Spodding a short guide

Spodding is a great way of baiting a swim, but can be difficult to get used to.

Hopefully this will help.

Bait/spod mix is used to attract fish to a swim, and it is just as important when trying to catch specimen carp as it is when targeting smaller species of fish. A shoal of large carp can hoover up a lot of loose Bait/spod mix in a very short space of time, therefore it is often best to build up a large bed of bait when targeting large carp. One of the best ways of building up a big bed of Bait is to use a spod.

A spod is a tube that is open at one end. At the open end there will be a small length of line with a swivel attached. Spods come in different sizes and styles. Some are like missiles with fins that are meant to be streamlined and fly through the air easily, others have small holes drilled in them to make them easier to retrieve through the water, some are large enough to hold half a kilo of bait whereas others will hold little more than four or five boilies. Although spods are available in different sizes and styles they all serve the same purpose, in that they are used to build up a bed of bait.

Depending on the size and capacity of the spod being used, a full spod can be heavy and will require a strong rod and some heavy line and a leader to cast the spod out. There are dedicated spod rods, however these can be expensive for the higher end rod, there are cheaper spod rods that will do the job just aswell, and coupled with a good reel will make spodding a relative easy task, although arm aching.

Before using the spod, you will need a marker in place so you know where your baited rigs are. This is best acheived using a marker rod and marker float.

Casting to the float especially at a distance of 100 yards plus will take some getting used to. An empty spod is light and casting it out on its own you may not be able to reach the marker float. In this situation the spod can be filled up with water or stones to get it out to the marker float. The best way of reaching the marker float is to overcast, i.e. cast beyond the marker float and then reel the spod in until it reaches the marker float. When you reach the desired spot clip the line up in the line clip. If your reel doesn’t have a line friendly clip, there are other ways of marking your line, you can put an elastic band round the spool to put the line under, fix some electrical tape to the line or tie on some pole elastic.

With the line clipped up to the point where the marker float is, it should be easy to get the spod full of bait to the marker float most of the time. So now your ready to fill the spod with bait.

When filling up the spod it is important to leave a bit of space at the top, you can then push the contents of the spod down with your thumb, and just before casting dip the spod in the water quickly, this will help keep the bait in the spod during the cast. Once the spod is full of bait, your ready to cast to the marker float. When the spod hits the water it will sink briefly before popping back to the surface, and dropping the bait around the marker float. To make sure all the bait has come out of the spod, flick the rod a few times.

The constant casting out and retrieving, along with the splash a heavy spod will make, is time consuming and can be noisey and will more than likely spook any fish from the swim,( although on some waters carp respond really well to spodding and seem attracted by the noise ) so you may go a few hours after using the spod without any takes or carp showing in the swim while everything settles down. Once you have your bed of bait out there it should only be necessary to top it up, so a spod full of bait every couple of hours or after a take should be fine, and keep any noise/disruption to the swim to a minimum.

Keep your spod rod clipped up while your fishing your session, this way you will always be able to cast to the same spot time and again.

Using a spod will take a bit of practice, though it is arguably the best way of building up a big bed of bait quickly to which you can fish your baited rigs.