If you have ever walked along behind a carp angler’s swim at night then you will know that it can tend to look a little like an airport landing strip. Most modern carp anglers will have a set of bite alarms lit up with different brightly coloured LEDs, maybe 3 of them in red, blue and green. And then there are often another set of matching lights further up the rod towards the reel. If you have ever wondered what these are, they are probably swingers or hangers. These are attached to the line by means of clips which fall away on the strike. They will show the angler any slight line movement and whether the line is moving out from the rod, or, in the case of a drop back bite, the line is falling slack as the fish has moved towards them.

So what are swingers and hangers and how do they work? Well if you go back twenty or so years to the days before electronic bite alarms, we used to use what was called a dough bobbin. This was very simply a piece of bread or bread paste moulded into a ball about the size of a marble. This was wrapped around the line between the reel and the butt ring and the bail arm left open, or maybe between the butt ring and the next ring with bail arm closed if you were brave, and allowed to hang loose several inches under the rod. As soon as a bite occurred, the dough bobbin would rise up towards the rod and give us an indication. Alternatively it would fall downwards in the case of a drop back. On striking it would fly off behind the angler and feed the wildlife. Not a problem, it was cheap. Some anglers replaced the bobbin with pieces of silver foil although this was a bit light, or others used a washing up bottle top.

The problem here was that it was hard to see at night and it would either dry up in the sun or go soggy in the rain and fall off. If it was windy then it was pretty useless. Also ducks would try to steal it. I even had a water vole come along and eat it off of the line on more than one occasion.

monkey climber

I suppose the next step was the monkey climber. The monkey climber solved many of the above problems.  Monkey climbers are effectively a drilled plastic cylinder type bobbin that rides up and down on a metal rod or bar. This bar was simply pushed into the mud under the rod.  Then came the rod pod and so fixtures were made to attach the climbers to the pod. Aerial bars.

There were still a few problems to overcome however. If the bar got mud splashed from rain it would tend to jam the monkey. Ice would also cause this problem. Friction also caused loss of sensitivity. Also wind tangles could be annoying as anyone who has lost a fish due to line becoming tangled around the monkey climber of bar will tell you.

Fox mkII swinger

And so, with the advent of the electronic bite alarm, a new development came along which would fix under the alarm out of harm’s way. It would not be so likely to get tangled and it would not suffer from mud or friction problems. In fact, all in all, it was a far superior and much easier to use system. Enter the swinger.

The swinger is a much more reliable plastic clip fixed to a short hinged wire rod. It stays on the line but falls away easily on the strike and when set up correctly it will register even the slightest bite including drop backs. And the ducks don’t eat them either!

The plastic clips were then made to hold isotopes to illuminate them at night time and were made in different colours to tell them apart and match your bite alarm lights.

kryptonite line clip

Delkim NiteLite Pro Bite Indicator

Depending on the type you buy, you can adjust the weight and tension so that they handle all weather conditions. There are now many different types on the market. Some people still prefer the hinged swinger system, some use a spring loaded system, springers, some a weighted system which hangs loosely on a cord or chain, hangers.

Whatever type you prefer, they all have  systems whereby they can be illuminated and a large array of addons and spares are now available.

What type is best? It really is down to personal preference. Try to get to see some of your mates or fishing buddies’ setup in action. Think about what features you need, such as colours and illumination addons, make sure they will work with your rod pod or whatever set up you are using and of course use this web site to find something that suits your tastes and pocket!fa