Bite alarms appeared in the late 80s in France. They come from a legitimate need during sessions ranging from the whole day to one or several weeks: to be notified of bites even when sleeping during a carp fishing session. The operation is simple but effective: the line rests on a wheel or a sensor, and a speaker sounds at the slightest movement of the line. This basic concept has of course been improved with volume control, tone, sensitivity, diodes, an anti-theft function etc. But the most notable improvement has been the
central, a small box that allows you to report the sounds emitted by the alarms, so you can always have in your pocket something to hear what is going on with your lines. In fact, most of the sales are now made in
boxes, meaning detector packs + central. For optimal operation, you need a counterweight to keep the line taut, which is done with a "
squirrel", a nickname inherited from the beginning of carp fishing in France, but today we have taken up the English names of swinger or hanger, we can also associate
accessories such as snag bars. The brands that have stood the test of time since the 90s are
Fox with its Micron range, and
Delkim. Since then, the brands
Carp Sprit and
Jrc have mainly come to offer the best choice of bite alarms for carp.
