Commercial Fishing Tips | Pellet Wag tricks for autumn - Matt Bingham
The days are growing shorter, but if you think it’s time to put the pellet waggler away, think again!
It works wonders during the heat of summer but I’m in no doubt that it should play a part in your armoury right now.
The appetites of the carp in your local water may have reduced a touch, but they are by no means in hibernation. They’re also sitting well off the deck and more than willing to have a munch just a few feet below the surface.
Here are six tips to get the most out of the method NOW!
Try different floats
Use a 4g-6g foam version, switching to a balsa float in a wind to maintain accuracy.
Cast around the feed
If bites drop off, feed as before but cast beyond or to the side for fish that have backed off.
Adjust the depth
No bites in 10 casts? Adjust your rig 6ins either way and carry on till you contact fish.
Locking the float
Line stops, unlike shot, don’t damage your line. No shot are needed beneath the float.
Turn to light line
A 5lb mainline to a 0.17mm hooklength and size 12 Guru QM1 hook will usually suffice.
Stand-out hookbait
If bites cease, try an alternative hookbait such as a dyed 8mm pellet before changing depth.
Commercial Fishing Tips - Break out the pellet wag! - Steve Ringer
There’s something unique about fishing the pellet waggler. Incorporating big floats, big hookbaits, regular casting and aggressive, frequent bites, it’s a method that really gets the adrenaline pumping.
It comes into its own at this time of the year, when the sun is high in the sky, the mercury is hovering at around 20 degrees celcius and the fish are cruising about in the upper layers. Although the main quarry is carp of all sizes, it will catch other species too, and it’s a lot easier to fish shallow than the long pole.
Now is the time to get active with the pellet waggler
It’s also a very busy method, one that gives you better results if you work hard at it. You might make 50 casts without a bite but on that 51st chuck, the float will bury. If it doesn’t, then you should wait no longer than about 30 seconds before you reel in and repeat the process.
Get things right and the bites will be almost instant, as the fish will be sat waiting for the splash of the float hitting the water and the pellet hookbait alongside it.
Pick your float
There are two main types – balsa and foam-bodied. The balsa is an all-rounder, while the foam is for going very shallow on hot days.
Make sure you pick the right float for the conditions
Get the right size
Loaded floats are my only choice. On big lakes, we’re talking floats with a 10g to 12g loading but elsewhere half that size will do.
Loaded floats are my only choice
Don’t sit and wait
Cast so the float lands just behind the feed and twitch the reel handle to draw it into the feed. Bait and twitch again, then it’s time to recast.
You have to stay active to win with the pellet waggler
Choose pellets
For F1s use a 6mm hard pellet fished in a bait band and for carp try an 8mm pellet. A good change bait is a pellet wafter.
Use hard pellets, 6mm for F1s and 8mm for carp
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.
Top 10 pellet waggler tips
If you look out over your chosen venue and a series of swirls appear out of pole fishing range, it’s time to pick up the pellet waggler.
Warming waters and more hours of sunshine are leading to large numbers of carp basking on the surface and this month we reveal the top 10 tips to making the most of the deadly approach that is capable of outscoring everything else this month!
1. Light Mainline
The pellet waggler is a great tactic for catching carp well into double figures, but heavy mainline plays no part in this method. Fishing heavy mainline will make casting more difficult and 4lb Maxima is more than strong enough to beat even the biggest fish in your chosen water. Set your clutch so that fish can strip line when they make a sudden surge and you’ll never suffer a mainline breakage.
2. Loaded Floats
You can expect to catch fish in the top couple of feet of water now that the water has warmed up, but your hookbait needs to look natural if the carp are going to intercept it as it falls. Use a loaded pellet waggler that is locked in place by float stops so that you don’t have to put any shot on the line, enabling the hookbait to drop through the layers at a very slow pace. If your loaded float doesn’t quite sit as you want it, wrap a little solder wire around the base to address the balance.
3. Don't Feed Past Your Float
Spraying in bait with a catapult at regular intervals is vital if you want to get the carp competing, but where the loosefeed enters the water is important. Make sure all of your pellets land just short of the float. If they go beyond it, you will push the fish out and be forced to cast further to get back in touch with the shoal.
4. Feed Dry Pellets
Dampening your pellets is one of the first things that a lot of anglers do, however, they are much more effective used straight from the bag. Dry and untreated pellets will sink at a much slower rate which is important when you are trying to catch shallow.
5. Use a soft rod
Hook a fish just a couple of feet deep and it will instantly charge off, testing your tackle from the very first second of the battle. In order to prevent hook-pulls, a soft-tipped rod is crucial. An 11ft version is ample for fishing commercials where you don’t need to cast any further than 30-40 yards.
6. Find The Depth
If you are fishing a water that is 8ft deep, the fish could be sat anywhere in the column. A good starting depth at this time of year is 2ft, but this should be adjusted by a foot every 10 minutes until you start getting bites. If you begin to miss bites, shallow up as the fish are sat above your hookbait.
7. Bait Bands
There are two ways in which you can use a bait band – both directly on the hook or on a hair rig. Hooking the bait bands means that it is tight to the hook itself but make sure that the point is fully visible or you will lose fish. A hair rig is best when fish are slightly cagey and you are just trying to catch a few carp as opposed to 100lb.
8. Get Into A Routine
A pellet waggler is at its most effective seconds after it has landed because it is the splash that attracts the fish into the swim. If the float doesn’t shoot under within 15 seconds, twitch it by turning the reel once and wait another 15 seconds. If you don’t get a reaction, reel in and repeat the process.
9. Wide Gape Hooks
Narrow gaped hooks tend to lead to a lot of bumped fish when using the pellet waggler and a wide gape version will lead to a much better return because the point will penentrate the mouth much easier. A size 14 or 16 Guru Pellet Waggler or Preston Innovations PR36 will complement your rig perfectly.
10. Quick Changes
If conditions change you may need to make rig changes and certain adaptors will enable you to do that in seconds without tackling down. A Preston Innovations Waggler Adaptor will enable you to change the float quickly, while a Cralusso Match Quick Swivel will make changing hooklengths a simple process.
