A Bait for Bigger Fish.
I must confess I'm not an angler who likes to sit there all day, with a13 meter pole at full stretch, on a single maggot, pulling out very small roach and skimmers. It's OK in winter when catching can be a struggle, but I'd rather go for the bigger fish in a water. That to me is the beauty of baits like luncheon meat, it can cut out the little fish. Not only that, it's a bait that good sized roach, bream, tench and carp live to eat.
You can vary it's size, shape, colour and flavour to suite your needs. It's light (mainly because of it's fat content), so it will sit on weed or on silt. Not only all that, but it's also cheap and very easily available, what more could you ask for.
Tip - Leave in the fridge overnight.
Just a tip, but I have found that if you leave an un-opened tin in the fridge overnight, it seems to firm it up slightly for fishing the next day.
The following pages go into what type of meat to use, how to present it and how to flavour and dye your meat to make it a little more attractive and different from other peoples bait. Sometimes just doing things a little differently can give you the edge.
ThreeTypes of Luncheon Meat.
There are three main types of luncheon meat which can be bought from supermarkets etc. We are going to class them by their firmness and ability to stay on the hook. When fishing the meat directly on the hook I like to use the softest I can get away with, as the hook cuts through the meat better on the strike. When hair rigging meat, then I like it to be as firm as possible to help it stay on the hair.
Luncheon Meat and Spam.
The first type of meat is simply called luncheon meat on the tin, as
sold by many shops and supermarkets. It's generally the softest of
the meats so it's not to good for withstanding casting and hair rigging.
it is however perfect for pole fishing and margin fishing straight onto
the hook.
Many tackle shops sell "Sensas Super Meat". This to is a very soft
meat so is suitable for the methods mentioned above.
2 - Chopped Ham and Pork.
This second type of meat is slightly firmer than luncheon meat. Not my favourite for hair rigs, but OK for fishing directly on the hook when casting out.
3 - Bacon Grill.
Lastly we come to "Bacon Grill". This is the firmest of the lot
and is excellent for mounting on a hair rig, for how to do this carry on
reading. It can also be fished straight onto a hook, but because
of it's firmness I prefer to have the hook point showing through the
bait, to aid hooking.
My favourite bacon grill is sold by Lidl (picture above right), also
excellent is "Celebrity Bacon Grill" sold by many supermarkets.
The Van Den Eynde flavoured luncheon meats are also very firm, but not
quite as firm as Bacon Grill. They are still however excellent for
hair rigs.
Flavouring and Colouring Luncheon Meat.
Luncheon meat has it's own taste and smell, which makes it very attractive to fish. It can however be boosted by the addition of flavours and curry powders etc. It can also be varied by adding a coloured dye. Just a word of warning about adding liquid flavours or dyes, don't over do it. You could end up making the meat to soft.
Method.
The cubes of meat are then placed in a large plastic bag and the flavour and/or colour added the the meat.
Here I'm using a spray made by Sensas, which adds both flavour and colour.
The first job is to cut the meat up into bait sized cubes. Note that I don't like to use to sharp a knife, a rough cut edge to the meat helps it to absorb more flavour or colour.
After one hour the meat is starting to take up the colour / flavour combination very well.
Again I must stress that better results are to be had if the meat is left to soak overnight.
The bag is then blown up like a ballon, twist it at the top to trap the air and give it a good shake. This ensured that all the meat cubes are coated with the chosen flavour and colour. This is best done the night before, but here I'm doing it on the bank
Things to Use.
Supermarket sell excellent materials for flavouring and dying meat. This is a red tandoori paste. Add a teaspoon full to a bag of cubed meat, shake it up, leave overnight in the fridge and away you go.
You can also use curry powders, just add to your meat as above and it's ready the next morning.
There are a number of commercial preparations on the market that can be used to flavour and dye meat. on of my favourites is the "Sensas Crazy Bait" spray range. There are however many more on offer, just walk into any tackle shop and take a look. Always read and follow the manufactures instructions.
Lastly, if you can't be bothered doing it yourself, how about "Garlic" or "Black Pepper" ready flavoured Spam. Or there are those sold by tackle shops.
Supermarkets also sell liquid flavours. Shown above is "Super Cook" Strawberry Flavouring. This is available for about 40p a bottle