Buy these.... presto... no more mallets or irate anglers
Arthur.....I have lots of these type of banksticks and to be honest when you have a gravel bank....they are next to useless.
In all fairness to myself....it is only on odd occasions when I have to use the mallet...usually the bank is soft enough to push the sticks in with a bit of effort...but anyway, got myself a pod now so better get used to neckache from now on with looking up all the time eh?
Maverick
---------- Post added at 10:40 ---------- Previous post was at 10:20 ----------
I just wanted to add that for float fishing ( and someone on FM recommended these to me - maybe lord Paul ?? ) you can find a very simple aluminium pods on ebay etc that weighs next to nothing and do a job. They have buzz bars and are adjustable after a fashion so may manage ledger rods at a pinch...I've used one and not too bad providing you use a bit of the grey matter !
As I've said, I have given two of these to friends who had ' hammeritis ' and they don't know what they did without them. The minimal weight means they are not overly stable but then we are not going to be kicking them around the bank...........are we ??
On the subject of noise/vibration ; My father was heavily involved with acoustics way back when and some bright spark with lots of letters suggested handfulls of hemp going into a swim was tantamount to a bomb going off to a fish.....
As a consequence of this, long bamboo poles with little brass cups on the end were knocked up and hemp delivered via this innovation, much like that used by pole anglers when feeding swims.
...and no it didn't work as the handles were too heavy and non adjustable which meant the cup spent more time in the water causing just as much disturbance and was never long enough anyway..............
The best laid plans eh..........................................
Hi Tee Cee........personally, I believe that when any noise is heard on the bank the fish may well be startled but as one member has already stated....I believe it is only for a short while and they soon come back to their daily routine (whatever that is...if only I knew).
Back in the day ...all we ever used for barbel fishing was hemp and casters and yes, we did fire it into our swims and it did make noise when hitting the surface....and we banged our banksticks in the ground too. It may have ruined the swim for a very short time (I don't really know)...but the barbel was still there and still feeding shortly after...on most days we fished.
I honestly don't believe any kind of disturbance within reason of course, REALLY puts the fish off for long periods of time. I am pretty sure I have never experienced it with using a mallet anyway...any rubbish days was/is never put down to using a mallet....it was/is usually some other factor that causes a bad day on the bank.
I suppose it is possible that back in those days...the fish may well have gotten used to "surface noise" and "banging in banksticks"...who knows?
....just my very humble opinion though....
Maverick