Jeff Woodhouse
Moaning Marlow Meldrew
These rod pods and buzz bars have been around a while now, but only recently have I had the chance to fully evaluate them.
I like products that can be adapted to many different uses so that you get better 'money's worth' from them by using them more often. Never was that truer than with these.
They are sold separately, that is the pods come in a pair and the buzz bars come in a pair. They are perfect for use on any hard ground and quite stable, but I found on a couple of occasions that it paid to use a small plastic freezer bag (they have loop handles) loaded with some stones and hung on the height adjustment screw to add extra weight, simple.
The pods can be used without the buzz bars just as a simple rod rest on a concrete bank, say. However, it's how the buzz bars can be quickly changed in configuration that I like. You can see by the enlarged picture of the 'slug' (as I would call it) that it simply fits into a corresponding hole and the side screw tightened to hold it there. Each of the three slugs can be moved to where you want them (there is a slightly cheaper 2-hole buzz bar if you want it, but for the £5 extra, this three holed one offers more adaptability.)
I set mine up with two of those other quick change fittings also, this is because my carp buzzers are fitted with them in case I want to take normal bank sticks, but the versatility of this pod is now making me think again. I also have normal V-style rod rests that I use when either barbel fishing or pike fishing so these are permanently screwed into two of the slugs and the remain two slugs hold U-cup back rests. From this I can permutate any combination I want along with just using the pods as single bank sticks.
If you only need tiny bank sticks, you can unscrew the legs off a pod and just use those. There's yet another variation. I also have an old bankstick with a solid aluminium centre that fits into the tripod and to that I can fix my old AVA System pike drop-off bite alarm. Something else...
These pods are not cheap, at £40 for a pair it makes them as dear as a reasonably price carp pod, but I can pack these two little pods with the buzz bars into my very small Wychwood bag that I keep just for piking. If I go a carping they will slip into a bait bucket-style carryall, they take up very little room. The buzz bars are also £40 for a pair, but you don't get those quick detachable slugs on most carp pods. My tips is to shop around though, you might get them a lot cheaper.
The quality is good, in fact very good. I expect them to last years, longer than me (keep your eyes on ebay when I've gone) in fact.
So to sum up, they are nice and compact, very versatile, good quality, not too badly priced, and most of all - very useful.
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