For the majority of my pike fishing, I use pretty standard rigs with a bit of variation for different waters.  I have found that bites are usually runs but can also be drop backs sometimes.  To this end I prefer to use a combination of bite alarms and visual indicators.  Although a bit old fashioned I find that the Magnatonic takes some beating, especially on drop back bite.  Some of the new alarms that don't use a roller seem to miss these.

Also I don't like using the commercial back bite clip on indicators. I have found that runs often stop as the line is pulled out of the clip. I would recommend using Carp indicators, that are usually clipped on just behind the bite alarm. I use the Gardner indicators which have an adjustable clip. I open the clip up completely and attach the indicator to the rear back stick. By postioning the hanging indicator just behind the reel, a small run of about 2 inches will pull the line over the clip ends and the line is free. From the rigs page you will see that most of my rigs use a float of some kind, I still use the bite indication shown on this page. Remember we all get distracted, and you must not miss that bite. So use bite alarms even if you like to watch floats, you cannot watch more than one float at a time.