Wafter really does take some beating.
The beauty of a Pellet Wafter is that it sinks ever so slowly under the weight of the hook, so your hookbait spends far more time in the ‘bite zone’.For example, an 8mm Ringers Pellet Wafter just sinks under the weight of a size 14 Guru Super MWG hook.
If you’re in doubt, keep a tub of water on your side tray so you can drop the baited rig into it before casting. This way you can check that it’s fishing correctly with the bait just sinking under the weight of the hook, neither floating nor sinking like a stone.
Don't rule out hard pellets
As well as using wafters on the hook when pellet waggler fishing, I like to carry a selection of different hard pellets too.
To begin with I will look to ‘match the hatch’ and fish the type of pellets on the hair to what I’m feeding. If the carp are already eating these baits, why not use them on the hook?
That said, I will also carry a few different shades of hard pellet, normally light and dark.I’ve always found that when the water is clear a light coloured hookbait tends to produce more bites, while when its coloured a dark pellet does the business.
The secret is, if you think there are carp in the swim and you aren’t catching them, be prepared to change your hookbait colour.
Give it a twitch
When fishing the pellet waggler there is nothing more unnatural than a hookbait just sitting there static under a float. For this reason I like to keep my hookbait on the move by giving the float a twitch.
Twitching the float has the effect of causing the hookbait to rise and fall in the water, which makes it appear far more natural to feeding fish. All you need to do is give the reel handle one quick turn. Don’t make any more than one turn, though, or you’ll pull the float out of the feed area.
Go deeper
When fishing the pellet waggler I’ve always been a big believer in starting deep and then looking to shallow up as the match progresses – this way I can cover a lot more water.
With a longer hooklength, even if the fish are sitting higher you will still know about it – you’ll either get bites on the drop or, alternatively, indications that tell you to come shallow.
If you start with a short hooklength, though, and the fish are sitting down in the water you’ll never know they are there.
As a guide, if I’m fishing in (say) 9ft of water I will look to kick off fishing at 4ft-5ft depth just to see what’s there.
Go further
Lots of pellet waggler anglers always fish right on top of their feed. This will catch fish, but they will miss out on a lot more. I would say I catch at least 50 per cent of my fish off the back of my feed, often up to 5m past.
I’m convinced that a lot of carp sit off the back of the feed and then dart into the loose offerings to feed. By casting past the loosefeed I can pick these fish off. Better still, I get two bites of the cherry. I will cast past the feed and then, if no bites are forthcoming, I feed and twitch the float into the loose offerings.
