Picture the scene. It’s a hot day and you arrive on the bank only to find a glassy surface and hundreds of carp sat motionless just inches deep, well out into the lake and seemingly not interested in feeding. What do you do?
Plainly, fishing on the bottom will be a waste of time, and the pole will be of no use, as the fish aren’t interested in coming closer to the bank. There’s only one choice, and that’s the pellet waggler. But a big float crashing into the water will only cause every fish in the vicinity to spook away from the noise.
That’s not the cue to admit defeat and go home, though – the waggler will still work, but you just need to be a little bit more stealthy with it.
Make no noise!
Middy Stubbee pellet wagglers sit quickly as soon as they hit the water and make next to no splash, perfect for mugging carp. Made of foam, they also cast well, and the interchangeable loading in the base allows you to swap floats.
Line equals accuracy
With smallish floats, you need thin mainline to make reaching the required distance easy. It’s all about diameters, so Middy M-Tech in 0.20mm is perfect, creating minimal resistance. It’s paired up with a foot-long hooklength of 0.18mm Lo-Viz.
Fish a big hook
Bites should be instant, so small hooks aren’t needed. The Middy KM-2 in sizes 14 or 16 will take an 8mm hard pellet in a band and give maximum hook penetration. Only if the fishing was really hard would I drop down to size 18.
Feed for groups
Sometimes carp will be swimming on their own and you don’t need to feed, but if there was a small group of fish, I’d feed a little bit of bait. This only needs to be half-a-dozen 8mm or 6mm pellets, enough to make a bit of noise.
Use coloured hookers
I may be feeding plain-coloured pellets, but on the hook I only use red or white ones. I think these create a different silhouette in the water, standing out a bit more. Red, in particular, is a colour I have a lot of confidence in.
Spot the carp!
Much of your success will be down to being able to see carp and cast to them. Surface glare can make this impossible, so a pair of polarised sunglasses is a must, cutting through any glare and letting me see a few feet down into the water.
