Summer evening pleasure fishing the Traditional Waggler for large carp with pellets.

I’m very fortunate to have the Manor Farm Leisure complex here in Evesham right on my door step and what better way is there than to spend an evening, fishing the traditional waggler on the island pool after a hard day at work for a few hours on a perfectly calm summer evening.

At only a fiver for an evening fishing this is daylight robbery. The sport on offer at Manor Farm in the evenings is simply fantastic, bites all evening and it only gets better and better as the evening progresses. Evenings like this are perfect to fish the waggler.

Regular visitors to my website will know most of my fishing revolves around matches where fishing the pole often dominates and if you are going to compete, the pole rules but post the original Covid lockdown in 2020 where we had to stay local to pleasure fish I’ve had a lot of summer evening pleasure fishing sessions down at my local water, Manor farm Leisure. I have to say pleasure fishing the traditional waggler here has been a revolution to me last year and also this summer. No match pressures, you can just set up one rod, feed a few pellets and off you go. Nothing fancy and all the enjoyment to look forward to playing hard fighting Carp and quality F1’s throughout the session.

I’ve opted to go old skool on these sessions fishing the traditional waggler rather than the pellet waggler shallow. These are pleasure sessions where I want to sit back, take my time, enjoy the experience and take in the atmosphere these summer evenings give you rather than fishing the pellet waggler, constantly feeding and reeling in and casting all the time. These sessions are all about enjoyment.

The set up

Drennan’s Red Range 12′ Carp Waggler Rod

A long 12′ rod is required as I’m fishing at a depth which also helps with quick line pick up but it needs to be a powerful rod to be able to handle large fighting carp. I use a Drennan 12′ Red Carp Waggler rod which is a half decent tool for the job. I don’t do a lot of carp waggler fishing and this one retails at about 80 quid and suits my budget. Reel wise I don’t compromise here you need a good one able to cope with these hard fighting carp. I use the smaller/lighter Daiwa 2508 TDR reel for this type of fishing. They are expensive with a RRP of £250 but as all anglers know about angling RRP’s these reels can be picked up for around £150.00. The line retrieval and clutches on these reels are fantastic and there’s no better feeling than hearing that clutch slip when a big carp makes a run. Mainline is Guru’s N-Gauge 6lb (0.17mm) line. I use this as its thin diameter aids the distance that can be cast with a light waggler and even though it’s really suited for pole rigs I find it a very robust reel line for fishing a waggler.

Terminal Tackle

The business end of the set up is really simple. A 2.5g loaded Waggler. It doesn’t really matter whether its a insert and straight float. Your not looking for shy bites with the hook bait being a 6mm or 8mm pellet it’s going to be a carp or F1. The loaded float just aids the cast and it’s just attached between two float stops and then several no.8’s shirt button style down the line to dot the float down. Then just a pre-tied 15cm banded 0.17mm size 16 Preston KKM-B ready rig. There no need to fish light. To set the depth just band a SSG split shot and hook it straight on to the hook and plumb up a normal.

All you need is a bag of 6mm pellets, a few 8mm hooker’s and a catapult and off you go! Using the 12′ rod coupled with the fine diameter line makes casting out a 2.5g float easy. Just one quick flick of the line by dipping the rod tip into the water and a quick flick upwards to sink it and the float stays in place fine.

These pleasure sessions have really been enjoyable and have highlighted to me how much fun pleasure fishing can be compared to match fishing and as you go later into the evening at this time of the year the fishing on island pool just gets better and better. It’s great fun playing carp on a rod and line. Bites all evening for less than a couple of pints down the pub. Given the choice I know what I’d rather do on a pleasant summers evening.

Give it a go!!