Waggler fishing

[matti]

So today was the 2nd match of our winter league, and I came second and won some money which made a nice change from being pools fodder, anyway, to get too the point,
It was hard today, weighed in 14lb, fishing between cage feeder with ground bait and red maggot on the hook, and waggler at 8/9m, the wind and swell from right to left was really pushing through at times, so here was the problem, keeping the waggler in the swim, I started off with a 3gram straight waggler, with a bulk about 300mm from the hook and 1no. AA on the deck, that didn't work and was hard to keep track off, changed to a drift beater float, with only weight on the hook length 100mm from the hook, this was better but still not great, in the end I changed to a 8gram drennan missile, really overkill and 2 ssg's on the hook length, this worked but was murder to cast, what could I have done differently in the situation?

 

[Silverfisher]

14lb hard that’s a nice bag of silvers any day! Or was that about 4 carp?

Waggler fishing on Stillwaters in wind can be a real pain, it’s not one I’ve really figured out how to combat properly. It’s not too bad in the warmer parts of the year as you tend to get a bite before it starts messing about but can be killer when it’s cold.

 

[ukzero1]

Locslide or Polaris with bomb.

 

[matti]

1 carp, 3 ish pound, all the were skimmers up to a 1lb had a great time,
Its a real dark are waggler fishing, would it have made a difference if I'd had strung out shot on the deck instead, at the expense of bite indications

 

[Silverfisher]

1 carp, 3 ish pound, all the were skimmers up to a 1lb had a great time,
Its a real dark are waggler fishing, would it have made a difference if I'd had strung out shot on the deck instead, at the expense of bite indications

Not too bad then considering it’s still pretty cold ??

 

[matti]

Thought about using a polaris float, but was trying to fish a quieter line with a float, rather than lobing in a feeder or bomb on a polaris

 

[buygoodtackle]

If you got tow then increase your depth and lay more line on the bottom.

 

[RMNDIL]

1 x AA on the deck is a lot, 2SSG is a LOT. That is some tow. It must have been ripping through

 

[matti]

it was like the north sea, most set up there poles from the start, and quickly realised it wasnt a good idea

 

[grey]

1 carp, 3 ish pound, all the were skimmers up to a 1lb had a great time,
Its a real dark are waggler fishing, would it have made a difference if I'd had strung out shot on the deck instead, at the expense of bite indications

Yes it would, although a lighter total weight, 3no4s generally have the same hold a a single AAA - or 5no6s

I prefer a string of 6s as you can add or nip one off to fine tune to conditions, but there are times you need so many it become impractical. Lead shot (like no8s) is not as good due to the lower surface area.

They don't have to be strung far apart - just enough to let them move freely, so has little effect on bite indication.

Was the float lifting or sinking to show a bite?

 

[matti]

mostly going under but because of the chop on the surface, bites werent easy too see, did have the ocasional lift bites too

 

[Mike atkinson]

Maggot or cage feeder would have been better,

 

[Fugley-fisher]

I would of been tempted to put the lightest tip I own on my bomb rod 1/2 oz or whatever and set up I little link of 2 swan as your already casting that into your swim and fish that on your waggler line and loose feed over the top same as you would if float fishing or a very small feeder maggot or ground bait.

 

[SteveAmo]

Have you thought of giving the slider a go? It doesn’t have to be mega deep to fish the slider I regularly fish it even though it may only be 5 or 6 foot deep.

You can can get plenty of lead down the line to combat the tow plus by Fishing the slider you miss less bites as you are striking through the float and not against it.

Give it a go you might be surprised how well it works

 

[matti]

Maggot or cage feeder would have been better,

that was on the other line

 

[matti]

Just going back to laying on the bottom with spread out shot, if you were going to do this would you use a shorter hook length to keep the weights on your main line,, so for instance if you were going fish 6 inch over depth, would you use a 4 inch hook length and keep you weight on the last 2 inches of you main line?

 

[rudd]

it was like the north sea, most set up there poles from the start, and quickly realised it wasnt a good idea

I doubt it was like the North sea as a 5 to 8 oz breakaway lead is usually required in winter ??

As stated by others, a slider float is the way to go if you are intent on fishing the float.
Your driftbeater would have been fine fishing slider style.
You can use proper sliders, zoomers, bodied or straight wagglers (would not go under 3aaa).
Drennan giant peacocks work a treat.
One thing to understand is whilst surface tow and waves are going one way, under tow will be going in another direction. The bulk shot act as both an anchor and a sail (caught by undertow), I used to use big shot as bulk but after figuring this out now use a string of smaller shot.

 

[Godber]

With the wind blowing one way you will probably get a tow going the other. This is where unloaded floats are useful. A straight waggler with 2/3rds of the weight around the float and the other 1/3rd in a bulk about 3/4 depth. Add a couple of droppers but dont have the float too finely dotted down. The tow will act on the bulk counteracting the effect of the wind. You can add or take off shot from the bulk and adding or taking away from the float bulk.
Long floats to get the line under the water and degrease the line with fairy liquid. Like has be said above, you can drag line along the bottom adding length bit by bit until you get a static bait presentation.