Directly On The Hook.
I always consider that there are two main ways to hook meat, either directly on the hook, or with a hair rig. Having said that there are variations, but I will detail the main ways I use to present the bait.
The hook has now been pushed into the meat luncheon meat cube and is ready for casting. However if you feel that the meat needs help to stay on the hook..read on.
When presenting meat directly onto the hook, it is pushed onto or the hook is hooked through the meat. Note the size of the meat cube cube in relation to the hook. The two are "balanced".
A blade of grass is then pushed through the bend of the hook and the hook drawn back in, so that the bend and the grass sit tight against the bottom of the bait. The grass now acts as a "shock absorber" when casting to help the meat say on.
Because of the distance I am casting, flow of the river or softness of the luncheon meat, I'm going to give it help to stay on the hook. Here the hook has been pushed right through exposing the bend of the hook at the bottom of the bait.
Presentation can be varied by cutting the meat into small cubes or pieces and presenting them on the hook as shown above. Note that even though the pieces are much smaller, the bait size is still balanced to the hook size.
This method can work when bites are hard to come by or hard to hit.
Rather than cutting the meat with a knife, the meat can be torn off the main cube in pieces. This gives the meat rough edges which gives a different presentation, it also helps let the flavour of the meat out more into the water.
This technique can also be used when flavouring meat.
The luncheon meat is cut into slices, the thickness of the slice determining how long you want the pellet to be. The pellets are then "punched out".
Another alternative is to punch the meat to make luncheon meat pellets", with a bait punch. They normally come in sets of different sizes, so you can make pellets of different diameters. The Korum set are shown above
Luncheon Meat on a Hair Rig.
Using luncheon meat on a hair rig can be a deadly method to catch fish and one that can give you the edge other others fishing the same water. Just remember to balance the bait to the hook size. As mentioned above "Bacon Grill" is the best type of luncheon meat to use for hair rigging, as it tends to be firmer that other types.
The problem with mounting luncheon meat on a hair rig, is the softness on the meat and the thinness of the hair rig material. Because of these two factors, the hair rig material cuts through the meat very easily which then falls off the hair.
There are three main methods that I use to present luncheon meat on a hair rig The first is with a pellet band, this method is great for smaller pieces of meat. You can use a different size of pellet band to hold on different size pieces of bait. The second is with a bait screw, I have found this good for slightly larger pieces of meat. The third uses a small piece of tube pushed onto the hair on which the bait is mounted. I haven't found this method to be as effective as the first two methods, but for completeness I have detailed the method below.
The Pellet Band Hair Rig - Things You Will Need.
Baiting Needles.
When selecting a baiting needle to work with luncheon meat, you must choose one with a proper hook. I've shown the main types of baiting needles on the right.
The top on of the three has a hook, but it just isn't deep enough. Luncheon meat and pellets are very greasy, so the band will slip off the small hook. The middle baiting needle has a barb, again this just isn't big enough to hold a pellet band or get your hook into. The bottom needle is ideal, it will hold onto even the biggest pellet band or hook. They are normally sold as "stringer needles", for putting boilies onto pva string.
Pellet Bands.
These are small elastic, rubbery, latex type rings. They were originally introduced to hold hard pellets onto the hook. It has since been found that they are excellent at holding luncheon onto a hair rig. The pellet bands themselves come in a variety of sizes, so choose the ones that suit your intended hook and bait size.
Method.
To make the rig the pellet band is tied to a piece of line or braid.
The band is then tied to the hook using the "knotless Knot". For instructions how to tie the "knotless knot" see the "how to tie a hair rig" page.
You don't want to much distance between where the line or braid is tied to the band and the bottom of the hook. I like to tie it so that the top of the meat hangs just a few millimeters below the bottom of the hook. This is something you will learn to judge, once you have tied a few rigs.
A cube of meat is then threaded onto the baiting needle, the hook the the needle is then hooked onto the pellet and the pellet band stretched.
Keeping the pellet band stretched, the meat is pushed onto the pellet band and the baiting needle unhooked.
The end result, with the pellet band holding the luncheon meat onto the hair..
Please note that when using line to make the rig, because of the way the knotless knot is tied, the hook hangs at an angle. To prevent this I like to place a small piece of silicone tubing over the eye of the hook, as can be seen in the picture on the right.
This isn't so important when using braided hook lengths which are softer.
Video Showing How to use a Pellet Band.
Many thanks to Liam for demonstrating how to mount luncheon meat on a pellet band.
Bait Screw Hair Rigs.
Bait screws offer another method of attaching luncheon meat to a hair rig. The bait is simply cut to the required size and screwed onto the screw. The one shown on the right is made by Korum.
The can be bought as ready made hair rigs, tied to a hook length. The screw tied to the hook only, so all you have to do is tie the hook on, or just the screws themselves. If you buy just the screws themselves, they are tied on as detailed in the information on pellet bands above, using the "knotless knot".
Video Showing How to use a Bait Screw.
Many thanks to Sam for demonstrating how to mount luncheon meat using a plastic Korum screw.
Tubing on Hair.
A small piece of silicon or plastic tubing is cut to the same size as the cube of meat you want to mount on a hair rig. This is placed on a baiting needle first, followed by the cube of meat. The tubing is then pushed all the way into the bait. The hair is then drawn through the plastic tubing which is inside the meat and secured with a boilie or hair stop in the normal way, just as if you were mounting a boilie. The tubing, because of it's increased diameter (compared to the hair material) doesn't cut through the meat as easily. The hair or boilie stop shown at the top of the picture is made by Fox
The picture on the right shows the end result. I think the biggest problem with this method is that you seem to loose a lot of hair stops and plastic tubing as the meat seems to come off in the water sometimes. This is just my opinion, but it doesn't seem as secure as the other two methods detailed above.