Dave Burr wrote:I admit that the modern tackle shop has become more and more bazaar but I really don't understand why people are surprised by items like the spod, after all its just a logical solution to an age old angling problem. Getting precise amounts of feed into a small area has been an issue in angling since the word dot and for years, when casting distance was restricted due to the cane rods and mainly centre pin or poor casting fixed spool reels, groundbait was more than enough to feed your swim. As grew distances grew so the imagination and tenacity of thinking anglers met the challenge.
Swimfeeders work well and have been around since the early 70's (?), for carp the method feeder was a step up, pressing your groundbait around a weighted cage meant you could lob it a long, long way. Then, when boilies were the mainstay of carp anglers (to avoid getting their baits eaten by small fish) they started cobbling together devices to mass feed a swim in short time rather than spend an hour with a catapult and made their own out of washing up liquid bottles and the like.
Its no more alien that the first person that spliced a reed tip into a whole cane section for extra sensitivity or who turned the spool on his reel to make it thread line rather than centre pin.
Personally I dislike casting a spod and avoid it unless its the only option but my mate will happily spod his swim on a certain water at a distance of 150 yards and more! Feeding by any other method is out of the question to all of us that do not own helicopters.
I have to agree with you Dave, though I have to point out, that whilst we may not own our own helicopters, one could fly ones Sopwith Camel and drop the bait in, via brown paper bags with little ribbon markers, this may be acceptable... Personally I use my Barder "Blériot V canard monoplane", I find anything else, not the done thing.......
