Waggler question

[acbruce]

I understand the various pros and cons of loaded and unloaded wagglers, crystal or peacock wagglers and to a lesser extent insert and straight wagglers but what does puzzle me are the reasons for using a long or short waggler.
I'd be grateful for some thoughts.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[dead peg]

My understanding is you'd use a long waggler in deep water or windy conditions for more stability

 

[sam vimes]

Really shorter wagglers for fishing in shallow water or fishing shallow in deeper water. Big, long wagglers for fishing deeper, fishing deeper water or at greater distances where large shot capacities are needed to get the required distance. After that it's a question of wind conditions, size/weight of bait and the multitude of shades of grey in between and the huge variation in available floats. Despite having masses of choice in my tackle box, I reckon that I only really use a few different patterns, in slighly different sizes, for the vast bulk of my waggler fishing.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT STILLWATER FLOAT | Angler's Mail

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Really shorter wagglers for fishing in shallow water or fishing shallow in deeper water. Big, long wagglers for fishing deeper, fishing deeper water or at greater distances where large shot capacities are needed to get the required distance. After that it's a question of wind conditions, size/weight of bait and the multitude of shades of grey in between and the huge variation in available floats. Despite having masses of choice in my tackle box, I reckon that I only really use a few different patterns, in slighly different sizes, for the vast bulk of my waggler fishing.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT STILLWATER FLOAT | Angler's Mail

Sam sums it all up pretty well above, not much to add to that.

If you were interested in pellet waggler fishing then this is a decent beginner article too:

Pellet Waggler Fishing | Pellet Waggler Set Up | Pellet Waggler Rig

 

[The bad one]

Now how do I put this about wagglers long, medium, short and their ability to combat drift. Back of the net right off, there's so much bollox talked about them.
In short they can't and don't, they ain't long enough to combat the orbitals other than in a light breeze of less than 5 mph. In a wind of 15 mph the orbitals stack up and can reach 6 ft down and or drag along the bottom in water that's shallow than that depth and driven toward the windward bank. The large and deeper the water body the more orbitals stack up.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=w...nally.narod.ru%2Fwavesphotoalbum.html;300;317

The only hope you have of slowing them down is a large drag shot or bulking the main shot together 2 ft from the hook if the waters 6 ft or more which places them in the smaller lower orbitals or just below them.

 

[alan whittington]

Now how do I put this about wagglers long, medium, short and their ability to combat drift. Back of the net right off, there's so much bollox talked about them.
In short they can't and don't, they ain't long enough to combat the orbitals other than in a light breeze of less than 5 mph. In a wind of 15 mph the orbitals stack up and can reach 6 ft down and or drag along the bottom in water that's shallow than that depth and driven toward the windward bank. The large and deeper the water body the more orbitals stack up.


The only hope you have of slowing them down is a large drag shot or bulking the main shot together 2 ft from the hook if the waters 6 ft or more which places them in the smaller lower orbitals or just below them.

Not entirely true Phil,because if you use a long(15-18in)reversed peacock it does help against all but the strongest,or awkward directionally winds,yes you do need perhaps 4-5 no.1 shot bulk,the biggest problem is when the surface draw is going the same direction as the undertow(which it normally doesn't),if using maggot,casters,or similar lightish baits your feed will travel along with the undertow,so if your bait is pinned it will be unnaturally presented and could be refused,so I have always played with the size/amount of shot being used as a telltale or drag shot as you describe it to SLOW my baits travel to a rate which through experience I know fish will be prepared to take my bait,the best way to get a larger bulk is to use a float as a slider,just a 4aa+ reversed peacock with a drennan float adaptor,it doesn't need to be deep,over 8ft makes the set-up usable,the 4aa bulk being being placed 2-3ft from the telltale shot,which can be from no.12's to 2bb,often its not perfect...but its good enough to fool some fish,which often we do not do when conditions are perfect,mainly because when its blowing a hoolie,the fish are on the feed big time,as you know.

 

[aebitim]

Back shotting anybody?

 

[The bad one]

Alan it’s grim up north you know? Av wind speed on a good day on the upland reservoirs is 15 mph. When full you’re fishing over the stone sets so any movement and the hook bait sticks due to the uneven nature of them.

An understanding of how the resers are constructed here might help. Dam end and sides have a coating of stone sets that can extend diagonally 80ft outward and depending on how deep the reser is at it’s deepest. Below this is usually what we call the “rock field.” This is made up of crushed/broken stone anything from 6 inches to well over a foot in angular size. Both the sets and the rock field are there to dissipate the wave energy and stop erosion of the central core of the dam, which is clay and earth, as the level in the reser rises and falls. Smart buggers them Victorians Engineers you now!

Slider fishing is impractical when the reser is more than 30% full, as you can’t just lift the rod to get the bait free as you can when it's fixed in the normal way. You pull the line through the float towards you and when it settles back again, it’s 3 – 4 ft near to where you are fishing from and way out of position from where you’ve been feeding. By far the most productive zone when full on the resers is 10-12 ft deep. To get around the unwieldiness of casting a 10-12 ft drop on the line from rod end to bait we use 18-20 ft Bolo rods

The only time you are fishing on a smooth bed on the resers is around late August/September when the resers is low after the summer draw off. The lowest an in- service reser by law can go down to is 15% of its total volume. When it gets to this level, generally there’s no more than 15 ft of water in it at its deepest. Of course because the volume of water is much less than when full, it doesn’t get affected by the wind as much and because you are fishing 30 –50ft below the level plane of the reservoir you can usually find somewhere that isn’t affected by the wind at all.

So there you are Alan the grimness of fishing up north. Oh to have smooth bottoms of those southern waters eh!

As to back shotting it doesn't work, as the shot hangs in either the first or second orbital and move along with it.

---------- Post added at 01:15 ---------- Previous post was at 00:45 ----------

Was looking for a shot on the net of an upland Reservoir when it's angry. The best I could find for now is this one, the author clearly doesn't visit many if he thinks this is windswept as that about normal for the ones I fish A windswept Blackmoorfoot Reservoir in... (C) Sue Trescott :: Geograph Britain and Ireland

 

[greenie62]

Was looking for a shot on the net of an upland Reservoir when it's angry. The best I could find for now is this one, the author clearly doesn't visit many if he thinks this is windswept as that about normal for the ones I fish

Hmmph! Looks like a summer's day on Rivington!

 

[alan whittington]

That's a breeze,as you say,i fish some big pits and reserviours and it wouldn't fish without a bit more on it than that,each individual water has its problems,ive fished a couple of brick pits which have similar bottoms,if you have a rough bottom use E45 cream,or softer toilet paper.:wh

 

[The bad one]

When I did a lot of long distance cycling I always found Fullers Earth Cream was best for a rough ar*e. Tanned it like leather and no more rough ar*e.
John Bishop recommends wax, sack and crack bit extreme for me that
But neither of which would smooth the stone sets out though. Oh and sitting on them gives you piles.