CORD ARM DROP OFF INDICATORS
These are self contained units that clip to the rear rodrest. Though rear alarms can be bought commercially, (Fox sell a very posh model - BUT BBB's are a better bet for reliability if you need a rigid arm alarm) they are not particularly sensitive in my opinion.
It must be borne in mind that cord-arm alarms are perfectly suited to static deadbaiting ONLY. If you use livebaits then get a rigid arm alarm as they allow a fair degree of movement in the setup before they sound.
If, like me, you fish static deads then with these alarms you will know in a very loud fashion the moment your bait is touched. Furthermore, they can tell you this irrespective of undertow, wind, waves, wash, rain etc
How? Well very simply but first it is best to try to understand the forces in play here.
The tension is killing me!
So .... you have setup your rod, attached your bait and cast it out. You have taken up the slack and have put the rod on the rest. You have also attached your bobbin and opened the bail arm. You are now sitting back in your chair, admiring the view and waiting for your bobbin to drop away and your alarm to sound.
Well while you are waiting, do you ever consider what is going on between your bait and your bobbin? Well let me tell you - there is potentially much going on there that you should be aware of. Firstly though, it must be stressed that your alarm should always be setup to show slack line or drop backs. Any old pile of tat (with the possible exception of a Micron PS) can show a full blooded run. The line tightens up, pulls out of the clip and the alarm sounds. The sensitive side of the cord-arm alarm is in its detection of drop backs. This is where the lead moves creating a reduction in tension in the line. Now the cord-arm, when really setup to the limit (more later) only needs a reduction in tension, not actual movement to indicate interest in the bait. A rigid arm type alarm always needs actual line movement to allow the arm to fall before it can turn the alarm on.
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Choose your peg
So what do you do with it?
Well, the idea is that the by clipping the elastic to the rear rodrest using the peg, the elastic puts pressure onto the switch arm, pulling it into the ON position. Effort is now required to hold the switch in the OFF position. The greater the amount of tension in the setup the more you can drag that peg down the rear rest making it harder to hold the switch OFF. It doesn't matter if the line is stretched or if the rodtip is bent, you can overcome this with this simple setup.
The real beauty of this is that it is totally adjustable to suit the conditions. If its pretty calm then you don't need much tension. If its really pulling then you can adjust it accordingly.
How does this much sensivity help?
Well, I have a great example. OK, it isn't totally pike related but you can never have too much sensitivity can you? I was fishing with a friend one cold February. The wind was a cold, very brisk northerly and the water was quite rough. We were after ferox (and pike) fishing fishbaits at depths of 30 ft plus down a steep drop off. The wind was blowing left to right and the rods were being blown around quite a bit in the wind. That night, the ferox were, as they often do, just mouthing the bait and sometimes pulling it enough to pull the line from the clip. Takes were very, very delicate indeed. I was using my cord-arms as usual whilst my friend had some Fox front alarms with bobbins. All night long his front alarms beeped away with nothing to indicate anything other than the wind was the cause. I had two ferox that night. I had a number of tiny dropbacks - I mean really tiny - alerting me to the fact that something was going on. I was able to feel for activity on the other having been alerted. Given the conditions I do not believe any other type of alarm could have detected those fish. My mates baits came in the following morning with pinpricks on them from where ferox had been mouthing the baits. On his own admission his setup was no good. He now uses three cord-arms.
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End rigs. Well anything will work but for out and out sensitivity use a semi-fixed lead. As light as you can get away with. I like a 1.5 ounce semi-fixed or a 2 ounce minimum running. If you use a light running lead then it is possible that if a cormorant picks up your bait and rises straight to the surface (bear in mind I fish very deep water also) that a light running lead can act as a simple tensioner between the bobbin and the bait. This will hold the bobbin up tight to the reel not allowing a drop back to be signalled but with not enough of a pull to pull the line from the clip. I have had this happen twice in 20 years. Rare but it can happen although very unlikely in shallower water.
Things to be aware of. If you are fishing in a strong undertow that increases then you will, if you wish, be able to compensate by tightening the elastic. Also you will find that if the wind drops and that undertow reduces your alarms will sound as there has been a reduction in tension in the setup. This is in fact the proof that these alarms do not need physical movement but just a reduction in tension. (I often get all 4 of mine sounding within minutes of each other at the "washing machine" when the wind eases)
It is not unusual, in fact its fairly common, for an alarm to go off with no visual bobbin movement. As long as it is not undertow relaxing then this is always something touching that bait. As the bobbins are very light (and should be - NEVER add weight to them) then dramatic visual drop backs don't really happen. By the time they would have developed on a rigid arm you are holding the rod though. The only time these things will give a false indication is if there is a reduction in undertow (and you have them setup very taut for that to occur) or if the line is dragged out of the clip by a liner or junk drifting down the lake. At all other times they will remain totally silent. If they sound it is because you have some interest at the bait or a screaming run.
Trust them. They work.
Setting them up.
Lets imagine that the water you are fishing is very still,. There is no undertow, there is no wind, there is nothing moving around affecting any part of your setup. I know a lake like this - I call it a dead water. It is the easiest water in the world to setup ANY alarm. With no external forces affecting your setup you SHOULD be in perfect touch with your bait so anything, however slight, registers. However, we all screw up this most ideal circumstance but introducing forces of our own into the equation thus reducing the sensitivity of our indication.
How?
Well its called tension and is very easy to create . You are using nylon monofilamant line. You have cast and the bait has settled and you have tightened up to it. Tightening mono stretches it ..... quite a lot as it happens. This is introducing tension which must be overcome before your indicator works. You have not cast straight and your rod tip is pulled round slightly .... this is tension. It is in the rod and in the line.
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OK, you use non-stretch braid. It goes directly to the bait - excellent stuff. You are in perfect touch. But perhaps your rod tip is pulling round because you are not pointing it directly at the bait. You now have tension in the setup even though you are using braid. Now I believe that unless you are pointing your rod directly at your bait with braid you will end up with the exact same amount of tension introduced to the setup had you been using mono because the rodtip will store it all. It will pull round more with braid than it will with mono because using mono, the rod and the line store any tension between them. Using braid, all the tension is stored by the rod. So, from a bite indication point of view it doesn't actually matter whether you use braid or mono.
Furthermore, if you fish in the Lake District from the shore PLEASE don't use braid . If you leave any in the water it doesn't rot like mono and only makes snags bigger. I use 20lb mono (Daiwa Sensor) and is superb for snaggy shorelines.
Use a weighted bobbin I hear you say. Well yes you can but this in itself introduces tension.
So what does it actually matter if there is all this tension stored up in the line and the rod.? Well in a dead water, not a great deal to be honest. You can adjust any type of alarm to show dropbacks in such circumstances. You just keep giving line from the reel until your alarm sounds continually (it doesn't matter whether it is a cord or rigid arm) and then take back a tiny amount. You will see that the rod is now straight and the line probably hangs from the rod tip looking very slack. Don't be fooled though - the slightest touch should set your alarm sounding and if it is a straight run the amount of line you have released will be taken up in a moment. You will find that concerned anglers will have a go at you for "obviously" fishing with slack line so having no bite indication and you can, if you wish, spend the rest of the day trying to convince them otherwise. That is entirely a matter for you.
But ...........
All of a sudden the wind picks up and some undertow develops and your line tightens and your rod tip pulls round. One of my favourite spots I call the washing machine because the amount of undertow is incredible. Casting out, your bait can come to rest yards from where it actually hit the water due to the amount of flow created when there is a good blow on. The line tightens and the rod tips pull round with the force of the flow. Trying to detect tiny dropbacks in these conditions is real challenge because any slack or reduction in tension is immediatley taken up by the flow. Its extreme and to overcome these conditions I developed what is perceived as a very Heath-Robinson way to make the cord-arm alarm super sensitive. As it can operate quite happily in these circumstances it will also be able to work in any other conditions with no problems ..... and does.
Once again you have cast out, tightened up and clipped up. This time though, you are armed with some bait elastic and a peg. Nothing fancy, just something similar to the picture below.
This is easy. Firstly make up a loop of bait (shirring) elastic about an inch long. Loop this through the switch arm as in the photo above. Put the other end over one jaw of the peg and clip that to the rod rest so there is tension in the elastic.
Cast out, tighten up and clip up. Don't over tighten the line to the bait but don't worry if the rodtip bends round a bit. Now pull the bobbin up under the reel - if your switch has a loud click you will hear the alarm go OFF. Slide the peg down the bankstick so the switch goes ON. Pull the bobbin up again and it will go off. Keep doing this until the switch will not go OFF. When this happens just slacken the elastic a tiny amount. Job done!
eWant to check how much movement is needed to trigger the alarm? Well wade out to where to line goes into the water beyond the rodtip. Grip the line and gently move it very slightly and slowly towards the rod. If you get 2mm of movement the you have quite a sensitive setup. This will overcome undertow or any tension in the setup - something other alarms types can only aspire to. It is possible to get to less than a millimetre but you will be hard pressed to see the movement. If you want to check it then always do it beyond the rodtip as you are taking all things adding tension to the setup into account. You will find that after a little while you will be able to setup a cord-arm in super sensitive mode in a few seconds. I am happy with up to 5 or 6mm when piking.