Presentation...

As a returnee to fishing I have been facinated/ horrified by pole fishing. Apart from all the exercise everytime you catch a fish, look at the price I could buy a decent S/H car for the same moola.

But there is no way you can deny the ability to present a bait [ Not sure how you explain away the shadow of the rod mind]

With this in mind I abandoned the 2SSG Avon today and tried some light plastic wagglers secured at the top to become a trotting float. You can get five for two quid at my local 'Cheap' shop.

Downside.... Difficult
. After reeling in a fish. the bedding-in, which could be managed with the Avon, needed a trot with no bait just to avoid tangles. I spent much more time than usual managing the reel.
Tricky getting the reel speed right; Needed 10yds of line on the water before it would pull off on its own

Upside... More successful strike rate and, on average, bigger fish today. Thinking... there is less deadweight to move. Bigger fish is probably just chance.

Soffit, I'm a bit confused by your post?

I do agree that the price of poles can put you off.

You can fish a pole with a long line which can be helpfull on a river or windy conditions.
it can be used like a whip with a few sections to hand.

I am assuming that you are talking about trotting and that you are using a C/P. If this is the case then the reason why line is not coming off the reel until it is ten yards down stream then your reel needs something to get it started. Some reels need little force and others a bit more. It doesn;t mean you've got a bad reel just that you need a little more force to overcome the inital inertia. A stroke with the thumb can easily overcome this problem as you start th run.

The important bit is as you named your thread presentation is what is happening to your bait. This is where the choice of float comes in. As long as you know what is going on then a waggler might well be the tool for the job. eg puttting a float down the far bank of a river then I would probably go for a waggler attached bottom end only with most of the ballast around the base of the float.

If I was fishing downstream of my rod tip then I would probably use an avon or
chubber style float. In some situations this would give me more control. As a fisherman I think one of the beauties of our sport is the fact that you can deal with problems using a variety of solutions, it just requires some thought on our part. Sometimes everyone gets it wrong but if your wagglers are doing the biz and you are happy with your presentation then crack on.

I do have a question. Although the wagglers are cheap do you need to buy them cheap (do you lose a lot?)or could you buy one float which suits your style better. If the wagglers suite your style then there is obviously no need.

Matthew.

There is little river fishing done down my way so the only floats in the shops are wagglers or pole floats. I'm gradually collecting more suitable stuff off the net.

I've probably got too much line on the reel as its getting the peel off smoothly rather than the reel rotating as such.