Floats for match fishing of the “Wagler” type

A little history

A float with this name first appeared in the arsenal of British match fishing fans in the mid-sixties of the twentieth century. The creator of the best classic “Wagler” at that time was Peter Drennan. His company was the first to mass produce this type of bite indicator.

However, it was difficult to call this production mass production. Each float was made by hand in those days. And since the main material for the production of wagglers was a peacock feather, which was imported from India, the cost of a “mass” float scared off the “mass” buyer. But the quality of "Drennan" was considered standard. Drennan Trademark floats are still in price.

True, before Drennan and simultaneously with him in the fifties and sixties, several British designers were working on similar new type of floats - bite indicators for long-distance casting.

If you dig deeper, the British were not the pioneers of the bite indicator, designed for long casting. Prototypes of floats of this type have been known since the beginning of the twentieth century in Holland.

But manufacturers from Italy became followers of British designers. Most often on the shelves of fishing stores in Europe you can find floats for match fishing, designed and manufactured in Italy.

However, the main trendsetters in the design of classic waggler-type floats have always been and remain today the companies Drennan, Middy and Ultra. True, these companies have recently not been competitors, but have specialized in the production of various types of wagglers.

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Waglers

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Wagler is a general name for floats that have only one attachment point through the keel. They are mainly made from peacock feather shafts of varying lengths and thicknesses. Sometimes the float body is made with a balsa base for the sole purpose of increasing the number of lead pellets it can lift. The greater the float's carrying capacity, the further they can be thrown.

Unlike rod floats, wagglers are used both on rivers and lakes. To cope with the difficulties of fishing in deep waters, you should use a small bottom ring, it is not much larger than the diameter of the main line, using a stop knot, with which you can fish like a sliding float. If the fishing spot is, say, six meters deep, then having a 4-meter rod equipped with a float with a blind mount, you will not be able to cast to fish at such a depth. A sliding float solves this problem.

The main method for fishing with such floats is: in order to unload the float as much as possible, placing the pellets either closer to the float ring, or from the side of the hook if we are fishing with a sliding float. Two large pellets are used to lock the float in one place.

On rivers, when the blowing wind prevents the angler from casting properly with a rod float, a small straight waggler can be used instead. The cast should be made further than the place where you are going to fish. Then the tip of the rod must be immersed in the water and the float must be sharply pulled up, which will lead to: a) it will be at the fishing site, and b) the line will be submerged under the surface. After that, you let the line just come off the reel and the float just float downstream and wait for the usual signs of a bite. A wagler cannot be controlled as carefully as a rod float, but on a submerged line the float at least moves on a tight line. This method can be used to fish in conditions where an angler with a rod float is powerless, but a waggler is by no means universal.

Another area of ​​use for a waggler is on rivers where you have to fish beyond the distances that are accessible to a rod float. It is important to choose a waggler size that can be easily thrown to the desired distance.

It can be quite difficult to get the waggler to remain stable, especially if the wind is strong enough to create a lot of slack in the line. If this happens, the line may become submerged in the water as described above, creating a problem. There is such a strong tension on a long section of submerged fishing line that the float goes under the water for a long time, even when there is no bite. The hook or bottom shot hitting the bottom will cause it to slowly pull down.

A way out of this situation may be to underload the waggler. so that the top of the float protrudes out of the water more than usual. With a little luck, you can get it to go downstream without getting into the water too often. If the float goes down slowly, ignore this movement as it will not result in a bite. Release a little line and the float will pop out again. If the fish takes the bait, this will stop the progress of the float, and the current will sharply pull it under the water. Now all that remains is to make a long, smooth hook.

On the left in the casting diagram is typical gear for fishing at medium distances in lakes and streams. Center rigs are good for creeks and canals. The gear on the right, with a large float, is suitable for fishing over long distances on rivers and large lakes. Naturally, the effective fishing distance is limited by how far you can throw the bait, either by throwing the balls by hand or using a casting device (slingshot).

The most difficult thing to subdue is the waggler. when fishing is done at a considerable distance from the shore, with a submerged fishing line, although in most cases conditions allow us to fish with a fishing line floating on the surface, which is much more effective. The float in the latter case does not attempt to sink at all, and if excessive slack occurs, it can be removed in much the same manner as described for the rod float. I had a lot of problems controlling the waggler until I saw how some of our international class anglers handle it. They don't worry too much about the line being too slack. They watch the float, and after it disappears from sight, they make a long, smooth hook to remove the slack. They often move the rod in a 180-degree arc and make a few quick turns of the reel handle before making contact with the fish. For unknown reasons, when using this method, the fish does not throw the bait. My theory is that the current creates tension between the fish on the hook and the float, preventing it from leaving.

When fishing from shorter distances on lakes and canals, the functions of wagglers are basically the same, although there are differences. Fishing is always done with a submerged fishing line to eliminate the influence of any surface waves on it, and an extended float helps with this. Since there is no significant current on the lakes, other than the movement of water caused by the wind, there is no problem with submerged fishing line. But since there is no current that would push the float out of the water during a bite, when fishing in such conditions, the waggler should have greater sensitivity.

When fishing in still water, the fish, trying to pull down the “inverted drop” type float, feels resistance and leaves the hook. Therefore, you should fish with floats with thin inserts placed on the top to reduce this resistance. A piece of the thin shaft of a peacock feather is inserted into the top of the float, although various other materials are sometimes used, such as reeds, reeds, or even the bristles of a nylon floor brush. It all depends on what distance we are going to fish from. The closer we are, the thinner and more sensitive the upper part should be. When it comes to choice, it all depends on how well the float is visible at a given distance.

The big advantage of thin inserts, in addition to the fact that they reduce resistance when the fish tugs on the float when biting, is that they make the bite more noticeable, which occurs when the bait slowly sinks or rises from the bottom along with the bottom pellet. The upper part will either stay in the water longer than required, or will suddenly rise out of the water, unmistakably indicating a bite on the rise. A pellet as small as a number 8 will force approximately 8 centimeters of nylon bristles from the brush to sink. So when number 8 rises from the bottom. the bristles will rise by 8 centimeters, which is hard not to notice!

The only time thin tips fail to work in still water is when the wind creates opposing currents. The upper layers of water move in one direction, and the bottom layers move in the opposite direction. With the bait and pellets below, the float with a thin top will drop down. In this case the problem is this. to find a float with a thick enough top and enough buoyancy to keep the top above the water.

Painting the antenna is one way to improve the visibility of a float over a long distance. What color should the antenna be painted? There are fluorescent paints in poisonous red, yellow and green colors. Antennas painted with these paints are clearly visible at short and medium distances up to 20 meters.

It is very important to take into account the location of the sun in relation to the angler and the float. The float is very visible if the sun is behind the angler, who sees the illuminated side of the float. If the sun is on the side or in front, then the antenna faces the angler with the unlit side and is poorly visible. It is when the sun is not behind the angler’s back that it is desirable that the antenna be made of transparent material and painted not with fluorescent paint, but with fluorescent translucent varnish. Then the sun's rays pass through the antenna, and it glows like a flashlight. Interestingly, of the many floats on store shelves, I saw only one very cheap Chinese float, the antenna of which was translucent, that is, it met these requirements. The background on which it is located is very important for better visibility of the float.

Actually there are two backgrounds: light and dark

A light background is obtained by reflecting the sky in the water, which is almost always lighter than the surrounding landscape.

a dark background if the sky is overcast or there are shadows of trees growing on the shore on the water.

The most universal antenna color for a light background and any casting distance is black. Even in morning and evening twilight, black color is clearly visible. When fishing against a dark background, the most visible antenna is the one painted white. When casting 20 meters or more, these colors are simply out of competition.

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What is a waggler

The classic waggler has a heavy, olive-shaped body, a short keel and a long, thick antenna. This is exactly how most anglers imagine it. However, this is not quite true. In Western Europe, any float with one attachment point is often called a waggler.

Just like all floats, the waggler consists of a body, an antenna and a short keel. The body of the float, depending on the model, can be small, massive, like an olive, or long, straight, turning into an antenna.

The antenna of this bite indicator, depending on the model, can have a small (up to 1 mm), medium (up to 5 mm) and large (up to 1 cm) diameter.

The length of the antenna has almost no relation to its diameter. It can be short (about 4 cm), medium (10 – 15 cm), maximum (up to 25 cm). The main role in the antenna of this bite alarm is played by the tip of its antenna.

Designers are trying to make it as visible as possible from a long distance. Therefore, the top of the antenna in floats with a straight body always has a bright color (red or orange). In other models, the top of the antenna is always thicker.

The keel of such floats is short and can be made of metal or plastic. Wagglers with a metal keel usually have a variable load. Inside the metal container there are small weights in the form of metal washers, the number of which can be increased or decreased depending on the fishing conditions.

Simpler models have a different system for changing the float load. A special replaceable sinker is inserted into the lower part of the keel. Simple straight models of wagglers do not have sinkers in their design. This float is a simple hollow tube made of transparent plastic, sealed on both sides. The keel in such wagglers is also made of plastic.

Wagler floats

This float was created for the English long-distance fishing method, for a rod used for catching fish in small and large fishing areas.

The float most often associated with long-distance fishing is the waggler type. In practice, in recreational fishing these are the most commonly used floats for long casts. However, remember that these floats come in different shapes and are designed for fishing in different places.

The wagler plays a key role because it is responsible not only for signaling bites and buoyancy of the bait, but also for long casts with light tackle, stabilizing the equipment in flight, and casting it during strong winds, which does not allow fishing with standard float tackle. In order for a float to help the angler in the case of technically difficult fishing, it must be carefully selected taking into account the specifics of the fishing location, the behavior of the fish, the method of presentation of the bait and atmospheric conditions, primarily wind strength. The presented long-casting float is equipped with a quick antenna replacement system. This feature is of great importance in several cases: in particular, during cross or head winds with turbulence, the float is practically unable to stabilize the equipment, and then the standard antenna is replaced with a version with a stabilizer (1).

Read: Floats: types and the right choice

You can easily modify the float for night fishing by attaching a fluorescent antenna (2) of such a size that you can put a chemical light source (3) on it. Another improvement, which is to adapt the float for fishing among waves, is the possibility of installing a special extended antenna that stabilizes the float (and at the same time the equipment).

Thanks to this antenna, the float hides under the wave and the tackle remains motionless.

A waggler for long casts can have a constant weight (4) or a system for quickly replacing the weight, which does not affect the weight installed on the line (5). Thanks to this, the equipment is not only convenient to install, but can also be precisely adapted to changing fishing conditions and the behavior of fish in the reservoir. A float with a load adjustment system is much more expensive than the standard model. It should be remembered that these floats do not compete with each other, but complement each other, so the angler should take two types of floats to the pond.

A waggler-type float is designed for fishing mainly in still water or at least in places with very slow currents.

Materials for the production of wagglers

To make this bite indicator, various materials were used previously (before Drennan), such as a goose feather, a porcupine quill. The materials were quite expensive and were made by hand, which is why the floats could be very expensive.

The very first classic wagglers were made from peacock feathers, which were brought from India. Currently, in the design of mass-produced long-distance floats, various types of plastics are most often used in combination with balsa. This allowed the products to be significantly cheaper.

Back in the seventies of the twentieth century, there were attempts to produce wagglers from hollow, transparent plastic. (The first models of such floats were produced by Ken Middleton). However, the first attempts did not achieve much success.

The undisputed leader in the production of wagglers, Drennan, appreciated all the advantages of plastic, and soon also created a flexible, multi-purpose float - the Cristal Wagler, which served as a model for numerous imitations. This float is still used by anglers all over the world.

However, elite (expensive, but high-quality) products are always made using natural materials.

The body of this float can be made of balsa (which is actually pressed cork), heavy types of wood, and the keel is almost always metal. Reed or peacock feathers are used to produce antennas for elite floats.

Self-production

You can make a flat float for the current with your own hands. There are a lot of ways to make such gear. Let's look at the most common methods for making float equipment.

The simplest cork float

The simplest float for fishing in the current, having a pear-shaped or teardrop shape, can be made from a wine bottle cork. To do this, the cork should be given the required shape using a knife and its final processing should be carried out using sandpaper or a file.

The process of making floats from cork.

To ensure that the shape of the float is symmetrical and the quality of the surface treatment is high, you can use an improvised machine made from a well-fixed drill.

Processing the surface of the float using a drill.

Next, the cork is pierced with a wire rod, which will act as a keel. An antenna made from a toothpick or a hard plastic tube is attached to the top of the tackle (you can use a cotton swab after removing the cotton wool, etc. from it).

You can attach a brightly colored foam ball to the tip of the antenna, and a lead pellet to the end of the fin.

It is recommended to make several products of different thickness and weight, with different keel lengths, different weights, etc., in order to change them depending on fishing conditions.

Lightweight polymer float

To do this you will need the following components:

• a small piece of polystyrene foam or polystyrene foam;
• a long and straight piece of wire about 1 mm thick;
• plastic bottle of any size;
• varnish for processing;
• stationery knife;
• file.

A small round piece is cut out of foam plastic. Its edges are processed using a file or knife.

A keel is made from wire, and an antenna is made from the walls of a plastic bottle or plastic tube.

Homemade foam float.

Next, the surface is covered with several (up to 5) layers of varnish. Usually, after applying the next layer, it is allowed to dry for several minutes.

The weight of such a product will be from 5 to 15 grams. It will be useful to make several floats so that during fishing you can experiment which one will behave better in the current.

Manufacturing of flat floats

A bubble float can be made as follows:

1. First, a low-density material is sought, for example, polystyrene foam or balsa wood. The thickness of the material should be in the range from 5 to 12 mm.
2. Next, you should draw the outline of the future float on the blank. Most often, a round or semicircular shape is chosen. Sometimes the float can be oval or teardrop-shaped.
3. After this, the float is cut out of the workpiece using an ordinary knife and its entire surface (primarily the edges) is well sanded with sandpaper. The keel is made of wire 1–1.5 mm thick. Using a sharp object (an awl or a knitting needle), a depression of about 15–20 mm is made in the float, into which an antenna made from any available material (for example, bamboo) is attached to the glue.
4. At an angle of 90° to the direction of the keel, a paper clip is inserted into the body - it will perform the same role as the ring on a sports float, that is, to be one of the fishing line attachment points.

Homemade bubble type float.

There is no point in painting the surface with bright colors, since only the antenna will peek out of the water. You can put bright red heat shrink on it, “soldering” it with a lighter.

The production of a flat bolo-type float, repeating the well-known Cralusso Bolo model, can also be realized independently. In this case, the same materials are used as in the manufacture of the dough, however, this design has a number of significant differences.

Cralusso Bolo floats.

To make this model, you also need to take low-density material (balsa or polystyrene foam) and give it a characteristic drop-shaped shape. However, it should be taken into account that the design of the float has a concave shape on one side, and the ring for the upper fastening of the fishing line should be located 2-3 cm from the top of the tackle in the direction perpendicular to the concave “hole”.

The keel and antenna of a bolo-type float, unlike a bubble, lie on the same straight line. The end result should be something like this:

Self-made bolo-type float. Important! In this case, you should not attach the keel too deeply inside the body of the float, much less make the antenna in the form of its continuation. This will significantly worsen the stability of the float as a whole.

Flat floats do not need to be painted, however, to give them strength and durability, it is recommended to cover the floats with several layers of varnish.

Material

When it comes to the materials from which the waggler is made, we most often mean the body and bite indicator antenna.

A modern waggler can be made from:

• transparent or tinted plastic;
• balsa;
• peacock feather;

The last two materials can be used in production, either separately or in combination (the body of the float is made of balsa, and the antenna is made of peacock feathers). In floats with replaceable antennas, the material for the latter can also be plastic, light metal or reed.

The cost of the material seriously affects the cost of the float, which is why wagglers are more expensive than conventional floats.

Fishing with a waggler on rivers

No matter what river you fish, the many-faced waggler is your best friend, says famed sport fisherman Dave Hinton. Regardless of whether you fish wide or narrow, fast or slow rivers, take a set of wagglers with you every time you go fishing. No other float offers such wide fishing possibilities in different conditions. Floats with fastening at two points (stick floats, balsas and avons) are mainly used for not too long casts and when the wind blows against the current. With a full set of wagglers you can fish in both very slow and very fast water, at any distance up to 40m, even when the wind is blowing downstream. It should also be noted that the basis of fishing with a waggler is the correct load of the tackle and the correct casting. But the most important thing is that using a waggler it is much easier to monitor the float than when fishing with floats with fastening at two points. The only limitation with a waggler is that you cannot slow down the movement of the bait in the current in the same way as when fishing with a narrow-bodied float or a plug rod. Such a slowdown is sometimes very important: for example, in winter the roach prefers to take a nozzle that is slightly pulled in the opposite direction; the speed of its movement is half the speed of the water flow.

River Wagglers You can buy wagglers made from balsa, sarkandas (Indian reed) or plastic, but most experienced anglers prefer wagglers made from peacock feather shafts. Of course, there is a lot of subjective stuff here, but peacock feather is an extremely light material and wagglers made from it are easier to throw and easier to control; such floats have no more than one or two thin layers of paint. There was a time when you could not buy a suitable peacock feather shaft waggler, but now the market offers so many of these beautiful wagglers that you will find yourself at a loss as to which one to choose. For fishing on rivers, you need a set of straight wagglers - with and without peacock feather inserts, 2-4AAA (1.6-3.2 g). You can also use thickened wagglers; they are designed primarily for fishing at a great distance from the shore in standing waters and drains.

Antenna shape, length and diameter

The antenna can have a straight or arrow-shaped (with feathers) shape.

The tops of the waggler antennas can be:

• straight;
• thickened;
• sophisticated;

There are also models of wagglers with replaceable tips.

The length and diameter of the antenna depend on the specific model. The length of classic floats of this type can start from 4 cm. The maximum length in some models can reach 25 cm. The diameter of the antenna also depends on the model.

There are models of wagglers with an antenna with a diameter of 1 mm, but certain types of wagglers have an antenna with a diameter of up to 10 mm. However, most anglers pay attention to the tip of the antenna.