“THERE’S A TIME AND A PLACE FOR BOBBINS”
When Terry Hearn caught the Parrot from Wasing earlier this year, we noticed something intriguing – he was fishing more than 100 yards out but wasn’t using bobbins. We asked him to explain this choice...
‘B
OBBINS. To use them or not to use them? That might sound odd to some anglers, but the first thing to realise when using hair rigs, or pretty much any rig which leaves the hook exposed, is that there’s no need to sit tight to the rods day and night, ready to strike at one-inch lifts,” said Terry.
“Carp fishing isn’t like general coarse fishing, where in most cases the bait is mounted directly on the hook and you need to be ready to strike as your float dips or your quivertip rattles.
“With super-sharp exposed hooks and fixed leads it’s different. In most cases there’s not the same sense of urgency – takes tend to be more positive.
“In my own fishing there are two main reasons for using bobbins. The most obvious is when I feel there’s the chance of a drop-back, when fishing tight up to islands or far-bank features for example. The other occasion is when fishing close to snags, when it’s obviously beneficial to get as early an indication of a take as possible.
“I also use a bobbin when I want to register line bites, particularly in the winter when sightings are less frequent and liners help with location.
“Those are the times when a bobbin is definitely worthwhile, but if I’m fishing close-in, generally with a slack or semi-slack line, then often there isn’t really any need for them. So much in carp fishing is about trade-offs. I think tight lines are the best hookers of all,
but I often like to trade in some of that tightness for a bit of slack and a better presentation at the business end.
“I like to give just enough slack to allow my lines to settle lower in the water, but not so much that it’s going to cost me fish. The idea is simply to get my lines out of harm’s way, or at the very least make them less spooky to any carp that happen to bump into them.
“In that instance, there’s little point in then clipping a bobbin on and laying it on the floor. In the event of a take it’s only going to do one thing – go up. It’s surely better if a pricked fish has already come up against the full resistance of the rod and line clip, and your tip is already starting to bend round, to the same amount of line movement, in the same timeframe.
“The way I see things, I’ve already set my lines at what to me is the ideal tension between the rod tip and rig on the day, and any more slack between the buzzer and reel (the bit afforded by the bobbin on a drop) isn’t really necessary and, in my own experience, is rarely wanted. That’s my own take on bobbins, and I know that everyone’s different, but next time you’re clipping that bobbin on, ask yourself, is it really needed?” Terry added.
Intriguing stuff, but what about people who might ask ‘don’t you need the weight of the bobbin to help the line pull into the roller wheel of the alarm’?
Terry responded: “Maybe so if you were using an open bail-arm. But with a normal set-up there’s no slack between the buzzer and the reel or line clip, and the tension to spin the wheel is provided by the clutch. With a dropback it’s different, so I’d use bobbins if I felt there was a chance of that.”
“In that instance, there’s no point in clipping a bobbin on and then laying it on the floor”