Pike bite indication: Drop-off vs. Bobbin

[Rusty]

Get in the bath, lie a 3oz weight beteen your legs, force a fart out and see if moves....

 

Oh perleeeze...I was picking up some handy tips until that.

[Dick Dastardly]

Oh perleeeze...I was picking up some handy tips until that.

 

 

About bite indication for pike or having a fiddle in the bath Rusty?

 

I think allthough Andys "fart forcing" comments may seem a bit jovial it was indeed how ET first got the idea for a camoflaged sunk float.....................................

[Steve Burke]

I prefer a front alarm when piking, but even if I didn't it would always be a drop-off indicator rather than a bobbin for me.

 

However I do insist that the drop-off has a rigid arm with a sliding weight. This allows the tension of the line to be adjusted and thus show dropbacks very efficiently. It also allows me to compensate for current or undertow.

 

Additionally, it's extremely fiddly to vary the depth on sunken float paternosters unless you've got a sliding weight.

 

I use Fox Pike Swingers and you can see my field test at http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/Tackle-And-Bai...ke_swinger.html

[wayne baker]

Well i did fill the bath up and done a few experiments with running rigs. using leads of different sizes etc. On different surfaces The hardest thing was like i said was simulating a pike opening its mouth and sucking in the water. I started using my cupped hands but i could create enough of a vortex. So i found a large plastic container about 120mm diamtre and made a makeshift plunger. I manged to get some slight movement on some of the smaller leads from various distances but nothing conclusive enough to up hold my original theory on the cause of some dropback bites. When a pike takes a bait most of the movement of the water is away from the bait. So i stand corrected.

One thought i did have though whilst doing this was a possible cause for some drop back bites. what if there were more than one pike in the vacinity of a bait, And like we know large pike often compete in a small area for food. Lets imagine two fish moving in on a bait, and lets imagine the smaller of the two going for the bait and the larger one reacting to this with an asault on the smaller one. The resulting water disturbance would be enough to move a lead i belive. Obviously not something that is going to happen very often. Just another thought.

Edited February 18, 2009 by wayne baker

[Andy Macfarlane]

Well there's almost always going to be some sort of activity round your bait when a pike moves in. A pike is big for a start, it can shift a fair amount of water when it moves, it probably comes in at your bait from angles (probably whichever is easiest) with it's tail and fins flapping, gills going and all that. You'll very often find your alarm bleeps a couple of times before the bait itself its actually taken anywhere but all that tells me that it's wise to use a heavy lead, so you know when something is just moving around the bait or actually moving off with the thing. Either way, even a single bleep to me means something has happened along the length of my line and that needs investigating. It might be a little perch has bumped your line or it could be weed feathering your line but it might also be a fish investigating your bait. I always use at least 3 oz of lead even if I'm literally fishing a rod length out. The fact I'm fishing the margins isn't a reason to drop the weight. A tight line at 12 feet and a tight line at 120 feet should make little difference indication-wise. I think people think weight and distance too much. I think weight and indication first and then distance.

 

.....Regards.....Andy