Barbel and Carp bite detection

Hello everyone.

I have some thoughts regarding bite detection I'd like some opinions on. I am a beginner, so I stand to be corrected if I have the complete wrong end of the stick!

It seems to me, whilst fishing for barbel, many people use either the tip of the rod, or the bait runner for bite detection. For example, if using the tip, they will only strike into the barbel when the whole tip swings round in an unmissable take. Experienced barbel anglers talk about "sitting on your hands, you'll know when it's a barbel take." If using the bait runner, it becomes obvious when to strike as the line starts screaming off the reel.

What both these methods have in common, is that the barbel is already hooked when you strike, i.e. you are not striking at small nibbles hoping to hook a barbel that would otherwise get away unhooked.

Moving on to carp fishing, carp anglers seem to favour an array of alarms and bobbins. Having said that, what they have in common with barbel anglers is that they only strike into a fish when their alarms are screaming. i.e. They are not striking into the smaller bleeps or knocks hoping to hit a fish, like the barbel, the carp is already hooked and off on a run when they strike.

My conclusion from all this is that if fishing for carp or barbel, the only bite indication you need is if the fish picks up the bait and runs directly towards you?
Is this a fair conclusion??

al-samak said:

My conclusion from all this is that if fishing for carp or barbel, the only bite indication you need is if the fish picks up the bait and runs directly towards you?
Is this a fair conclusion??

Click to expand...

No not really, If you are fishing for Barbel a lot of the Time if a fish Picks up the bait and swims towards you " i say swim as fish can't run, they don't have legs " lol is that usually the rod will register a drop back bite if you are using a quiver top section or the rod tip is under enough tension so as to cause a bend in the rod tip.
As the fish picks up the bait, and swims towards you, this will cause the rod tip / quiver tip to spring back to it's original alignment.
The same is with Carp fishing, the alarm is only an audible detection, but the Bobbin attached to the line is a visible detection.
I do know that in winter that some Carp anglers will pick there rod up at single bleep indications as Fish are somewhat a bit more lethargic and a single bleep could well be a bite.

It also depends on whether a bait is hair rigged or hooked more traditionally.

A hair rigged bait can be mouthed by chub for example, giving twitches on the rod tip, but were you to strike at them you'd connect with nothing.

A full on rod bending take means that the bait has been sucked in - hook and all - and 99 times out of a 100 yes, the fish will have at least lightly hooked itself but then that is the aim of hair rigging.

With a bait mounted on the hook I would look to strike at lesser indications because the self-hooking properties of the rig are minimal.