🐉 LOADED WAGGLER
The Loaded Waggler is a float designed with a weight built into its base, giving it instant balance and registration as soon as it hits the water.
Almost any waggler type can be made as a loaded version — straight, insert, or body — making this one of the most versatile and accurate float styles available to modern anglers.
🧰 Design & Advantages
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🪶 Instant setting:
The built-in weight cocks the float immediately, allowing you to fish on the drop from the moment it lands. -
⚖️ Fewer locking shots:
With the loading in the base, you need fewer shot on the line. This gives a straighter cast, less splash, and a cleaner presentation. -
🎯 Light presentation:
Minimal shotting creates a more natural bait fall, perfect for wary fish. -
🪝 Pinpoint casting:
With practice, the loaded waggler can be cast with great accuracy — ideal for tight areas like far-bank bushes, moored boats, or precise feed lines. -
🌀 Easy side-arm casting:
Because the weight is in the base, side-arm casting becomes smooth and effortless. Simply hold the line above the hook, bend the rod against the line tension, sweep, and release — the rod acts as a catapult.
Most loaded peacock wagglers are fitted with a brass insert in the base, and are best attached using a swivel/silicone adaptor.
✔️ This allows direct contact on the strike
✔️ Reduces twisting and tangling of line and hooklength during distance fishing.
⚖️ Clive’s Tip — DIY Loaded Float
In my tackle box, I always keep a small roll of soft lead wire. By twisting a short piece around the base or plastic eye of a standard waggler, I can instantly convert it to a loaded float — perfect when quick adjustments are needed.
⚠️ Note: Avoid pairing loaded wagglers with a heavy bulk down the line. The weight is already in the base, so too much additional bulk can make casting clumsy.
🇫🇷 Match Memory — France 1986
I’ll never forget a day at Strasbourg during the World Championships.
Fishing was slow — only small fish on bloodworm — until I noticed a Scottish angler land a chub on the waggler. I switched to a small loaded peacock waggler, casting 30 meters across the canal and loose feeding casters.
Within 20 minutes, I was into fish. In the last hour alone, I landed nine chub, climbing from nowhere to finish second overall, winning the silver medal. It was the light, on-the-drop presentation of the loaded waggler that made all the difference.
🏆 Clive’s Match Tip
The loaded waggler gives you a stealthy, balanced, and deadly accurate approach. When conditions get tricky, this float can turn your day — and your results — around.
📘 For detailed shotting diagrams, casting techniques, and advanced match tactics, see Clive Branson’s Float Fishing Manual (Paperback & PDF Download).
