Should or shouldn't you hit a single bleep?

Hmmm. It can be a tricky one this one but for me the key, as with the tools question, is being in tune with your set-up and your surroundings and you will know which ones are suspicious. I often sit through loads of bleeps and false indications putting them down to liners or interference but then, in my mind and for no other reason other than I am tuned in, one will stand out as suspicious. Single bleeps can be caused by loads of things: a carp giving you a liner at the business end, small fish hitting the line in the near margin (which is a very common cause by the way…), wind, the line dropping out of the clip etc. This is why it pays to be in tune. When you are in tune with your swim and your set-up you seem to just know which ones are suspicious and which ones aren’t. For example, if you get indication when there is no gust you can write off wind straightaway. Equally, if you are paying attention to the water in front of you and there is a shoal of roach in the edge they can cause you trouble. However, if everything is right, and there is no wind, no small fish, the set-up is balanced nicely and particularly if you are expecting action, hit EVERY single bleep just in case. It only takes a couple of minutes to get the rig back out on to the spot and fishing effectively again and you really have nothing to lose by doing it.

Some people are scared to re-cast as they think it will scare the fish off but in reality on most waters the odd re-cast has very little effect. If you are in any doubt, cast your mind back to how many times you have heard people say, “It’d only been out there 10 minutes.” Most carp don’t spook off the odd re-cast so if you get any suspicious indication hit it without any thought. I’d rather hit nine false indications and one good one than blank through 10 single bleeps having been done
on some of them.

To close this subject though, there is one method where you should hit every single bleeps every single time though, and that is Zigs. Fish them tight, put the line in the clip on the rod to tighten it even more, and hit any movement or sound. Because of the length of the hooklink, the fish has got loads of room to move and try and get away with it. ANY bleep on a Zig is worth hitting.