Fishrite Adjustable Buzz Bars
I’ve been in a bit of a quandary of late when in comes to buzz bars. I’ve never really got along with pods as I find them too restricting and way too heavy for my style of fishing and as such, the mainstay of my specimen angling over the last fifteen years or more has been with the use of buzz bars.
Up until last year I was still using the stainless three rod set up which I’ve had for over ten years. I find this set up great for almost every water I fish using either two or three rods, however, last year whilst tackling a new water, I was forced to have a bit of a rethink. I’ve been fishing one swim in particular on this untapped little water which has banked me countless fish. The only problem is that it’s extremely tight to get into. To start off with I had to fish my three rod set up (with two rods on) bang in the middle of the swim. It was far from ideal as it sat well above the waterline and being right in the middle, made playing and netting fish quite awkward to say the least.
I then moved to an individual bank stick set up, which although better than the buzz bars, still caused a few problems when playing and netting fish as something was always in the wrong place at the wrong time! The ideal was to have the rods on one side and a landing area with net on the other. The only way I could make this happen would be to switch to a two-rod buzz bar set up - and a small one at that!
As I say, I’ve had my current buzz bars for well over a decade. In that time they’ve given tremendous service, though one bugbear has always niggled me - round headed adjustable grub screws. They can be such a pain to adjust sometimes, and they’ve made me see red on countless occasions! After a quick scout around I was surprised to see that the company I had my original set off still insists on using them, which immediately ruled them out for my new set!
I eventually decided on the 2 Rod Adjustable Buzz Bars from Fishrite, for three reasons; firstly, they are incredibly narrow; measuring just 7”/18cm on their minimum setting. This allows me to get the whole set up tucked away neatly down to the right of the swim and back down near water level. Secondly, they have quick-lock handles on both sliding arms, which makes minor adjustments an absolute breeze, and last but not least, these little beauties cost about half of those on offer from some of the other brands!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for buying something that will last, but as Fishrite say themselves, ‘why pay more to get less?’ You can wax lyrical about getting what you pay for, and whilst in many cases this may be true, there are just as many examples where companies are getting rich from over inflated prices and slick marketing!
Me? I’ll use tackle that does the job with the minimum amount of fuss; irrespective of how good it looks or how much it might have cost - I’ll leave all that to others.
The Fishrite 2-Rod Adjustable Buzz Bar costs £9.99 from Trevs Tackle. I’ve been using them for almost a year now and the simple truth is that I wish I’d got some sooner - and you can’t ask for more than that!
© Julian Grattidge
May 2008
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