Luncheon meat

Which is best for the above , directly on the hook or on a hair with a stop or one of those special middy screw type hair rigs.

Only used meat once and had bought a tin of rather good quality olde oake ham. Useless on the hook but ok on the slices of bread I had brought with me! Must remember to pack some Colemans!

Both work

On the float I tend to put meat straight on the hook

On the method feeder or shot gun feeder then hair rig

I now have some tins of the cheapest pork luncheon meat I can buy. Tomorrow I will try it and some paste on a hair rigged paste cage. One day when a special fish takes my bait I will be convinced it was that particular method and stick with it for weeks!

If trying on the hook,give the Luncheon Meat a little frying first to create a hardish coating,this will make it stay on the hook better,just cube it at home and put it in a frying pan for a few seconds or untill it forms a coating,you can add some flavours as well this way,Garlic being the best in my opinion

On the hook, meat has a tendency to come off due to the wire shank of the hook cutting it. It depends how heavy a chunk your using though, and you may find even a small piece can sometimes come off off on a hard cast. Float fishing close in or ledgering using smaller punch sized pieces should be ok.

Hair rigging with a rubber tube inserted is my preferred way as it stops the line cutting through like cheese wire. I've used 1/4 tin of spam for barbel using long hairs and chub using split tubing allowing me to fish very short hairs on fast flowing rivers like the trent and can be cast hard - some anglers have been known to use a 1/2 tin of meat!






There are bait anchors for soft baits like pate meat, paste, cheese and bread flake too.

I'm not a lover of ' square ' lumps of meat, either on the hook or hair rigged, so I use punches of various diameters which I push through the meat to give a ' sausage ' then turn the punch and push through the sides of the ' sausage ' to give an ( almost ) round bait. It still has 'edges ' but to my mind it looks better than a square....plus the fact I like good presentation as I think it makes all the difference, but that's just me.........

mikench......Not always good to by cheap luncheon meat, especially for the hook as it can have hard lumps of gristle in it which can, but not necessarily, mask the hook point. I always buy my meat at the Poundland shops where it can be bought - wait for it - for a £ !! They also do ' Pork & Ham ' and ' Bacon Grill ' all by Plumrose which is a pretty good make.....IMHO
All types can be fished ' plain ' or lightly smeared with Marmite or dipped in a chilli sauce at each cast as an alternative but lots of other flavours to choose from if you care to look around supermarkets. IMHO they can make the difference if things are slow
,
Out for a morning after carp ? I open a new tin the night before and chop half into small catapultable bits ( I don't fish too far out ) and the rest into various diameters up to 18mm diameter using the cutters. This, along with a pint or two of hemp to put down small bed over which to cast usually does the trick....on my venues anyway !!

As for stops, well loads available and I tend to use those that pull up inside the meat on the hair although if I have time I rake around in the garden for 1mm diameter bits of twig in the garden or even a short length of grass stem which in short pieces is stiff enough to act as a stop....

On the hook, especially small hooks I also use very thin ' slices ' of meat, again produced by the cutters to give a sausage then just cut it into the said slices. This need careful hooking and will NOT stand any form of hard casting, but close in its very good for silvers under the rod top..

Very versatile bait on its own in a cube but many variations with a bit of thought.......

Good luck !


ps Get yourself down to the ' Poundland ' shops and stock up with a dozen tins - you know it makes sense !!

pps I always carry an extra block of meat in my freezer bag just in case the carp are really on it !!

Many thanks for all your comments! I will give them a go!

Ive found this stuff the best and at 55p a tube, the cheapest too (Asda) I just pull it through a bait band.

That should keep well too. Is it just me or does the last pic from Laguna look like a severed big toe on a hook!

Must get out more!:wh

mikench said:

That should keep well too. Is it just me or does the last pic from Laguna look like a severed big toe on a hook!

Must get out more!:wh

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Lasts for yonks in a freezer.

Tried meat today and adopted the tip from Laguna. I did not catch anything on it but the experience was worthwhile. Early on 8.30 to 11 the meat remained firm and on the hook. Alas as the heat built up ans as I was sat in the sun the meat Became soft and failed to stay on the hook.

Maybe it was me ! I also tried paste, depth charge feeders and meat on a bomb rig. I had some success on the method with a couple of roach around 12 oz. These were the estimated weights by the bailiff who happened to call, engage me in conversation and was there when I caught them in rapid succession. Ooh yes ; I felt good!

Lovely day overall and good to try different tactics. I have a lot to learn.

mikench said:

That should keep well too. Is it just me or does the last pic from Laguna look like a severed big toe on a hook!

Must get out more!:wh

Click to expand...

Reminds me of a few things if you have a look after being swimming in cold sea water, but mostly it reminds me of a little pink Hippo

The best Luncheon meat I found for staying on the hook was the Co-op's own brand, sometimes use a hair rig and use a piece of grass stem as a stop (as I don't like the thought of fish ingesting pieces of plastic), or, if not using hair rig just push a bait needle through a cube of LM and pull the hook through and turn it to one side.

Have any others on here used the Co-op brand of luncheon meat

I know that many of you will be shouting 'sacrilege' but I like using the 'Spicey/Chilli' flavoured luncheonmeat that they sell in fishing tackle shops. It's meaty, very firm and the fish in the streams, rivers and lakes that I fish seem to love it.

I know you pay through the nose compared with the cheaper supermarket brands but I can use a standard hair-rig and use it directly on the hook and it never seems to come off like most luncheon meats I've used do and I catch a lot of fish using it (Carp, Barbel, Chub, Tench and Crucians) when I'm using it, and so I think it is well worth the extra spondulas.

I use cylinder shaped pieces using a punch

Keith

team man said:

The best Luncheon meat I found for staying on the hook was the Co-op's own brand, sometimes use a hair rig and use a piece of grass stem as a stop (as I don't like the thought of fish ingesting pieces of plastic), or, if not using hair rig just push a bait needle through a cube of LM and pull the hook through and turn it to one side.

Have any others on here used the Co-op brand of luncheon meat

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I like the Co-op luncheon meat its very tough and stays on the hair really well. Caught my first Barbel and a really big Chub from the River Wharfe using it, both on the same session. Also find it takes on garlic flavour when you add either chopped garlic or garlic paste from a tube, when you freeze and thaw and freeze again. I know this because i ate some while fishing and it brought a tear to my eye, and have since eased off on the garlic

Get hold of an MAP meat cutter and spare blades, smaller cubes like 4mm and 6mm will catch most anything that swims and stay on the hook perfectly well.

Never had any problems with the 8mm and 10mm cubes either.

Both are easy to flavour and colour. Pop the cubes in a plastic bag, add liquid flavouring, shake and freeze overnight.

When fishing bigger cubes, I'll either hair rig or fish with a small length of grass stalk or similar to keep it secure on the hook.

Honestly though, can't recommend the MAP meat cutter highly enough. The 4mm cubes are brill potted in with hemp, with corn on the hook.

Best of luck