UK Coarse
Float · Technique journey
A bait falling through the water, shot strung out so it looks natural. Roach, rudd, F1s and anyone intercepting feed as it sinks.
Beginnerfloatcanalcommercialbeginner
On the drop is how a lot of silvers and F1s actually want it. You set the depth shallower than the bottom, string the shot, and the bait falls like the loosefeed. A dip on the way down is the bite — strike it, do not wait for the float to settle and then wonder why you missed.
It is a waggler and pole skill. It is not a pellet waggler, though the idea is related: the fish are not on the deck.
Roach, rudd, F1s. Clear water. When you are missing on the deck. A cloud of maggot or caster.
Tench in the silt. Bream on a bed. A bait that must sit still.
From the graph
Venue type
Canal
A towpath, a far shelf, boats, and some of the most thoughtful fishing in the country. Bread punch, pole, and waggler still rule.
Venue type
Commercial fishery
Silvers and F1s
Venue type
Natural stillwater
Pits, meres, estate lakes and waters that were not built as day-ticket carp mills. Lilies, silt, snags, and fish that do not have to eat your bait.
Bait
Maggots
The universal bait. If you could only have one thing in the bag for a mixed UK stillwater or canal, maggots would still be the answer.
Bait
Casters
Maggots that have pupated. A better stamp of silver fish, and a change bait when maggots are getting mobbed.
Bait
Expander pellets
F1s
Bait
Bread
Punch in a cloud
A starting point, not a shopping list you have to finish. Match the water in front of you.
12–13ft float rod, 3000 reel, 3–5lb line, a float you can actually see, fine hooklength.
On the peg
Little and often, so there is always something falling.
Off-bottom depth, strung shot, a light hookbait that falls with the feed.
Open water, a canal track, a silver line on a commercial.
Falling. Count it down. A take on 'three' tells you the depth.
Start off-bottom. If you catch, stay. If you do not, go down a foot, then to the deck.
Clear or slightly coloured. Fish you can see swirling or topping.
Feed, cast, and watch as it settles. Dip on the drop — strike. If the float sits and nothing happens, they may want it deeper, or they may want another falling bait, not a waiting one.
Starting routine
0–10 min
Get a bait in the water on the line you intend to fish. Do not search the whole venue in ten minutes.
10–30 min
Little and often, so there is always something falling.
30–60 min
If nothing, change one thing — depth, bait or spot — not three. Read the troubleshooting on this page.
A dip or a hold as it falls. Elastic coming out on a pole. Do not wait.
Immediate on a proper dip. A beat later on F1s if you are bouncing them.
Net anything with size or spines. Wet hands, unhook, return. A photograph is optional; the fish in the water is not.
Setting dead depth and calling it 'on the drop'. Not watching until it sits. Feeding a bed then fishing a falling bait somewhere else.
Missing: too fast, or bait too big. Nothing on the drop: they are on the deck. Foul-hooking: too shallow.
Beginner setup
Insert waggler, two droppers, size 18 maggot, a foot off the deck on a silver lake.
More advanced
Change depth, bait or feed before you change peg.
Rig
Waggler setup
Locked float, bulk around the base, droppers down the line, fine hooklength. The same skeleton covers traditional waggler and, with a dumpy body, pellet waggler.
Rig
Pole rig
A dotted pole float, bulk and droppers, a short hooklength, elastic in the top kit. Accuracy is the whole point.
No linked on-the-bank problems for this method yet.
Catches
Nobody has shared a catch using this technique yet. When someone does, it will show up here — we do not invent anglers or photos.