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Alarmed!

Ah yea always alarmed at night....we used to fish for the massive Tench early morning( they were back then ) the Zeds at night but used to also catch massive eels 4lb + and loads of bream.....used to fish floating bread or casters for insanely big Rudd.....really miss fishing those drains . Maybe I should go back.....had most of my pbs from those drains.
 
Ian Ward said:
Are bite alarms needed on places like the Nene?
Normally I haven't bothered but I'm still waiting to catch one!
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People use them on the nene but No in my opinion they are not required on that river because the two clubs you have mentioned recently about joining, do not allow fishing through the night.

It’s a short session water where your chances of success with the barbel are greatly increased at either first or last thing.

If you haven’t caught one, an alarm isn’t going to make up that difference as it’s just an audio indicator generally put in place when you feel you are going to take your eye off the ball.

Have you caught barbel in other rivers before?
 
If you think you are likely to nod-off, even just a few mins, then use one, it might just help prevent a fish getting snagged because it's been able to run for more seconds than it should.

But, there is no substitute for watching your rod tip..you will learn more from that than any bleeps on an alarm, and do everyone else a favour by using a remote with a vibration setting. Then you can keep your alarms muted for the benefit of others.
 
I use every method that I can to find out what's going on out in the river. I compulsively watch the rod tip, use a bait runner and often sit with my hand on the rod which can indicate subtle knocks and plucks.

I think an alarm saved my bacon last September when fishing an evening session. I had turned away from the rod to rummage through my tackle bag. The alarm screamed and thankfully I grabbed hold of the rod to land a very big, fast moving barb.
 
I use alarms all the time for the safety of the fish, you can't watch the tip all the time and if you are looking away and a barbel takes off it could find a snag and become tethered.
 
I use my alarms but as a rod rest only as iv got snag ears for them and I’m confident my rods not gonna fly off the rest with a vicious take. If your fishing through the night and feel your going to fall asleep then definitely use them. Where I fish you rarely get bites later than a couple of hours after sunset so I usually pack up as soon as I feel like I’m going to drop off so no need for me to ever turn them on. I’m not really one to moan about how other people fish as long as they’re fishing safely but I gotta admit it does do my head in hearing other angler’s alarms not when they’ve got a bite but when they’ve recast and putting their rod back on the rest/taking up slack. Just turn it on/off between recasts. To be fair though it’s not so much of a problem on the river compared to carp lakes.
 
I've done so much carp fishing involving alarms over the years that when I fish for other species then I want to immerse myself in other methods to get away from monotony of being sat behind buzzers. There is alot of information missed by not watching the tips, especially on pressured stretches.
However I do use them on the odd occasion when I'm knackered and the head starts nodding but never near snags and bivving up is not for me. What is refreshing when using alarms for barbel is being able to watch nature around me freely but even with buzzers I still tend to watch the tips.
On the whole I never feel quite right using buzzers on a river but that's just me.
 
As Richard said it’s a bit of a short session job mornings evenings……just invest in some top quality butt tests that really grip the rod just in case you do turn your back for a few seconds… I use the jag ones not cheap but with three sizes of inserts in the pack you should be covered for most rods and don’t fish with bait runners engaged … never understood using bait runners for barbel fishing but that’s a personal opinion and a whole other discussion
 
I was contemplating this very thing recently.

I'm quite good at remaining focused on the night lights for hours whilst fishing at night. But that comes at an expense now as I get headaches if I do this for any length of time these days.

When I feel these coming on I'll hold the rod and touch leger, and close my eyes. But the idea of using alarms will be for the above reason if I decide to go down that route. (got prescription glasses recently too)
 
Steve Kenchington said:
Touch ledger all the time. If you want to sleep, go home and sleep. It is sport angling . We are not long lining for food for goodness sake.
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Pretty ridiculous response re; going home to sleep, particularly if you travel a decent distance and are staying overnight on the bank (for one reason or another but, in my case, the only opportunity I get to fish where I want to). Is it a sport or a pastime? Either really.

To answer the OP - a centrepin with a decent ratchet will wake you up.
 
I use ATT underlit alarms with snag ears but with the receiver turned off. The light coming on is enough to alert me of a take. If I start to feel drowsy, I'll put the receiver on, but even when I'm Carp fishing I find it difficult to sleep with rods out.
 
I use alarms when Zander fishing DBs

I don't use alarms for barbel. I enjoy watching the rod tip for indications. I'm sitting on my rods, just putting the baitrunner on if making tea or having a wee.

If I feel I'm sleepy I stop fishing.

Saying all that, I rarely fish more than 2 hours into dark
 
Graham Elliott said:
I use alarms when Zander fishing DBs

I don't use alarms for barbel. I enjoy watching the rod tip for indications. I'm sitting on my rods, just putting the baitrunner on if making tea or having a wee.

If I feel I'm sleepy I stop fishing.

Saying all that, I rarely fish more than 2 hours into dark
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Graham I had a go at tip fishing for Zander on the Warks Avon early winter . I read an article on John Costello's and thought it suited my mobile fishing . It was cracking and I had my pb 8.14 in my second session . You see every bit of movement and can hit them easily . Nothing fancy just a barbel rod , braid mainline with 3 ft of Fluoro as a leader to stop damage . Running lead ( I used a ceramic catfish ring and large rubber bead . 18inch trace .... I can't wait to do it again when the rivers high and coloured 👍🎣
 
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