First Class Fishing

Part Three - Stillwater Waggler Fishing continued - how to feed, play fish and general tips

In part two I covered how to set up a waggler rig for general stillwater use and start fishing with it. Now I will show you how to feed correctly to attract and hold fish in your swim, how to identify bites, how to strike, how to play fish and some additional tips on how to overcome some of the more common problems encountered when stillwater waggler fishing.

You need to feed

No matter how good your rig is, no matter how good or expensive your tackle, it counts for very little if you are not feeding your swim correctly. If you haven't got sufficient numbers of fish being drawn to and holding in your swim, then you are only going to catch the occasional fish and are obviously going to struggle to put a decent bag together. The one major thing that sets a good angler apart from a poor one is the ability to feed the swim properly.

Always draw the fish to the net

In our scenario built up in the first two parts of Float Fishing our target fish are probably small to medium sized silver fish such as roach, rudd, and bream, plus maybe perch, tench and crucian carp. They may be different species but they all have one thing in common. They swim in shoals.

These shoals of fish patrol around the lake looking for food items. What you need to do when they reach your swim is convince them to stop and feed for an extended period of time without getting the urge to wander off again. The secret to keeping them feeding is to give them enough free bait to keep them occupied, but not enough to fill them too fast and get them competing with one another for what's available. To be fair this is a skill that develops with experience and the most experienced don't get it right all the time, but there are rules of thumb that can be followed.

What to feed

I am going to build on our scenario using the assumption that we will be loose feeding free samples of the bait we are using on the hook, namely maggots. There are scenarios where you may want to use groundbait to attract the fish, but I will cover groundbait in more detail in a future edition of First Class Fishing. All you need to know for now is that groundbait is essentially a crumb-based feed that can be introduced in dampened balls to attract the fish and encourage them to feed in one area. There are many different proprietary groundbait mixes on the market containing various additives and flavours, each with their individual use and as such warrant an edition of their own.

How?

OK, so we are going to loose feed maggots. Here is where our catapult comes in. We have made our cast and our float is in our fishing position with the mainline sunk beneath the surface as described in part 2. Now, using the float as our target, we fire a few maggots out using the catapult. Put six to ten maggots in the pouch of the catapult, aim at the float and fire. Easy? The answer is yes, relatively. With practice you will be dropping the maggots around your float every time.

Accurate feeding with a catapult is a crucial skill to acquire and of paramount importance so that any fish attracted to the loose feed are concentrated into the area where your hookbait is. You do not want the loose feed to be spread all over the place as this is what will then happen to the fish. Concentrate on your casting and feeding, making sure that everything ends up in the same place all of the time. Then the fish will also be concentrated to the same area, shortening the odds of your hook bait being taken quickly and more frequently.

How much, how often?

When you begin your session I would recommend that you start off by feeding 6 to 10 maggots at a time. Keep feeding 6 to 10 maggots every couple of minutes, even if you are not getting any bites. The single biggest mistake the inexperienced angler makes is to fire out a couple of pouches of feed and then stop feeding on the assumption that there is enough bait around for the fish to find. This is a frequent and fatal error for a number of reasons. Firstly, maggots do not lie still just because they are in water. They will crawl off and disappear under the dead leaves and other natural litter on the lakebed or burrow into the soft silt or mud. After a couple of minutes, even if there are no fish currently present, your loose fed maggots will almost certainly have totally disappeared. Secondly, passing fish will respond to bait falling through the water. By keeping up a regular pattern of maggots falling through the water it is more likely that fish will spot the bait and come to investigate. Once you have one or two fish hunting about in your swim you will probably get more. There is nothing like feeding fish to attract more feeding fish.

So, the key to successful loose feeding is to keep the bait trickling in. This next phrase has been written thousands of times in angling articles and books but it is so relevant and important I have to write it again here. Feed Little And Often! It is so important. If nothing else please remember this small phrase that has such a large impact when float fishing.

So, don't stop feeding, whatever you do. Don't worry if bites are slow to appear. Sometimes it can take a couple of hours before fish start to feed in earnest, but then all of a sudden they 'switch on' and bites come fast and furious.

Hopefully, after a short while of feeding, you will begin to get bites. When you do it is even more imperative that you keep feeding regularly as you don't want to lose the attention of the fish now you have gained it. If you are hooking and landing fish try to remember to keep up the regular feeding routine. It is so easy to get caught up in the excitement of catching one fish that you stop feeding for several minutes and this is sometimes all that is needed to lose the interest of the feeding shoal and they move off. Keep that feed going in. If you watch top match fishermen at work you may well see them continue to feed while they are still playing a hooked fish. I don't mean that you need to go this far, but it is an indicator as to how important the matchmen consider regular feeding to be to put a maximum possible weight together.

Once you have fish feeding you now have to judge how many fish you have in front of you. If you are getting bites very quickly after recasting, indicating that you may well have a large number of fish in your swim, then you may want to step up the amount of maggots being fed or feed more often so that there are enough free offerings to keep all the fish interested and competing. If bites are 'finicky', that is fast, erratic and hard to hit, or the number of bites you are getting slows down, you may well try reducing the number of maggots being fed, but keep up the rate of feed. As I said earlier, this is something that comes with experience and even the best will get it wrong as it is by no means a science. It is what makes fishing the challenge it is.

Identifying bites

The float will give differing indications that a bite has occurred depending on how a fish has taken your bait. You need to be able to read these float movements and react to them accordingly. Here are some of the most common bite indications you will see.

• Float goes under - the most common bite from a fish is the float going under the water, pulled down by a fish that has taken the bait and moved off at a reasonable pace.
• Float slides sideways without going under - this type of bite is caused by a fish picking up the bait but only moving slowly away so the float doesn't get pulled below the surface or it can also be caused by fish coming up in the water while moving away.
• Float rises in the water - if a fish picks up the bait and comes almost straight up in the water rather than moving off parallel to the bottom, the float will rise up. This is caused by the fish lifting the bottom shot so it is no longer weighing the float down.
• Float fails to settle as normal - After a few casts you will get used to the way the float settles in the water as each of the bottom shot reach their depth. If a fish intercepts your bait as falls down through the water the float will fail to settle as normal. This is commonly known as an 'on the drop' bite.

If any of the above float movements occur you should 'strike' to hook the fish.

The strike

The 'strike' is the required movement of the rod that sets the hook firmly into the fishes mouth. Despite its term it is not normally an aggressive or powerful movement when float fishing. All that is required generally is a firm lift of the rod to tighten the line and set the hook. You don't need to strike with such force that if you miss a bite the float and terminal tackle come whistling past your ear. If a bite is missed the terminal tackle should only move about 4ft at the most and never leave the water. Striking too hard is actually detrimental as it often results in the hook pulling out of the fishes mouth.

On the flip side though, too gentle a strike fails to set the hook correctly and the fish may quickly shed the hook. As with most things the perfect strike will come with practice.

To maximise your chances of hooking up on your bites try and strike in the opposite direction to that in which the fish is travelling. For example, if the float dips and moves off to the right angle the rod firmly upwards and to the left to pull your line in the opposite direction. This ensures that the hook is pulled back into the fishes mouth, not away from it.

How to play and land fish

When a fish is initially hooked it will panic and pull hard in the opposite direction to which it is being pulled. You need to quickly assess how big a fish as soon after it is hooked as possible and react to it accordingly.

Small fish of a few ounces can be landed quite quickly and usually you can swing them out of the water to your hand easily. The bigger the fish though the more care and time you will need to take in landing them.

When a bigger fish, say of a couple of pounds or more, is hooked then this is the time when it is crucial that you have set your reel's clutch correctly. If a large fish is hooked and it powers off away from you, it is essential that you are able to exert reasonable pressure on it to slow it's progress but also you must allow it to take line before the breaking strain of the line is reached. If you try to put too much pressure on too soon either the hook will pull from the fishes mouth or the line will break.

As the fight progresses the fish will tire and become increasingly incapable of such powerful runs. At this point you can afford to put a bit more pressure on the fish to bring it to the net. You can do this by applying additional pressure on the spool of the reel with the index finger of your rod hand to prevent the clutch slipping. Don't actually tighten the clutch any more as the fish may have a 'last surge' that requires the clutch to give more line. If this happens, remove your finger and allow the clutch to take over again.

Make sure you use the rod as well. It is designed to be a shock absorber so keep it well raised and don't be afraid to put a good bend in it.

When the fish is sufficiently tired you can net it. Do this by sinking your extended net under your rod and drawing the fish over the stationary net. Don't try to take the net to the fish, always take the fish to the net. When the fish comes over the rim of the net, lift the net straight up to capture it.

Solving common problems

You will quickly realise as you spend more time on the bank that rarely are any two fishing sessions the same. Conditions at the water will vary, particularly the weather, and you will encounter various problems each time you go fishing. To finish off the basics of stillwater waggler fishing, here are a few tips on how to beat the more common problems.

• My line won't sink!
  Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you just won't be able to get the line to sink beneath the surface. This is caused by the line becoming greasy as it runs through your hands and through general use. Being greasy it becomes buoyant and refuses to cut through the surface film of the water. Line that doesn't sink will get blown into a bow by the wind and will continually pull your float out of position. An easy way to overcome this is to soak your reel spools in a weak solution of washing up liquid and water. This degreases your line and, hey presto, it sinks easily again. Of course you need to do this before you leave home, but as an emergency alternative for use at the waters edge, try carrying a piece of sponge that has a washing up solution soaked into it. Keep it in a sealed plastic bag so it stays moist. If your line starts to float run your line through the sponge as you wind in. This will again degrease it and allow the line to sink.
• The breeze is still moving my float even though the line is sunk!
  If you can't get your float to stay still just by sinking the line, try increasing the depth of the float a few inches so about six inches of line is on the bottom. Then add another no.8 shot onto the line that is lying on the bottom and this should stop the float from drifting. You can add a few more inches and more shot that lie on the bottom if the problem continues, but this increasingly makes the rig less sensitive. At some point you will have to decide that the conditions do not favour float fishing and switch to a ledger set up.
• I'm getting fast bites but can't hit them!
  Sometimes you just cannot hook up bites. They are fast bites and the fish seem to be letting go before you can strike. This is often caused by the fish 'feeling' the bottom dropper shot and spitting the bait out. If this happens try sliding the bottom no.8 shot away from the hook a few inches. This gives the fish longer to hold the bait before the weight is felt and gives a much more positive bite.
• My maggot is being bitten and sucked but my float didn't register a bite!
  This is the opposite to the problem above. The fish are taking the bait confidently and not moving very far, but your bottom shot, often called a 'tell tale' shot, is too far away from the hook to register the bite on the float. The fish then has a chance then to suck your maggot and spit it out again before you know it's there. In this case move the bottom shot a few inches closer to the hook and then you should see more bites.

OK, that's the basics of stillwater waggler fishing covered. In part four of Float Fishing I will be showing a you few variations on what I've covered to date, how and why to use different patterns of waggler on stillwaters and generally covering some of the more intermediate skills. See you then.