Top Pellet Waggler fishing tips with Rob Wooton
If there’s a tactic that ticks all the right boxes for catching carp shallow in summer then it has to be the pellet waggler. We aksed reigning Maver Match This champion Rob Wooton to give us his best tips for fishing the pellet waggler.
Compared to the pole, the waggler allows you to cast around your swim in search of the fish and feed accurately. It puts a lot less strain on the back and arms than the pole and offerds more of a safety net when playing and landing angry carp than several metres of carbon with elastic inside it.
For the average angler, wielding 13m of pole and trying to feed tightly around the float while lifting and dropping the rig can be a bit of a turn-off, but the waggler does away with all that. Instead, you just cast, feed and repeat until the float buries and a fish is on.
It’s a very robotic way of fishing but a method that rewards the busy angler best. You may make hundreds of casts, many of which won’t result in a bite or a fish, but compared to casting out and leaving the bait sat there, regularly chucking will give you a much better chance of success.
Float choice
“Things have changed when it comes to the type of waggler you fish. The days of relying on a big float to make a splash and pull the carp in are on the wane. The fish on heavily-fished waters are more educated, so you need to employ a little more finesse.
“There is still a place for big pellet wagglers, but increasingly I use lighter, almost traditional, floats. Middy’s Carp Baggin’ Machine Fat Boy floats are straight clear plastic patterns taking just a few grams, and these make far less noise when they hit the surface. This lack of commotion, I am sure, helps catch me more fish and I tend to pick floats with a loading of between 2g and 4g.
“That doesn’t sound a lot, but provided you use a thin and light mainline, you can still cast these floats far enough.
“I’ll change to the bigger wagglers when I want to make some noise or I am planning on casting in and out very quickly. In this instance, the Middy Xtreme S2 floats come out to play in 6g and 8g sizes.”
Rigging up
“I’m not a fan of pellet waggler attachments to lock loaded floats in place. I prefer instead to use Slot Shots on the mainline above a 6ins length of twisted line. This twisted section reduces tangles and the Slot Shots won’t budge, even after repeated casting. I fix two below the float and one above it.”
The right mainline
“As I’ve already mentioned, provided you use a thin and light mainline the lightest of wagglers can be cast a long way, so there’s no point in picking a thick 8lb line.
“Instead, I go for low-diameter Middy M-Tech in 0.16mm or 0.18mm diameter, which is rugged enough for catching 100lb on a repeated basis and casting hundreds of times.
“Hooklink is 0.16mm to a size 16 eyed barbless hook tied using a knotless knot to incorporate a pellet band. I’ll also mention rods – I pick an 11ft model as the perfect all-rounder, but do make sure it has a soft action to prevent bumped fish on the strike.”
Finding the depth
“The depth you fish at varies over the course of a day as the carp can move up and down in the water, so I begin by fishing 2ft deep, altering this based upon two factors. If I am not catching, this tells me to fish deeper as the fish should be down in the water a little. In this situation, I could be fishing 5ft deep.
“If I’m getting lots of indications and foul-hooking fish 2ft deep, going shallower will help so I change the depth to just 12ins.
“I don’t do this by moving the float and the shot about, as this weakens the hold of the shot. Instead, I slip on a different hooklink – I have plenty tied up to fish at 1ft through to 5ft or 6ft if need be.”
Regular casting
“This is the most important part of fishing the pellet waggler. Nine times out of 10, you catch a carp that has taken a bait falling through the water.
“So cast as often as you can, feed as often as you can and be prepared to work at it!
“The noise of the float and bait hitting the water attracts the fish and I wouldn’t leave the waggler in the water any longer than 30 seconds before winding in and casting again.
“The idea is to feed, cast, feed again, wait a few seconds, give the float a twitch by pulling the rod to one side, wait a few more seconds and then wind in and repeat.”
Feeding amounts
“Fewer pellets more regularly is the key here and, as with my wagglers, I also scale down the size of pellet used – 8mm baits are fine for windy days or when I need to fish at range, but generally Dynamite Baits 6mm Swim Stim pellets are perfect.
“I feed half-a-dozen each time, aiming to group them in an area around two metres square to create a catching zone into which I will cast the float.
“Hookbait is always the same as what I’m feeding, so that’s a 6mm Swim Stim hard pellet.”
Strike at everything
“Because carp have wised up, bites won’t be the sail-aways of the olden days! Instead, I’d advise striking at every indication on the float. The strike needs to be a solid upward sweep of the rod and not to the side.
“Keep a tight line to the float – this shouldn’t be too difficult when the float is in the water for only 30 seconds at a time.”