Hot Dogs as a Bait.
No one would deny the effectiveness of luncheon meat as a bait, but also as equally effective are hot dog sausages. When the fish start to become a little wise to ordinary luncheon meat, hot dogs can prove very effective.
They are easily available and depending on the make are quite cheap. They can cost anything from 20 odd pence a tin of 8, up to just over a pound.
One of the things you should be aware of is that they are somewhat softer than most types of luncheon meat, which can present problems during casting. When buying hot dogs I have found that the cheaper varieties tend to be softer than the dearer ones. If you are pole or margin fishing this shouldn't be a problem, but for casting and hair rigging it can be.
I used to know a carp angler (going back a few years) who used to fish hot dogs at distance. He would cut his hot dogs up into the required size and place a hook in each of the pieces he intended to use as hook bait, with the hook eye just showing. He would then freeze the hot dog pieces with the hooks in and take them fishing in a Thermos Flask to keep them frozen. When he needed to recast he would tie a new hook / hotdog piece, from his Thermos Flask and because the bait was frozen, be able to cast without fear of the soft bait coming off. Once in the water the hot dog piece soon defrosts.
As can be seen from the picture on the right hot dogs have a very thin skin. I like to peel or cut this off to allow the flavour from the meat to escape from the bait more easily. Part of it can be left on to aid hooking and casting.
In the picture I have cut the hot dog into a cube ready for mounting on the hook.
Hooking Hot Dogs.
I don't want to spend to much time looking at the conventional hooking of hot dogs, straight on the hook. They should be treated the same as luncheon meat, this is discussed on the "Luncheon Meat - Hooking" page.
Hair Rigging Hot Dogs.
On today's commercial type fisheries hair rigged hot dogs can prove a deadly method. Hair rigs were originally made to mount boilies, which are a hard bait. The problem with hot dogs being very soft is that the hair will cut through the hot dog meat with no problem at all. The best solution to this is to use a bait or meat screw.
The type of bait screw you need for hot dogs are the ones that are basically small springs. As can be seen there is a small loop at the top which is used to mount the spring to the line. This type of bait screw is ideal for very soft baits like hot dogs, paste baits and even particles such as sweetcorn.
The bait screw / springs come in two sizes small and large. For normal usage I use the large size, although I do intend to experiment with the small size for single gains or corn etc.
On the right is shown a bait screw on a hair rig and a cubed piece of hot dog ready to mount on the spring.
The hook size is a 12 "Kamasan Eyed Barbless Animal Hook" and the line is 6lb breaking strain, 0.17mm diameter.
The hot dog cube is then screwed on to the bait screw. The photo on the right shows a bait part way through mounting.
The hot dog cube is now fully mounted on the bait screw. Note that there is a gap between the bottom of the bend of the hook and the top of the bait. This allows the hair rig to work and for the hook to take hold in a fishes mouth.
For those not into do it yourself rig making, Middy sell excellent read made rigs using the bait screw shown above. They cost about £2 for a packet of six.
For the do it yourselfers, just the springs can be bought in packets of 10 from some tackle shops and mail order such as ebay. They are often sold as "Hair Riggers".
A search on Google should readily find a few suppliers.
For people wanting to learn how to tie a hair rig, see the "How to Tie a Hair Rig" page here
Video Showing How to use a Bait Screw.
Many thanks to Sam for demonstrating how to mount a bait using a meat screw.