The thick straight waggler is a particular favourite of mine in two situations
The thick straight waggler is a particular favourite of mine in two situations. The first is on fast flowing rivers where I need to drag line along the river bed without the float being constantly dragged under. The second situation where I favour the thick straight waggler is for ‘up in the water’ carp fishing when I’m spraying maggots.Looking firstly at rivers I think it is vital for any angler fishing in fast flowing water to have a selection of thick peacock quill floats. I’ve tried floats made from other materials but peacock, for me, is unbeatable as it rides the current well and is extremely buoyant. Quite often, when fishing on fast, flowing water, I will be looking to drag between one and three feet of line along the riverbed in order to slow the bait down and induce bites. On cold days this is important, as the flow at the surface is quicker than at the riverbed. Bait presentation is vital in order to get the fish to take your hookbait and this is how you do it on difficult days on fast water. When the fish are feeding freely it’s often possible to catch them off bottom but I would estimate dragging line along the bottom catches 90% of my winter fish.
For ‘up in the water’ carp fishing with maggots a thick peacock float is again my choice. This float will work quickly for you and eliminate line bites experienced on insert or thin-topped floats. I carry thick peacock wagglers from 2AAA up to around four swan shot capacity.