Luncheon Meat

This is a bait that has been used for many years, mainly to sort out the larger fish. The barbel anglers have taken it to great heights, by using it with various flavour's and colour's. Which brand to buy is an individual choice, as no two tins are going to be the same. Each manufacturer has its own formula, and you only have to taste and look at them to see the great variance between the different makes. If you look on the can for a list of ingredients, then you may well be surprised to find out what is actually in it. Luncheon meat can be fished straight from the tin, so no preparation is required, and this is where you should start. You can either cut the tin into cubes, or for a more natural look with better leakage and small pieces falling from it, simply break of a piece. The size of your bait will depend on what you are trying to catch, but if you are after something on the large size, then a large bait will do nicely. By large I am talking about a piece that is a quarter of your tin. You will need something like a size two hook to do this lump justice, but if you get a bite, then you can guarantee that it will be from the fish you have dreamed about. Luncheon meat can be flavoured and coloured as with bread and maggots. Another good way of preparing the meat, is to fry it. Cut up your meat, put into a frying pan, and gently cook until you have the correct texture and colour. You can of course flavour it at the frying stage, and a teaspoon of curry powder will give you a whole new bait. Meat can be popped up by either using rig foam, or if you are a wine drinker, you can cut discs from a cork. Mounted on a hair rig, you can get it to sit just of the bottom. With the advent of PVA string, it is a simple matter to make a stringer of several bits of bait, tie it to your hook and cast out. The PVA string melts immediately, and your hook bait is fishing right in the middle of similar offerings. You can make a good ground bait with meat, simply by pushing it through a maggot riddle. You can feed it as it is, or you can add it to a small amount of brown crumb. If you cut your meat into thin slices, you can now buy punches that are specifically made for the job of punching out meat. I think that in with this mention of Luncheon Meat, I will also put "Meatballs". Again there is nothing new in fishing, well apart from the ever increasing range of boilie’s. If you have just thought of something to use as bait, then someone has been using it for years. This is definitely the case with meatballs. They have been used for many years. Campbell's make a few different flavour's, but you can always buy the plain ones, and as by now you will be aware that you can add many of your own flavour's. Fished whole or broken in half or indeed even quarters they make a super bait for all manner of fish, but especially carp and barbel.