Tackle Accessories

Stealthy no-spook baiting operation
Delivers payload without surface impact
Aerodynamic design maximises your casting range
Total accuracy every cast
Large load capacity
Easy and quick to fill
Creates even beds of bait with speed and efficiency
No spillage or wasted bait
Suitable for boilies, particles and floaters
Buoyant and effortless to retrieve
Heavy-duty and robust to withstand extreme casting

TF Gear's new baiting system is nailed on to impress all carp and specimen anglers.

The Airbomb looks not dissimilar to other popular systems available, but it works in a completely revolutionary manner.

As it reaches your chosen point it hits the reel clip and opens in mid-flight, propelling your feed forwards. This is in sharp contrast to devices that open on splashdown.

The Airbomb works just as well with hemp, particle mixes, maggots, pellets, and floaters as it does with boilies, and the benefits are numerous. I’ll mention just a few.

It can be used to place feed tight up against features such as weed beds, or beneath overhanging bankside tree canopies, without having to cast too close to them and risk losing it.

Because the Airbomb opens in mid-air its split body section lands virtually silently on the water, making for a stealthy non-spook operation – nor does it land on top of your feed area.

This means it confuses and deters marauding boilie-munching gulls and waterfowl has to be a massive plus point, as is the fact that its ‘fast scoop’ design can be filled with one hand.

To that little lot you can add a robust, streamlined, aerodynamic body shape which delivers maximum casting distance with unerring accuracy.

Most obviously, it will help you to catch even more fish because the Airbomb provides a quite superb spread of bait over a small area. This creates a grazing spot, rather than a compact pile of feed that could cause suspicion and result in the fish spooking off.

Price: £13.99

Our verdict:

Rarely in angling does something new come along that will have a genuinely positive effect on your catch rate. TF Gear’s new Airbomb does just that.

On a raw, cold morning at the Carp Society’s Horseshoe Lake in Oxfordshire, TF Gear took the wraps off this exciting new product, which has been under development with anglers of the quality of Dave Lane for the past two years.

My initial impression was that it looks very much like other ‘rod-cast’ feeding systems on the market. However, that thought should be quickly dispelled, because the TFG Airbomb works in an altogether different way.

It opens in mid-air when it hits the reel clip, then lands silently. The distance your feed is propelled forwards when the Bomb hits the clip does vary slightly, depending on the weight of the feed (particles being lighter than boilies), as does the angle and speed of cast.

Nevertheless, this feed spread distance is easily evened out by taking a couple of steps backwards when feeding boilies. What’s more, once you’ve had a few casts with the Airbomb, travel parameters of the feed are quickly worked out. During the trial, I had a few 100-yard casts into open water, and a 50-yard cast towards cover. Both distances proved equally easy to hit, and the Airbomb’s baiting pattern is as good as I could have wished for.

What’s more, it fooled Horseshoe’s legions of gulls, ducks and swans which know just where to sit when bait is being fed via catapults, throwing sticks or airborne devices. This was not only a hugely satisfying thing to behold, but it promised a substantial cash saving, given how much bait is lost to birdlife.

Deploying the Airbomb involves pulling back on the opening pin, filling it with bait, closing the doors and slipping the opening pin (between the rear flight fins) into a metal ring. Not once during the trials did I see the Airbomb open prematurely and spill its contents, nor did it ever fail to open on cue.

For margin and close-quarters tactics the Airbomb can be softly overcast before being reeled back into position. You then give it a sharp flick to open its eject mechanism.

Barring snap-offs you are unlikely to ever lose your Airbomb. My only problem was getting the trial sample back to my car without being spotted!