Bite indication for pike

[Tim Kelly]

You're right Budgie, I was being pedantic. If he is happy to buy rear drop offs though as he is getting more serious about his piking why not encourage him to go with the system you use yourself which has been developed specifically for this style of open reel fishing? Front alarms are carp fishing equpiment, developed for carp techniques, rear drop off alarms are pike fishing equipment developed for pike fishing in the same way that quality modern carp rods are entirely different to quality modern pike rods.

[Dick Dastardly]

Yes thats a fair point Tim.

[Steve Burke]

I'm basically a predator angler who does a bit of carp fishing. However for both species I prefer a front alarm and a drop-off indicator!

 

The advantage of this system when predator fishing is that I get just one or two bleeps followed by the indicator moving. If the indicator comes clear it gives an audible clonk as it hits the box I have beneath it. As I sit right next to my rods and stay awake when fishing live or deadbaits this is all I need. I certainly don't want the racket of an alarm blaring out for several seconds!

 

I use an open bail arm when predator fishing to minimise the change in resistance, and may also do so when carping. However, when fishing bolt rigs for carp etc I'll engage the baitrunner.

 

In each case though I use a drop-off indicator on the rear rod rest. Having asked the question umpteen times over the years and never had a logical answer, the only reason I can see that carp anglers use front indicators are that the first Swingers were designed to be used this way!

 

In other words, as with many things in angling, there's no "right" way, only a customary way. And my customs are often different from the norm! But they're always for a reason.

 

As has been pointed out, if you put the front alarm next to a rod ring you shouldn't have a problem with line skidding. I say shouldn't have, but there are a few models on the market that are poorly designed. I use the very reliable, British-made alarms from Good Fishing and have no problems with these. They're also a lot less expensive than their big name counterparts. Their web site is at http://www.goodfishing.i12.com/

 

For those who only occasionally predator fish front alarms are obviously ideal as you’ll probably already have some. Otherwise it’s really a matter of personal preference.

 

As for drop-off indicators do make sure that you get ones with both a rigid arm and a sliding weight. These are more versatile, easier to set-up and will show dropbacks much better and thus avoid deep hooking - obviously of special importance when piking.

 

You could use your carp indicators fitted to the rear rod rests if they have these features and they fit. Otherwise I too would recommend the Fox Pike Swingers. Mine are the MK 1s that had a poor line clip that I needed to replace with a Gardner one. I understand that the Mk IIs have an improved line clip and a lower price to boot

[james17]

Thanks a lot for the responses.

 

I've ordered an MK2 drop-off alarm for one of my rods after reading your reply and will combine the homemade drop-off suggested by budgie with a front roller on my other rod.

 

Again thanks a lot for the useful advice.

[Brian Carragher]

I use exactly the same set up, front roller alarms and Fox sliding drop offs and they work a treat, the advantage of the front alarm combined with the drop off is that should debris or some other rubbish or river flow dislodge the drop off, I know immidiately whether its a run or just the drop offs coming off. That said I never fish open bail arms and probably land and cath more than some of those i see fishing with open bails, I much prefer the more direct contact felt when engaging the handle rather than that bump you get when the bail arm goes over