In specialist fishing, a bite alarm will warn you of a possible take. When you get a screaming run, you must hit it as soon as possible. Due to roller wheels and vibration sensors, the latest bite alarms allow you to set alarms to be very sensitive. This is particularly important for barbel fishing. Barbels are prize fish to catch, and you must be on top of your game to bag the bigger ones. Bite alarms are a must in barbel fishing due to the speed of the takes. You need to be fully aware of what is going on and quick off the mark once an alarm goes off to avoid missing those special double-figure fish.
Alarms tell you what is happening with your rods. Fish often play around with hook baits and create false liners before a proper take occurs. Another advantage with alarms is they let you stay under your umbrella or bivvy if the weather is terrible.
The sound of an electronic bite alarm can be altered as one of its key features. This is normally done with the receiver, so the light comes on, and the alarm vibrates.
The sensitivity of a bite alarm set can be changed based on the weather conditions. For example, if the wind is coming towards you, creating lots of false indications, you can make the alarms less sensitive. On the other hand, if you need to know about every beep and movement, you can make alarms hypersensitive to show everything up.
Most bite alarm sets have LED lights that can be changed in colour. Visually seeing what is going on is often better than sound; as your brain knows, being an angler, precisely what to do when split-second timing is crucial.
Each alarm's exact sound and tone can be altered, including LED colour, so each alarm head is unique. This tells you, without seeing the LED, what rod has had a take. As a result, you have many choices on how your alarms behave, both with noise levels and visual indications.