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Bite indicator question

3K views 12 replies 12 participants last post by  Cuda 
#1 ·
Hey all i have a quick question and looking for suggestions
I usually leave some slack in my line when catfishing and have been using little one inch squares of Styrofoam to slide on my line so I can see the bite better at night. Only problem is sometimes they slide down my line and out of sight.
Does anyone have suggestions of something i could attach to my line to detect bites?
Thanks
 
#5 ·
Something I have seen that should work fine is to take a paperclip and straighten most of it out leaving one end with the horseshoe curve. That curve will go over the line between the 1st and 2nd eyes on the rod. Or the eye of your choice. On the straight paperclip wire hanging down, add a piece of foam to make it east to see. Then add a small sinker at the bottom before adding a bend to retain the sinker. That will allow the weight of the sinker to pull the line down so the clip will be hanging a few inches below the eyelet level. The size sinker is your choice and you may want to experiment to see what works best and adjust for wind.

When you get a slight pull you will see the foam & sinker being pulled up. The clip can be taken off easily or you can reel in a fish with the clip still there. The line will just slide thru the clip.

Just a thought.
 
#9 ·
When using circle hooks I use tight line and lock my rods down in rod holders.
The indicator is when the rod is bent over to the 3,4,5,6,7th rod guide. If it is only bent to the 3rd or 4th eye keep it in the rod holder and reel it in as fast as you can until the rod bends more.

Glow bracelets taped or wire tied to rod helps see this bend. After staring at that for awhile it gets old quick if you miss the bite it won't matter because you won't miss the fish with a circle hook.
If your getting light bites the best indicator I have ever used has been my index finger feeling for that slight tug or pressure on the line.
 
#10 ·
If you want If you are bank fishing you need to look into European Carp fishing techniques. Those are some dedicated bait fisherman that are fishing for some of the most intelligent and shy fish in the world. Some of those carp a way past old enough to vote and have been caught a lot of times and learned to be more and more careful.

When I go and set up I get a lot of funny looks. Most people have never seen a three-place rod pod with electric bite detectors and swingers. I often use big spinning reels and with the bail open and the swingers hanging below holding a tiny tension on the line a fish can grab your bait and just run off with it with no resistance. People are not sure about this funny looking setup but when you start catching fish hard and fast that they probably would have never detected they get interested.

You can spend a lot of money buying a setup or make your own pod out of PVC pipe, The bite detectors are not all that costly until you get the ones with a radio pager system. Mine just beep when something touches them. The great thing about this sort of fishing is that I usually am laid back and comfortable reading a book or magazine or even listening to music and napping. When something moved the bait as little as six inches in any direction the detecter starts to chirp and get your attention.

Another carp trick that I like is that I made a slinger that allows me to throw range cubes about s far as I can cast with long surf rods and spinning reels. I put out my spread and then fish the area. If it is someplace close to the house I try and chum for a couple of days before. I made mine out of a 3' piece of pvc pipe. You cut it in half about a foot or so back and then cut one side of that off. I then gently heat and bend the halfpipe that is a foot long on the end about at a 45 degree angle. I drill a 1/4" hole across the round part of the pipe about 6 to 9 inches from the end. You drop those round cylindric pieces of range cube into the pipe until it is a little past full and then just sling th cube out. With practice, you can get out near a hundred yards sometimes. I make a lot of my stuff out of PVC pipe. It is like big boy tinker toys!!!

This is a great way to spend an evening with a couple of friends. Two of my friends have decided that I'm not so crazy. They tried rigging old school, forked sticks with casting reels on clicker but missed a lot more bits than I did. When the catfish are hammering the baits it doesn't matter much but when they are just fiddling with the bait I would hook most of them and they would just reel in bare hooks. You know, one thing that I learned with this sort of rig was that some of those tiny nibbles that I had always put down as probably being little peckerwoods just stealing my bait but I now know that a lot of those nibbles are done by bigger cats that just swam up, sucked the bait in and laid there with the bait.
 
#11 ·
Another carp trick that I like is that I made a slinger that allows me to throw range cubes about s far as I can cast with long surf rods and spinning reels. I put out my spread and then fish the area. If it is someplace close to the house I try and chum for a couple of days before. I made mine out of a 3' piece of pvc pipe. You cut it in half about a foot or so back and then cut one side of that off. I then gently heat and bend the halfpipe that is a foot long on the end about at a 45 degree angle. I drill a 1/4" hole across the round part of the pipe about 6 to 9 inches from the end. You drop those round cylindric pieces of range cube into the pipe until it is a little past full and then just sling th cube out. With practice, you can get out near a hundred yards sometimes. I make a lot of my stuff out of PVC pipe. It is like big boy tinker toys!!!
Any chance you have a picture of this? Thanks!
 
#12 ·
I mainly bank fish for catfish, and when I do, I suspend a bobber painted with glow-in-the-dark paint from the line between the first and second guides to a point just above the bank. When a fish hits, the line will gradually, or abruptly get taught and I can either reel the fish in or set the hook, depending on whether using a circle or J hook. It's always exciting when all your rods get hit at once.
 
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