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Whenever you are fishing for pike on large medium or small waters one important subject should never be overlooked, that of bite 'good' indication. You may have chosen to use floats as your bite indication and provided you are going to watch your floats for the indications provided by them when a pike strikes or picks up a bait, then all will be well! Lack of attention to the baits can lead to the baits being swallowed and the pike being deep hooked and difficult, almost impossible to unhook for those less experienced at unhooking! There are ways of making the bite indications more positive when float or leger fishing and in some of the rig descriptions these points are emphasized.
There is always a moment where you are 'naturally' distracted, for want of a description and throughout any pike fishing session your concentration will suffer and the chances of missing the indications can creep in. The answer can be to go 'belt and braces' and include some additional indication in the form of visual and audible indication at the bank end. This can apply in particular when legering with no floats or with the float in a sunken method.
The first bite indicator shown here is a Fox Micron and it embodies the principles of the earliest mercury tilt switch butt indicators and effectively indicates drop back and full unclippings when a proper run occurs.
( For those unsure of what a 'drop back' bite is, this is when a bait is picked up by the fish and the tension created when the indicator was attached to the line is altered and rather than tightening as a fish runs off, it slackens allowing the indicator to fall down slightly. This can occur when float fishing as well and some float rigs are designed to indicate when this happens. The bobbin on any design of bite indicator must therefore be heavy enough to pull this slack line back, even through weed and in doing so trigger the alarm. Too light bobbins will not do this sufficiently well, so ensure that if any you use are too light, increase their weight by wrapping solder wire around the arm near the bobbin end)
(A) indicates the bait in the cast position and the bobbin set to react in a neutral position, the LED is off and the bail arm is open. (B) typically indicates a drop back bite, the LED glows and the buzzer sounds, this may be followed by the bobbin returning to position (A) with the buzzer and LED switching off again. If this happens take a close look at your tackle and if and if necessary pick up the rod and hold the line at the reel between your finger and thumb and gently pull a bend into the tip of your rod and feel if there is any trembling created by a pike at the bait. By doing this you may detect a fish and trigger a full blooded run, if not you will do no better than strike and avoid a swallowed bait (C) indicates either a full slack line drop back, line remains in the clip or a full blooded run unclip with no line in the clip. The LED glows and the buzzer sounds.
The second indicator shown here follows the most commonly experienced type of pike fishing butt indicator which is in principle the same as the Micron, typical examples are the ET Backbiter. This type uses a rigid arm and operates via a micro switch rather than a mercury sensor. The action is exactly the same as that as described for the Micron, the arm is set in a neutral position with the bail arm open and the action of slack line will trigger the buzzer and the LED, a full unclipping doing the same.
This type of alarm can have an advantage over the Micron type, in that it can register tightening of the line which is often a momentary action when fishing sunken float paternosters. This is often not enough to unclip the bobbin but gives a warning that something is at the bait and you can get to the rod early rather than late!
Indicator three is typically a carp set up and as many carp anglers turn to pike fishing over the winter months then these can be used to provide good audible and visual bite indication. The action is very much like our second butt indicator at (A) it is positioned in a neutral position to indicate both tightening (C) for a full blooded run, the clip doesn't release until the strike is made and slackening of the line from a drop back as in (B). The use of a line clip is required if using a non bait runner type reel (as shown) at the indicator end or over the reel. This will not be necessary if you are using a bait runner reel as the drag can be adjusted to give line freely. Open bail arms do have their advantages though so consider using a line clip if your runs are dropped due to line drag resistance!
These types of bite indicator (Optonics, Microns and Delkims)can and perhaps should always be used with the simple clip on butt indicators available from tackle dealers
Finally consider whether you bite indication is adequate and if there are any flaws please do consider making some changes to avoid deep hooking and the risk of injuring your pike. You might catch a few more pike into the bargain!
