If your local venue gets feeder fished a lot, carp can become wary of the commotion it causes when it lands. This is where I feel the pellet waggler can really give you an edge.
You see, the difference between a light pellet waggler and a feeder is how quietly you can get a waggler to go in. You’re basically ‘sneaking’ it in and keeping disturbance down to a minimum. On those days when there is no ripple, there’s no doubt that a well-presented waggler will outfish a feeder.
Light mainline
First, let’s talk set-up. Now, light floats are key but, to fish a light waggler properly, you need to use a light mainline. For this reason I use 5lb Guru Pulse Pro, which is just 0.18mm in diameter. It makes casting light floats so much easier, and also improves presentation.
Sneak it in
On the subject of floats for fishing up to islands in shallow water, I like Guru foam wagglers. These sit up a lot quicker than balsa floats and are ideal for this type of fishing. Float size depends on the distance I need to fish, but I will always use as light a float as possible. I’m convinced it helps in terms of getting more bites.
Below the float I have a medium Heli Swivel, which gives me the ability to quick-change my hooklength should the need arise. My hooklength varies depending on the size of the fish. That means an 0.17mm N-Gauge hooklength to a size 16 eyed Kaizen hook for fish upto 5lb. For bigger carp, I’d swap the Kaizen for a Super MWG in the same size.
YOU NEED THE RIGHT FLOAT ROD FOR FISHING A WAGGLER, CHECK OUTOUR BUYER'S GUIDE FOR MORE.
Consider the depth
Where to fish is also worth mentioning here, as this is very much depth-dependent. On some fisheries you need to be clipping the grass of the island, while on others you need to fish a foot or two off the bank.
Normally, if there is 18ins of water tight over, you should be fishing tight to the island. If it’s only 8ins deep, though, you might catch the odd carp tight, but the bulk will get caught 2ft away, where there is a little bit more depth.
I don’t tend to plumb up, instead playing around with the depth throughout the session. If I really need to find out how deep it is I will simply crimp an SSG shot on to the hook to plumb up with.
YOU WILL NEED ONE OF THE BEST LANDING NETS WITH ALL THE EXTRA FISH YOU WILL CATCH.
Clip up
One last word on where to fish, and that is, when fishing a waggler to an island, I always clip up for accuracy. I might play about with the clip during the session, but if I need to be landing tight to the grass then using a line clip is essential.
There’s no real worry about getting broken. It’s just like feeder fishing, in that when you hook a carp it can only go sideways or come back towards you, not bolt off into the middle of the lake!
THE BEST FISHING REELS MAKE FISHING WITH A WAGGLER MUCH EASIER AND PREVENT LINE TWIST.
Vary the feeding
Bait choice is simple – it has to be pellets! When fishing at such short range I like to fish and feed 6mm hard pellets. These I can easily loosefeed at 25m, and they are a nice-sized hookbait for catching carp and I always like to kick off feeding little and often.
That means 8 to 12 pellets on a virtually constant basis.If this doesn't get a response, try and make something happen and be very aggressive with the loosefeed. When it comes to feeding, you might need to mix it up a bit to try and make it happen.
THE BEST FISHING CATAPULTS WILL MAKE IT EASIER AND MUCH MORE ACCURATE TO FEED AROUND YOUR WAGGLER.
