Spodding is a chore that few of us enjoy, it can be back breaking messy work and one messed up cast can send every carp in the vicinity scurrying for the hills as your spod sends up a great gout of water as it slams into the surface. Imagine if I told you that there was another way… a way in which spodding can suddenly become easier, mess messy and a hell of a lot less back breaking ?
Well there is such a way.. enter the SPOMB
What is it ? well unlike a traditional spod, the design of which has not changed for several years it is not just a rocket shaped design with an open back but a fully enclosed bait delivery capsule. This has several massive advantages,
- You don’t need to have groundbait / mud handy to pack the back of the spod
- You can bait up with pure hemp / small particle with out having to clean it off your back / head
- it flies like an arrow
- It retrieves over the surface skipping like a coot
The last point is what steals it for me, my biggest bug bear with spodding is the retrieve. No matter which spod you use it is like you are trying to pull ( in effect) a small parachute back through the water towards you. This is what really wears me down and is one of the reasons I was considering buying a bait boat. However with the spomb this is now a thing of the past.
Lets see how it works :
1st you need to load it, to do this press the red button on the front till the 2 halves pop open and load up with your chosen bait. The only thing you have to remember is not to load the front compartment ( the part with the opening mechanism ) as if you don’t it wont open up. Note here I am loading up with pigeon conditioner normally something that is very difficult to spod out due to its size. once you have it loaded snap the 2 halves together and prepare to send it skywards. Note that on 1st glance it spears that it is smaller than an average spod, I took the largest Korda and Fox spods and filled the spomb from each and there is room for more bait… this thing really can get a lot of bait into the swim fast.
The next part is just like a normal spod, except you have not had to pack the back of it with ground bait to stop annoying spod spill. I suggest a 5lb+ test curve spod rod as this thing is really heavy when you have it fully loaded far more than a Fox TB1 spod for example. I used my standard 20lb bread straight through on a Fox warrior 5.5lb TC spod rod and a Diawa Emblem Spod reel and had no issues at all however if I was going for massive distance I would be tempted to go for a 50lb arma cord leader or similar to stop any accidents. Of course as with any spodding / braid work a finger stall is essential other wise you will be going to casualty with one finger missing. I noticed immediately that this thing flies like a missile seemingly unaffected by wind and I had to tone down the amount of power I normally put in to a cast and none of the “corkscrewing ” that can occur with normal spods.
Once the spomb hits the water you can retrieve instantly, there is no waiting around like with a normal spod. Once it hits the water it opens and dumps the load instantly. It doesn’t matter if some of the pellets float, they will leave the spomb 🙂 you will note that the spomb is skipping back over the water ( click for a higher rez pic) and it comes in completely evenly with a nice even tension on the line. The fact that you dont need to wait for the Spomb to empty is really one of the massive advantages, I managed to spod out 3kg’s of prepared pidgeon conditioner in about 20 mins something that would have taken me far far longer with a traditional spod. I also remained relatively un pepered by spod spill, a massive advantage.
Conclusion
Everyone I spoke to said one thing after seeing it in action… “Where can I get one?” and “how much are they?” it is the kind of invention that makes you think ” why has no one thought of this before ?”
I love it, you will too. Yes it is not as bomb proof as a normal spod so if you regularly cast onto the other bank or hit rocks / trees then perhaps you need to pack a conventional spod for these occasions but for the rest of us, the spomb makes spodding easy and removes the back breaking effort.
Definitely my product of the year so far !
Spombs can be bought direct from www.spomb.com or from Yateley Angling center as well as other stockists, go get one you know it makes sense.
My thanks to Richard for the photo’s
The Masterblanker 