Bite Indication Explained ....

I design, manufacture and sell my own drop off indicators and alarms through my company Advanced Predator Products (APP). Not an overnight occurrence by any means, more a process of trial and error that started way back in the 1980's and ended up where we are today. It all started with homemade drop off's comprising of poly balls and a Gardner line clip as that was all that was available to the piker of the day. I very quickly began to realise the short comings of this system of bite indication and how poorly slack line runs were indicated due to ''hang up's''. A hang up was when a pike picked up a bait and swam towards the rod giving slack line but the drop off stayed in postion indicating nothing. In the 80's and before, it was most common for pikers to use swan shot nipped on a trace or some kind of fixed bullet as a means to tighten up to instead of a running lead rig. This was obviously a big problem back in the day and contributed to the death of too many pike (even though not intended) and resulted in us becoming experts at pike surgery removing hooks from guts. I quickly abandoned drop off's for this reason and started using monkey climbers made from plastic conduit which were so much more effective at indicating slack line bites but equally poor at releasing line to a line taking run. Having the monkey needle at an angle helped but at the same time reduced it's effectiveness to drop back and the same old problem once again! Next it was modified Gardner clips, Solar line clips, plastic clips and even PTFE clips but none of them were 100% reliable and still ''hung up'' or were poor showing drop backs at best. These clips were not produced for pike fishing and can't be judged as they were for the carp fishing market and worked perfectly well being used as intended. The answer for most was to abandon fixed/semi fixed leads and use a running lead rig which in theory would give you an out of clip run every time and leave no need for an indicator to show a slack line bite. This was all good in intention but little thought went in to application when 1 oz leads were being used without thinking it through. For a running lead rig to work in any situation the force to un clip an indicator needs to be less than the force needed to move a lead or cause lead skip. This means to cover most situations a lead of 4 oz is needed to negate weather conditions, distance fishing, lake/riverbed type and possibly using a bait that moves! Casting any bait with a 4 oz lead is difficult never mind a big bait, add line separation, lack of distance, feathering and dragging a bait across a mucky bottom to tighten up is all something I don't want to do if possible. Enter the linegate, such an ingenius idea that showed drop backs like no other indicator ever did but once again came with a list of limitations, the main one being was adjusting tension which made it a non starter as this is a fundamental for all indicators. Going forwards I have since made a fully adjustable linegate but this is for another time. So, if conditions allow then using a semi fixed lead rig is my first choice being so much more versatile enabling easy casting, any bait size choice, less tangles and no bait lead separation. Another big plus is just like using a float, when you get a run you can feel/see which way a fish is moving before you strike/wind down and do so against the direction of the run which will pull hooks in to the scissors instead of possibly pulling hooks out of the mouth, this being something you can't do when using a running lead as giving line will only pay out to the lead. So if you decide you want to use a semi fixed lead it is vital that you use an indicator that will show movement of the bait in any direction as soon as it's picked up. This was my big dilema as i wanted to do so and spent countless hours trying to solve the clip problem. I'm not sure as to when I had my ''Eureka'' moment but when I did I was quick making some crude prototypes and putting them on test. The idea was so simple and obvious once I had thought of it and they worked so well I couldn't get them to ''hang up'' or malfunction no matter what I tried, they were faultless. Due to the machining tollerances which allowed the balls to rotate it was impossible for the indicator to nip the braid and so was the reverse when line pulled out of the clip as it passed through instead of being pinged free. After testing I showed them friends who wanted me to make them some, then their friends some and so on till it ended up becoming APP as it stands today. So much simpler to show and explain in person than it is to write about but to all those who use my indicators reading this I know you will be nodding and to those who havn't if not convinced at least have a think about it!