Float Shotting

Yesterday I fished a loaded insert peacock waggler in difficult conditions windy and the sea was choppy ,but instead of shotting the float in the traditional way I had the bulk,a lead shot slightly larger than a swan shot about 7" from the hook with an AA 3ft from my bulk shot. Never had a tangle and the bites were postive which surprised me considering the conditions. Any one else shotted there floats in unusal way ?

Placing lead shot close to the hook, rather than next to the float was fairly common in the 50s and 60s when waggler floats (then known as antenna floats) were becoming more widely used.

As waggler fishing was popularised, shotting patterns changed so that most of the shot was placed directly under the float. Concentrating most of the weight next to the float means that casting is more effective, and the baited hook then flutters slowly to the lake bed, assisted by just a couple of small shot.

When fishing in heavily weeded tench lakes, I often bunch most of the shot about 18inches from the hook. This means the hook falls more vertically to the bottom, and is a bit less likely to catch on weed surrounding the open area of the swim. By comparison, a rig where the shot is next to the float allows the hook to fall in a slow arc to the bottom, and it does catch up on weed more frequently.

It works fine and won't affect bite registration but what it will do is cause problems when casting any distance, much the same as casting a chubber float overarm as opposed to the normal underarm inevitably causes a tangle.

Phillips,in my match fishing days i fished with a top match group and we were fishing a lot of matches on the Ouse after chub,waggler mostly with small shot down the line(usually 8's occassionally 10's and 6's)but one particular match i just felt the float wasnt performing right nothing definite you understand but.... so iwent through a number of changes until bingo one no.1 shot 15in. away from the hook and i cant tell you how many times it worked for me or onhow many different rivers it caught on(on one occasion a catch of 52 chub at tadpole bridge on the Thames),but only when my standard approach didnt work,even though i always had a rod made up with it,it took a lot of persuasive rhetoric to get my team mates to try but when they did it worked for them too.

ONE THINGS FOR SURE NOTHING IS WRITTEN IN STONE IN ANGLING remember this and you will be generally successful/forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif.