Frankie Gianoncelli shows how a pellet waggler attack can produce the goods when targeting barbel and chub on shallow rivers
SET your sights on floatfishing a favourite stretch of river and two tactics will inevitably come to mind. For fishing directly downstream on days with little wind, a stickfloat will probably be your weapon of choice, allowing you to stay permanently in touch with the rig as you manoeuvre it down the steady flow.
Feel the need to go further out, or faced with a much slower flow, then it’ll be the waggler that comes out of the bag. It’s a tactic that also works well on days when it’s just too windy for the stick.
Speak to Frankie Gianoncelli, though, and he’ll tell you there is a third option that a lot of anglers rarely consider.
The pellet waggler is usually seen as an out-and-out commercial fishery bagging tool that’s designed to catch big weights of carp and F1s that are feeding in the upper layers.
There’s no doubt it’s extremely effective at doing that job, but the Guru-backed Drennan Barnsley Blacks star has found that there are many scenarios when the pellet wag is a real winner on running-water venues too.
“A lot of rivers are low and clear at this time of year, and this is when the pellet waggler comes into its own,” explained Frankie.
“It works a treat when trying to catch bigger specimens like barbel and chub, providing a different presentation to a standard waggler or stick to fool fish that have been targeted heavily since the start of the season.”
Shallow-water strategy
It’s been a brilliant year for fry recruitment in the nation’s rivers, with an abundance of species of all shapes and sizes present.
Fish with maggots or casters on the hook and you’ll never know what’s coming next, so to avoid the small, so-called ‘nuisance fish’, the answer is to use tougher hookbaits that are far more selective.
“Pellets will be ignored by the smaller silvers, giving you a greater chance of tempting a big barbel or chub on to the hook. The buoyancy of a pellet waggler makes sure that the float isn’t dragged under by the weight of the hookbait. Their short and stumpy nature also makes them ideal on shallow-water stretches,” said Frankie.
Frankie tackles most swims with a 13ft rod and a 3000-sized reel loaded with 6lb mono. His hooklengths are either 0.17mm or 0.19mm, down to a size 16 or 18 hook.
There is no shot down the line, with the weight of the pellet waggler adaptor cocking the float. Adding any shot would speed up the fall of the hookbait, making it look more unnatural to the fish.
“You need to get the balance right with your tackle, especially when it comes to chub as they can be incredibly fickle
