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Meat baits, this bait category may be one of the most comprehensive
in terms of selection as almost any meat type or flavouring will
catch fish and have a day when it may outscore all others especially
when river fishing during the winter, many anglers know that
luncheon meat is one of the best meat baits on the market but I am
convinced that it is not only that this bait has an attractive smell
and texture but it is more likely to have become one of the best
meat baits because anglers are using it in quantity so conditioning
the fish to taking it on a regular basis, one perfect example of
this is on commercial venues where you may be just as likely to
catch a specimen Roach on a piece of meat than a caster or maggot
but try to fish luncheon meat on a canal or river for Roach and you
will come back empty handed never mind catch a specimen, in this
section I will try to cover the most prolific meat baits that I have
used over the years explaining there uses and methods when fishing
the different types of meat.
Luncheon meat,
this meat bait is probably the most versatile and widely used on the
market due to its obvious popularity and ease of use straight from
the tin and by the state of some river banks that have been littered
with empty tins by bad anglers, if you must take tins, bags or
wrappers to the river bank then please take them home the country
side will be a better place for it, Luncheon meat can be used in
many varieties but some are better than others so you will have to
experiment a bit with different brands, you can use Luncheon meat in
many different ways either straight on the hook, hair rigged, on the
bomb, feeder, waggler, pole, in small cubes, balls, punched, pulped,
torn lumps or cut into many different sized pieces the choice is
yours but by far the most popular with river anglers is mounted on a
hair rig for fish such as Chub, Barbel and Carp, if you want to
harden the meat up a bit so that it is a little tougher and will
stay on the hook or hair better just leave some cut or punched
pieces out in the sun for a while until they start to shrivel or fry
the meat in a little olive oil before you go fishing this frying
method is a good way to get flavours into your meat adding a little
as you fry you may even add some colour as well, the best way to
flavour meat without frying is to cut it into pieces and place it
into the freezer until frozen then add some flavour to the bag and
blow it up tying the bag full of air, as the meat defrosts it should
absorb a good amount of the flavour that you have chosen, good
flavours for meat are garlic, blue cheese, black pepper, tandori
masala, mixed spice or anything with a good strong scent, fish on
hook sizes 14 - 8 with or without a hair rig, if you fish a piece of
punched or torn meat straight on the hook then use a baiting needle
to pull the hook through the meat and then pull your hook back into
it via your hook length disguising the hook just under the surface.
Steak and mince,
this can be a devastating river winter Chub bait and is still not as
widely used as I first thought , out of 100 anglers asked only 33%
said that they had heard of this bait and only 19% had used it this
may be due to the demise in river anglers over the years but maybe
this was not a true reflection of use especially as I did not ask
100 river anglers only a cross section of general anglers that
fished every weekend, this bait is very easy to prepare and widely
available you can even go out in the middle of the night and
purchase some from one of the many supermarkets handy if you decide
to go very late on, this type of fishing is not restricted to just
steak and mince although this is the most commonly used but you
could try something a bit different like minced turkey and chicken
or lamb perhaps obviously being careful to purchase fresh meat and
to store it well whilst in use, a piece of liver, bacon or even some
shell fish like prawn is always a good change bait whilst fishing
with steak and mince when bites may dry up.
Preparing
Steak and Mince,
to prepare your steak all you will have to do is trim of any fat and
cut the steak into irregular sized pieces so that you have a good
selection of sizes, it is always best to buy a good piece of quality
steak maybe some fillet, sirloin or rump as this will contain less
fat and be of a softer consistency it should keep its colour better
than the cheaper cuts of meat as well, when you have cut the meat
into the pieces that are required keep them in an air tight
container in the fridge but before you go fishing dust them off with
some fine maize meal as this will stop them sticking together and
make it easier to use, the mince does not need to be anything
special one of the cheaper minced beef products will suffice as long
as it is not too heavily fatted, remove the mince from the packet in
one lump and place onto a chopping board, cut across the mince at
about one inch intervals, place the cut mince into a large mixing
bowl and rub well through your fingers adding a good amount of fine
maize meal separating the mince as you do so, add just enough brown
crumb with a little water to hold the mince together and leave to
absorb water for about half an hour, rub the mixture once more
adding a little water if necessary until it will just about bind
together, place in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge, you can add
some extra flavour to your mix especially if the river is or has
been in flood a good flavour to add is about six to ten oxo cubes
before adding the brown crumb, it will cost you around five to seven
pounds to have a good days steak and mince fishing not bad
considering the cost of some other baits, fish different sized
pieces of steak on hook sizes 20 - 10 feeding the steak onto the
shank and leaving the hook point exposed, use the crumbed mince to
feed through your chosen swim feeder but do not pack in the mince
too tightly as it will not empty.
Sausage Baits,
another great big fish bait with all sausage and sausage meats being
used within this group, some very large fish have fallen to these
baits over seasons past with peperami and garlic sausage being the
most popular, almost any sausage can be used and most if not all
will be taken with confidence on the right day, fish chopped sausage
on a hair rig feeding either more chopped sausage or sausage meat
type ground bait through a swim feeder, you can prepare your sausage
meat ground bait using the same method as described for preparing
minced steak above.
Other meat baits,
these include corned beef, meat balls, frankfurters, meat bites, cat
foods, dog foods, hams, cured meats or any other meat based product,
the list is endless, the next time that you go shopping to a large
supermarket just take a while to look through the refrigerated
section you should be able to find a whole host of cheap new meat
type baits to try and you may land on an absolute flyer all it takes
is a little thought and the right venue to turn these baits into
something special, meat baits in all of their varieties can be a
fantastic thing to use given the right conditions, I have had many
huge Chub not only from rivers but from canals and still waters on a
whole host of these baits as well as many Barbel, carp and Tench, I
have even caught some big Perch and Bream using meats from the lists
above so you never know when you go shopping next what the outcome
of the bait that you buy will be, if you are going to try to fish
with a single meat bait then feed in a bed of hemp or other holding
bait first, do not put too many hook samples in and you will find
that the bites are confident, whatever you decide upon give them a
try and test out these bait variety's for yourselves.
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On this page Meat baits including steak & mince, Luncheon meat,
sausage baits and other meat based baits
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