Baitrunner sensitivity.

[Steve Burke]

I wasn't going to contribute to this thread as I've little experience of such matters with carp. That is until Howard mentioned that there are chub in the water. Here I do have a fair bit of experience, having fished several whole seasons solely for stillwater chub.

 

On all such waters I've fished I've experienced these takes from chub. I thought at first that float fishing would be the answer but I was totally wrong! The float would just slowly slide across the surface, often for several yards, and a strike would just meet thin air. Fast takes, OTOH, were rarely a problem, but these turned out to be carp, which we were trying to avoid.

 

Eventually we spotted what was happening. The chub were picking up the bait right on the edge of their lips and slowly backing off with it. I tried a lot of dodges to connect with these fish before I found the answer. This was to increase the resistance at the indicator end. In those days I used a weighted flipstick, and if this was set correctly the reel would then backwind and a high percentage of the takes were converted.

 

It seems that the force needed to lift the weighed flipstick was about the same as to set the reel backwinding. I think that what was happening was the chub were then getting properly hold of the bait.

 

To achieve the same effect these days I'd try using a Swinger in conjunction with a Baitrunner and a running rig with a heavy weight so that it stayed put.

 

I've no idea if this suggestion will prove useful but I offer it for what it's worth.

[Peter Sharpe]

I have to agree that the way to go is to use rear rests that grip the rod butt, and fish with the baitrunners as tight as you can get away with. I can think of very few situations where you would fish with the baitrunners on their slackest settings, as in those cases you would be better off with an open bail arm. I have occasionally fished that way for zander, where the rods have been in long grass in very strong winds. In that situation i thought it preferable to risk a zander feeling the resistance, than having the line wrap around the grass during a take.