Carp Anglers Group

At the 1995 CAG fish in on Candlewood Lake, Pat Kerwin caught most of the fish on the second day by baiting up at long ( 75 yards ) range using a spod. This was the first time I had ever seen a spod and thought it was a super way to bait up since the only way I could bait was to throw the maize out with a scoop or to use a catapult. While these methods worked on our river where the fishing is done close in, when we got into a situation where we needed to get out further than 25 yards, we had a problem.

The following week we joined Nigel for a session at the Ct river swim. Nigel had made a spod and was chunking it well out into the river.The problems as I saw them, were that he needed a surf rod and one million pound test line to handle the spod both on the cast and on the retrieve. The spod was made from a soda bottle with the top cut off. It weighed about a half pound when full and when retrieved it came in with the open end forward which really gave a lot of drag. A design change was needed.

It took a bit of experimenting, but within a few days I came up with what I am calling the New England spod.

Step 1. Cut an empty plastic soda bottle in half and discard the bottom half. On the open end of the top half make a handle out of wire. This will be like the handle on a bucket . Copper wire works best since it won't rust. ( see fig. 1)

Step 2. Drill a small hole in the center of the cap .Through the hole run the end of a two foot length of strong braid. I use 70# kevlar but 30# line of any kind will work fine. Tie a stop on the end of the line and pull it up snug against the inside of the cap. I use a #6 treble hook with the barbs snipped off for a stop. Screw the cap back on. This line will be the line we pull the spod back with and as you can see it will come back reversed so there will we minimal drag on the rod.

Step 3. Now we run the line along the side of the spod while it is in a loaded condition. Once the release hook is attached, snip off the barb about half way up from the bend. This will allow the spod to release the hook cleanly and eliminate tangles.I add a bit of foam to the hook to make it float up away from the handle upon landing in the water. A swivel tied on to the end of the line completes the spod and now off to the pond to fine tune it.

Figure 3 shows the loaded spod. Because we have scaled down the spod, a monster rod is not needed to chuck it. I use a 7 foot flipping stick with 17# mono and can throw the spod farther than I can cast.

Remember when loading and casting this spod ,that it is set to flip upon landing in the water. It takes a bit of practice to get the feel of throwing this without " prespodding " on land or over head.

If all goes well the spod will fly out cap first and tip within a couple of seconds of hitting the water. The whole key to it is to get the hook to release the handle. This is facilitated by dropping your rod to give slack line just as the spod hits the water. I hope that just by looking at the photos you will be able to see what we are trying to do. Just turn a spod around and reel it in backwards to eliminate the drag.The shape of the soda bottle helps this as does the light weight plastic.

Return to How to Fish for Carp Page

---

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws