What Is A Waggler Float?
One of my greatest joys in life is rigging up a good old puddle chucker float, on a slightly rainy overcast day and fishing for the shear joy of being out in the great outdoors. You’ve heard of “mindfulness” right? Well, waggler fishing should be taught as the best escapism method on the planet! That singular focus, on the slightness float tip movement, allows the worries of the world gently slip away, emptying your mind of everything except the present.
What Is A Waggler Float…
Waggler float fishing was the most popular form of fishing in the UK. These floats are cast with rod, reel and line, or used on a pole. Wagglers are rigged with a single eyelet at the bottom of the float.
Waggler fishing requires patience, skill, plus the right tackle and bait. Once you get these components right, nothing beats (for me at least) this style of fishing. The smallest nuance between an actual bite and oh so similar line bites, makes the waggler float technique one of the most challenging forms of fishing, and makes the catch, all that so much sweeter. This article will hopefully answer some of your waggler questions, including rigging, lines and sinkers weights.
What are loaded Waggler floats?
Loaded waggler floats are quite simply, floats that have weights inserted in to the base and are designed to remove the need for adding extra split shot sinkers, giving your waggler rig enough weight for casting. This doesn’t remove the need for extra weights entirely, as you’ll still need a few to balance the height the float sits in the water.
Loaded floats are usually much more stable in rough waters, making them ideal for windy days or fishing on streams and rivers. Preloaded floats also still require lead droppers between hook and float to sink the line. Personally I prefer using unloaded waggler floats and enjoy the process of adding my own sinkers to the setup, for that perfect presentation.
How do you rig a waggler float?
Rigging up a basic waggler float is a very easy process, and you can check out my “first time fishing” article for full instructions, but in simple terms… You thread your line through to hole at the bottom of the float, pull enough line through for the depth your planning to fish, connect x2 No1 size split shot sinkers either side of the float to secure in place and add smaller lead weights to the side of these initial two, to counteract the wagglers buoyancy and hold the float at your preferred water level sensitivity. I like having about 1–2 inches of float showing above the water.
