As with everything, there are right ways and wrong ways when it comes to using a spod.

Learning how to use a spod correctly will make your life a lot easier on the bank, and will also save the risk of injury as casting heavy weights around a lake can become dangerous very quickly.

Being capable of presenting lots of bait in a tight area can increase your chance of encouraging a feeding frenzy when the carp find your bait.

We have some tips to get you started, then we will go into more depth as to how to improve your spodding game.

Slow and Steady, Little and Often

Keep feeding the swim little and often at a slow a steady pace, this will keep the fish coming back and grubbing around.

If you spod out lots of bait when you first get to the lake and then expect the fish to start feeding, you might find the opposite to be true and that they spook off of the bait instead.

You are also decreasing the chance of the fish finding your rigs by having lots of other bait for them to get through before finding your rigs.

Whereas, if you have your rigs on the baited spot and a few freebies being spodding in every now and then, time will come when your bait and hook will be chosen.

Keeping Your Spodding Accurate

When spodding, keeping your baiting area tight to your rig is important. There is no reason to be spodding away from your rig as the fish will be picking up the bait on the spodded area and your rig won’t even come into the picture.

Use distance sticks to ensure your rigs are on top of the baited area, or at least on the edge of the baited area.

Be sure to allow for the pendulum effect if you are fishing in deep water, otherwise, your rig is going to miss the baited spot.

Keep Things Safe

As I mentioned earlier, when casting with a full spod, the chances of the line snapping is very high unless you have made an allowance for it.

Increase the breaking strain of your line and add a shock leader to ensure that your fellow anglers are suddenly met with a missile spod coming their way.

Get a Spod Rod Made For The Job

Unless you are using a tiny amount of bait, you need to have a proper spod rod, your normal carp rod just isn’t going to cut it.

Your spod rod should be around 4-5lb test curve. This will allow you to hit the distances you need with the heavy weight of around 8-12 ozs attached to the rod.

Invest In a Bucket Stand

Spodding can be a lot of hard work, repeatedly bending over to fill the spod, then back up to line up for the cast, then tensing up your body to cast out, then reeling back in and repeating it all over again. Do your back a favor and invest in a bucket stand else you run the risk of pulling your back out, which is hugely painful. Or, even worse, causing a permanent strain injury.

If you are spodding 10kg+ you could be bending over up to 44 times (8oz per spod). That’s 44 chances of slipping a disk or popping your back out of place, so don’t run the risk.

Cloudy Mixes Are Most Effective

During the hot days when carp are in the upper layers, using a cloudy spod mix will help attract them to your spodded area because the particles linger in the water and slowly sink on to your spot.

Using a cloudy mix will draw the fish down and encourage them to feed. Hemp, small pellet and fizzing groundbait will help you achieve this effect.

Get Set Up Right

By having everything in your swim organized and everything in the right place, you can get into a rhythm, making spodding a lot quicker and less taxing.

Try and avoid twisting and turning to avoid injuries to your back.

Make sure you have enough space to be able to maneuver freely when you are casting the spod into the lake.

Getting The Right Mix

Using lots of different types of bait in your spod mix helps encourage fish to grub around looking for bait.

Adding food particles such as different sizes and types of pellet, whole boilies, chopped boilies, sweetcorn, maize, nuts, salt, chili flakes, hemp, and groundbait to stodge it up.

Each of the different types of food will draw in different fish, depending on what grabs their interest. The different sized particles will also get mixed up into the lake bed and between the gravels, which will keep the fish in the area looking for food.

Add Liquid Attractants To The Mix

Adding liquid flavors to the mix will also draw in the fish so be sure to add plenty of liquid to your spod mix.

Adding liquids such as fish oils will also rise up through the layers which will send feeding signals to the passing fish.

Never Spod Without A Finger Stall

When using braid, you must wear a fingerstall. Braid will cut through your skin like a knife through butter.

An open cut, plus lake water will make for a really painful time on the bank.

It’s not worth the risk to fish without one and they aren’t particularly expensive, but they will make a big difference to your fishing.

Try Using A Spomb

Spombs are seen quite often on the bank these days, they have really taken off over the last few years.

They make spodding really easy and prevents bait being sprayed across the swim, which often occurs with conventional spods.

But having bait between you and your rig, you are encouraging liners as the fish swim across your line to feed on the stray bait.

The spombs are available in different sizes so its worth having each of the sizes in your tackle bag if you can afford it. This will give you options when it comes to how much bait you want to put into you swim.

Filling a large spomb with a quarter full of bait isn’t as streamlined as a small spomb full of bait.

Shane

Shane

I have made a lot of mistakes during my fishing sessions and don’t want you to make the same mistakes. I’ve learned the hard way over 20 years of fishing most weekends, testing, tweaking, and testing again and now want to help you excel with your carp fishing.

If you need any help, you can reach me at Fishing Again’s Facebook page

Last Updated on February 9, 2024 by Shane