Mid to late spring is a great time of year to start fishing the pellet waggler as fish begin to come off bottom to intercept bait and often cruise around on warmer days. We’ve put together a guide to the gear you need to make this great method work!
Floats
Try to use the lightest waggler you can get away with for the distance and conditions. Lighter floats are less likely to spook fish near the surface so often 4g or 5g wagglers are ideal.
The bigger a venue is however, the more it’s affected by tow so you might need something twice this on a big reservoir.
Loaded wagglers cast really well and mean you don’t need locking shot, but you can keep the float in place with float stops attached to the line either side of the float base. Lots of patterns now have clear plastic bodies which are great near the surface too.
BEST PRICE PELLET WAGGLERS
Rods
Specialist pellet waggler rods are slightly stepped up match rods with a more parabolic action. An ideal pellet waggler rod length is 11-12ft. If you’re fishing shallow venues at close to medium range then 11ft is ideal. For deeper venues where you might be casting further and fishing 5-7ft waggler rigs then a 12-13ft blank will be better. Some good choices are:
DRENNAN VERTEX 11FT
GURU AVENTUS WAGGLER
DAIWA NINJA 11FT MATCH
Reels
Pellet waggler work often involves a lot of holding the rod, casting and reeling so don’t use too large a reel. A 3000 model is fine, or a 4000 for large venues and big chucks. Why not have a look at the…
DAIWA 18 TDR QD 3012
PRESTON CENTRIS NT 320
SHIMANO STRADIC FK 3000 HG
Hooklengths
A banded 6mm or 8mm pellet on a hair rig is ideal for the pellet wag. Have a small gap between the hook and band, but not too much. The hooklength wants to be about 10-12ins long – you can make your own or buy some of the exceptional quality commercially made versions, such as…
GURU 15′ READY RIG WITH BANDS
DRENNAN POWER BANDITS