Best drop offs?

[thecrow]

I well remember back in the 70's buying sheets of white thin plastic which were cut into strips, wrapped around a battery (the fat old batteries that were in general use back then), held in place with an elastic band, then dropped into a saucepan of boiling water so that it took the shape of the battery. It was important to get a bit of an overlap at the joint of about half an inch.

Those carp bobbins were used for years, in windy conditions the trusty knitting needle was used in an early monkey climber fashion. They were extremely visible, but I seem to remember that their relatively light weight, when combined with heron (antennae) buzzers made for a marginal set up. But back then we thought it was the mutts nuts.mg:

Still use them for Zander Terry, I angle the needles behind the reel and have the bail arm open, the old Herons though were a pain in the bum constantly having to adjust them to stop false alarms, not everything is an improvement on the old stuff but buzzers nowadays are much better.

 

[pointngo]

I'd say the Billy's Backbiters are arguably the best rear drop-offs out there. I've used 3 of them for the last 7 or 8 years. Although they haven't been used much for the last few years due to me lure fishing, they got used a lot for catfish and pike the first couple of years and are still like new. Never had a bit of trouble out of them. I don't particularly like the stainless screw type line clips on the weighted arm version, much preferring the gardner adjustable clip, but that's about the only negative.

Rear drops offs are probably the best indication for static fishing imho but not for roving on a river. Taking the time to set them up correctly gives you very good indication but can be a pain if you're moving swims every 15 minutes or so and creates commotion in your swim that you can do without.

 

[terry m]

I'd say the Billy's Backbiters are arguably the best rear drop-offs out there. I've used 3 of them for the last 7 or 8 years. Although they haven't been used much for the last few years due to me lure fishing, they got used a lot for catfish and pike the first couple of years and are still like new. Never had a bit of trouble out of them. I don't particularly like the stainless screw type line clips on the weighted arm version, much preferring the gardner adjustable clip, but that's about the only negative.

Rear drops offs are probably the best indication for static fishing imho but not for roving on a river. Taking the time to set them up correctly gives you very good indication but can be a pain if you're moving swims every 15 minutes or so and creates commotion in your swim that you can do without.

Thanks for the feedback on the Billys Backbiters, I have heard some good reports about them.

Roving on a river is a different approach for me, I always use a flot - either laid on or float paternoster. Probably because I rarely fish further out than a couple of rod lengths on a river.