Thanks for the replies.
I ended up taking a punt on the Shakespeare Agility 11Ft Pellet Waggler.
I figured even if it didn't meet my requirements it wasn't going to break the bank, and would at least give me some experience and a frame of reference for when I (inevitably!) buy my next rod (at which point I'll hopefully be a bit more comfortable waggling rods in the local tackle shop).
Anyway, I took it for a test run this morning, and so far I'm pretty happy with it!
I started off trying to trot a loafer float down the chub stream.
Coming from a 6 foot spinning rod, I was worried 11 foot was going to be too long, but it turned out to be about right I think. Long enough to get my line where I wanted it, but without being too cumbersome. Just had to be a little more careful around trees!
Couldn't really fault the rod here, but the water was so full of weeds I was getting constantly snagged, and the float kept getting dragged under.
I did manage to hook a nice little chublet though:
After giving up on the stream I moved over the main part of the Ouse, and carried on with the float for a while.
It felt ok fishing close in and around the margins, but I'm pretty sure far bank was out of the question!
Wasn't really feeling the float at this point so switched to the smallest block feeder my tackle shop had.
It still felt a bit heavy for the rod though, and I was quite nervous about casting it out. That might just be my lack of experience though.
Had a few casts and managed to catch this tiny little thing:
Shortly afterwards a big wet dog appeared from nowhere and jumped all over my stuff, then 3 pleasure boats went through my swim in quick succession, so I decided to head back to the quiet of the chub stream.
This time I just tried free lining lumps of bread and cheese down the stream.
Had a good feeling about one swim and let a chuck of cheese drift under a tree out of sight.
The line started speeding up, so struck. Oooh, it's a good one!
She tried to head further downstream under the trees, but the rod did a great job of holding her back, and had no problem guiding her back up stream and into the land net.
My heart was pounding at this point as this was my first full-sized chub, and personal best by a long way!
Looks a lot smaller in the photo, I swear she was twice that size, lol
I started heading back up the stream and towards home after that, stopping at one of my favourite spots under the main bridge into town (not favourite because the fishing is good, I just happen to like sitting here!).
The stream briefly widens out and slows down here and is much more like the other backwater I like to fish. The rod seemed fine here too, which was encouraging.
It had been stuffed with with small fish on the way past earlier, but was now mysteriously empty.
After briefly trying a couple more chubby looking swims I got to the top of the stream where it parts from the main river via a small weir.
Thought I'd have a quick go at some light ledgering in the little weir pool before I went home, using a chunk of pepperami as bait.
I've had a couple of little chublets here before and have a sneaking suspicion (or is it wishful thinking?) that there might be some small barbel resident.
After a few minutes I started to get what I thought was the odd bite, but I couldn't seem to connect on the strike.
Then I decided to wait slightly longer and watch the rod tip properly. It seemed to be getting little bumps (which I had been striking on), so I waited a bit longer to see what happened. The bumps got bigger then the tip suddenly moved a decent amount so I went for it.
Definitely connected this time and it felt big whatever it was!
It was strange though as it didn't seem to run for it, but just hold it's ground and resist any attempts to bring it towards me.
After a brief fight the line pinged off and the hook was missing. Put it down to my dodgy knot tying skills and tried again.
Same thing happened! Wasn't sure what was going on. I did wonder if it was a pike with a penchant for pepperami.
Thought I'd have one more try before I gave up.
Same bumping, followed by the tip whipping round (nice to see the rod is sensitive enough for ledgering!).
This time the fight was much longer and I managed to bring whatever is was up to my feet, only to discover it was a bloody great big angry eel! He was going nuts doing barrel rolls. He pinged off just before I got him in the landing net, which I wan't toooo disappointed about. Wasn't looking forward to trying to unhook it!
It was time to pack up by then, so I headed home very happy (that was a good morning of fishing for me!).
The rod might not be perfect, but it's certainly good enough for now, and seems to do most of what I want it to. It might even be useful for waggling pellets one day!
