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Bite alarms past and present

J

Justin Cubberley

Senior Member
Further to the bite alarm recommended thread. It got me thinking about my past alarms. As I type this Im strugging to think of a bad experience I've ever had with any of them as with regard to reliability and I'm going back to the late 80s. My first alarms, the optonic hi tone, i think these cost around £30 each and I had the solder gun on them within minutes - giving them the traffic light led look. Opti forks, Opti bolts and ears followed along with the sensitive multi pin wheel. I can remember being the envy of my mates at the time who had the bj and beacon alarms.
These lasted me a few years before I moved onto the bitech viper. This alarm looked very different design wise to anything else at this period with benefits like being extremely sensitive out the box with all the adjustment of a modern alarm except the led colour choice. The optional sounder box also had full adjustment albeit hard wired. You either loved all loathed the ball joint style bsf thread at the alarms base but all in all, seemed a improvement over the market leading optonic xl especially at the cost point. I'm sure at this point I had a brief affair with the ET double back biter alarm for my pike fishing. Can't say I ever had much faith in it so it went in the anglers mail classified section... The only angling sales medium available at the time.
When the vipers dated tho still working fine. I moved on to the fox brand alarms with the micron sx digital and the mmx. These have seen me into the 2010s when I moved onto fox ntxr system and the delkim txi. Both sets I use today.
Now. Having used the fox sx, mmx and the ntxr I don't think that I could state with any conviction that one is more sensitive or reliable than any other. There is slight design differences with them but in operation, I can say hand on heart that I've not had a problem. Hense this thread. OK. So I do like to look after my gear but that's simple care. A battery change at the start of the season and a wipe down after use. Nothing really. I like the benefit of the 'modern' remote system on the ntxr and the txi but the things I have read about signal strength failure due to terrain and atmosphere is really beyond me having never experienced any problems. The roller non roller debate that splits anglers,I use both and haven't had any issues with either. My ntxrs are used mainly now on rivers in 2x 2 rod set up. Mainly because im to lazy to swop them via the archaic screw method. The delks have the d lok removal system that comes in useful when fishing two and three rod waters as I'm sure we have all experienced the 'busy body' thinking you have three rods out in a two rod limit water.
Now I can't claim to have fished in sub zero temperatures... Ive fished when it's been cold, likewise when it's been hot. Ive fished in rain, snow, wind etc and whilst I can remember rods being blown off alarms, Rod creep with vicious takes, I can't think of a time in over 30 years of angling with alarms, a time in which any one has let me down with a mechanical fault.
 
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I bought an Optonic in the 70s for stillwater fishing and modified it pretty quickly - I added a three position slider switch to add two different tones.

I reckon I used it half a dozen times only, and it"s been in the cupboard ever since as I haven't fished a stillwater for years (apart from the odd social using red pointy things).

For barbel fishing, no surprise, I use c'pins which gives me all the "alarm" I need :)
 
Ive just remembered. When I purchased my first set of dedicated carp rods (Sundridge kortina carp) I also purchased a set of Sundridge kortina reels. These resembled the early shimano bait runners at the time being front drag with the free spool facility. How ever. They came with a clever little device that featured a similar concept to most magnetic roller alarms that was around 1 inch long and 1 inch diameter with a red led and a speaker. It worked off a watch battery and by removing a disc at the back of the reel, you could replace it by what was for all intents and purposes a bite alarm. Working off the rotation of the free spool. The reel then resembled a rear drag baitrinner by todays standards. Mine worked fine. Although the alarm 'pod' was made from a brittle plastic and showed stress where the internal thread attached it to the reel. Whilst it didn't have any volume contral there was sensitivity adjustment from the baitrinner free spool tension. I think the concept was sound. A little more development may have changed how we fish today.
 
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Haven’t much use for alarms nowadays so haven’t really kept up to speed with what’s new.
I started with a pair of Herons then brought hi and low tone optonics around late 70’s which served me well,... still got them tucked away somewhere. Although they were a massive technical step up from the Herons with the light and wheels instead of a dodgy pressure connector which didn’t register drop bites, I still used to wrap the sounder box in a hand towel to lower the volume. ( have to say it was sweet compared with the Heron din though)
Brought some microns about 20 years ago that are gathering dust which kinda tells me that I haven’t fished a stillwater for ages.
 
Hi men,

Iv had them all :D , even having a optonic conversion article published in the then CAA mag where I put a speaker on the outside for better volume , and a jack socket extension box . I even used the main man at Fox buzzers when i got the very first ones released by then and they let everyone down strait away . I complained so much to mr Fox as i was in a carp match the next weekend that he sent me his until mine were ready . Eventually changed to delkims , and now have 6 , all mk1 . Just perchased , today in fact ) some S5r from nashy as my mate has them and for france i could do with a remote . Got a good deal , so will see how they go , but all reports from shop/friends are they are bomb proof , hatter proof ?, will see.

Hatter
 
Justin Cubberley said:
Ive just remembered. When I purchased my first set of dedicated carp rods (Sundridge kortina carp) I also purchased a set of Sundridge kortina reels. These resembled the early shimano bait runners at the time being front drag with the free spool facility. How ever. They came with a clever little device that featured a similar concept to most magnetic roller alarms that was around 1 inch long and 1 inch diameter with a red led and a speaker. It worked off a watch battery and by removing a disc at the back of the reel, you could replace it by what was for all intents and purposes a bite alarm. Working off the rotation of the free spool. The reel then resembled a rear drag baitrinner by todays standards. Mine worked fine. Although the alarm 'pod' was made from a brittle plastic and showed stress where the internal thread attached it to the reel. Whilst it didn't have any volume contral there was sensitivity adjustment from the baitrinner free spool tension. I think the concept was sound. A little more development may have changed how we fish today.
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That sounds like a right idea. It would be perfect for barbel fishing where you don't need half the bling that's on a modern alarm
 
In our formative years, bite indication at night consisted of a piece of tin (aluminium) foil wrapped over the line which rustled when the line moved. We also used the penny trick and dough bobbins/Fairy liquid tops during the day. I then advanced to a Heron, which I've still got somewhere, while my mate got a pair of Optonics. Many changes since then although I only use alarms very rarely these days (haven't fished seriously for carp for almost 40 years) and don't believe in using them on rivers.


Dave
 
Maybe we could have a new thread.
Rather than the usual.
What Rods/Reels have you got, to

How many bait alarms have you got?

Hatter maybe the top Tart?
 
My first electronic bite alarm was the little black box with the orange arm that you put your line around. It was an awful thing but I was so proud of it. Mum and dad didn't have much money when I was a kid, Maggie made sure of that...

When I got my first optonic I used treat it like a bar of gold!
 
Used to fish at night for eels at the tender age of 17 to 18 and couldn't afford an alarm so made my own - small test tube, mercury, rubber bung and some metal pins all connected up to a small box with bell and light. Worked well.
Later it was Herons, Optonics, Optonic Super XLs and Delkims but for species like carp, tench pike and...........eels.
 
A cork with a hair clip pushed through tied to string for eel fishing on the Thames and circles cut from plastic vending cups split so they could fix over the line between the spool and first eye for carp fishing. White ones visible in dark and rustled on the take before hitting the blank !
 
I used to swing tip illuminated by a tilley lamp. We used to holiday on the Norfolk broads for bream. Fishing at night out of the back of a boat, but the guy who filled the Tilley had to make sure all the paraffin was washed off his hands or he would get no bites.
 
Cliff Turner said:
A cork with a hair clip pushed through tied to string for eel fishing on the Thames and circles cut from plastic vending cups split so they could fix over the line between the spool and first eye for carp fishing. White ones visible in dark and rustled on the take before hitting the blank !
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cork with 2 map pins aswell painted red with my mom's toenail paint .
 
Paul Collins said:
I used to use a penny or 2p and a VW Beetle hubcap, on stillwaters.
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The rich kids used half crowns on Rolls Royce hub caps. I started with fairy washing up liquid bottle tops, first electric ones were,& still are Fox micron ST's, just had to solder in a new battery holder over the years, excellent things.
 
My first alarm was a halfpenny on the open bail arm of my mitchell 300 and an enamel plate under it the bait was a free lined spud later I bought a heron ( just the one ) and was fishing Cut Mill pond in Farnham in the morning a bloke rode round on his pushbike wicker basket big beard and started shouting your cheating your using an electric device !!! thats not angling he was going balistic the veins were standing out on his head shouting and spitting thought he was going to hit me lol
a couple of years later they banned hempseed as it was drugging the fish !!!!!!!!!! and the fish could not help themselves ! how time have changed eh lol
EDIT .... now its bait boats that are cheating lol
 
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