I have been aware of these alarms for about as long as they have been on the market, which is not that long, but as I was already using a different set of alarms I didn’t get around to having a close look at them. However I was sent a set of them a few months back and, having used them intensively since Christmas, I think that I can now write a well-informed mid-term review on them.
My first impression of the alarms, I have to say, was not that high! After all they are about as aesthetically pleasing to the eye as Anne Widdecombe! I have heard various different descriptions of what they looked like but my favourite was that they looked like Tasers! That aside they came in a decent protective sleeve and had something of a 21st century look about them. The funny thing is that the looks are very much of the Marmite variety; there are anglers of my acquaintance that really liked them from the outset, others that hated them. Personally I have found that they have grown on me with use and I no longer find them the ugly bugs that they once were!
Leaving the looks aside the Nash Sirens have got a good reputation amongst carp anglers as they offer some features that are not currently available on other models, the primary one being that by the use of the sounder box all the features of the alarm are available to be adjusted and should the alarm heads be turned off before the sounder box, such as in the event of someone trying to steal the alarm heads, an alarm will sound at the sounder box. This feature requires no setting up and automatically kicks in once the alarms are tuned in, which I found very handy.
It has to be said though that the rest of the adjustments from the sounder box are far from easy to remember and I suspect as in much the same way as it takes a few weeks to get used to a new mobile phone and its features, so it is with this.
In use the alarms are, in essence, very simple and work on the old school roller principle. The rather nice touch being that rather than having an LED that lights up on the body of the alarm, the latching LED’s are contained within the roller itself so the entire roller lights up.
I have been using my set for piking as a starting point, a very good place to start actually as most alarms will work adequately with heavy bobbins and Baitrunners. A true test is when they are asked to perform with an open bail arm and braid as this often causes the line to skip across the roller rather than turning it. In operation the Siren had no such problem on the medium sensitivity setting, indeed they may have operated even more effectively on a higher sensitivity setting, but I could see issues there with livebaits giving false bleeps, something that I found I could never avoid with other top end alarms.
Overall then my opinion of the Sirens was 99 per cent positive, the only fly in the ointment being those ‘only a mother could love looks’ but then you never marry the pretty girl if you want a happy marriage do you!!
