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Still a place for a lump of luncheon meat

Pataks Tikka Masala :D
 
Neil Blood said:
In my experience, different river Barbel populations respond differently to different baits. Take the Wye for example, if fishing pellet feeder, always include corn in your pellet feeder mix, as on the hook, it can completely outfish pellet hook baits! In comparison corn doesn’t work as well on the Severn.

On the middle and upper Severn, in my experience, larger meat baits catch me bigger Barbel. I’ve caught far more Severn doubles on meat than I have pellet/boillie. Its also about doing things differently, as my meat hookbaits are far bigger than what the average angler uses.

Think massive catfish sized baits 🙂
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Blimey, Neil, you must spend a fortune on meat !!
 
Andrew Jackson said:
I caught my first Barbel way back at the start of the 80's on luncheon meat. Many of my early Barbel were caught on it and even into the 90's I caught some good fish on it. My first double was caught on a tiny piece fished over hemp and finely chopped meat. Somewhere along the way I stopped using it.
The other afternoon, towards the end about 6 ish with no further action I remembered the meat I had brought with me. In for a penny in for a pound and I put on a great lump ( 2" squarish - torn not cut) . What a revelation! 3 Barbel hooked in an hour. The first, a 10.06, the best of the week ( middle Severn), the second, came a drift ( possibly foul hooked) the third a good 9 pounder. I finished with a decent Chub (for the Severn) before packing in. Would I have caught those on the boilie or pellet? I honestly don't think so. Anyway this is not to say it is always the answer but certainly I will be trying the tactic again, soon!View attachment 36226
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Had 2 barbel and 3 good chub on the Severn at Bridgnorth all on large pieces of dynamite garlic meat today 😋
 
Always take a small tin as a change bait. It’s definitely caught me a few fish over the years when other baits seem to be left wanting. Eels can be a problem, so generally opt for a larger bait. As I mostly fish the Hants Avon, must admit that in Winter, I occasionally put a spam hookbait on late just to see the rod tip move. Once heard that Barbel & Eels feed at the same water temps, so gives me hope. 😅

Joking aside, this big lump got me my Avon pb. No preemptive knocks or trembles, Rod just hooped over.
 

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Ben Marr said:
Blimey, Neil, you must spend a fortune on meat !!
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Not really Ben, when fishing very big baits, you are trying to be selective in terms of singling out the biggest fish. The fish don’t associate massive hookbaits with danger, as anglers don't have the confidence to try it.

Its not a new method and it goes back to the 1980’s when anglers used to chuck in their remaining bait at the end of a session. Back then most anglers used meat, so half tin sized chunks often got lobbed in down the side. The Barbel learned to seek them out. Leftover bait disposal still happens today. Google Lawrence Breakspear’s writings on the subject. That’s what I did and developed the method to my own way of fishing it.

On a typical after dark session, I may use 2 x 200g tins or 3 x 200g tins worth (4 or 6 hookbaits). When Spam is on offer that’s £4 to £6 on bait!

Sainsbury’s own brand chopped pork and ham, has a similar firm texture to Spam and is also cheaper.
 
Neil Blood said:
Not really Ben, when fishing very big baits, you are trying to be selective in terms of singling out the biggest fish. The fish don’t associate massive hookbaits with danger, as anglers don't have the confidence to try it.

Its not a new method and it goes back to the 1980’s when anglers used to chuck in their remaining bait at the end of a session. Back then most anglers used meat, so half tin sized chunks often got lobbed in down the side. The Barbel learned to seek them out. Leftover bait disposal still happens today. Google Lawrence Breakspear’s writings on the subject. That’s what I did and developed the method to my own way of fishing it.

On a typical after dark session, I may use 2 x 200g tins or 3 x 200g tins worth (4 or 6 hookbaits). When Spam is on offer that’s £4 to £6 on bait!

Sainsbury’s own brand chopped pork and ham, has a similar firm texture to Spam and is also cheaper.
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Neil, what hooks are you using ? And aren't you worried it won't pull through the meat ? How do you mount it ?
 
I use size 4 Nash claw pulled through the meat with a long needle and twisted 90 degrees with a bit of grass to stop it pulling straight out. You’re never going to be able to cast it too far but as long as you’re gentle on the cast it won’t come off. If I’m happy with where I’m cast I’ll leave it there for a couple of hours at times. Don’t like reeling in too often as that’s when the line will start to pull through the meat and it might not last another cast so if your only going to cast back to same spot then just leave it out. Only time I’ll recast early is if I’ve been having knocks for a bit and then they stop or I’ve had a decent bite that I’ve missed
 
Neil Blood said:
Size 2 Patridge Barbel hook pulled through the meat and turned 90 degrees. Hooklength material Drennan Dacron, which doesn’t cut through large heavy baits like cheese wire. Both discontinued unfortunately.

Just read Lawrence’s historical writings and take it from there.
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Neil the partridge dtb hooks are still available from Sprite fishing and also Glasgow angling mate 👍🏻
 
Meat is one of my all time favourites, fished with it since the late 1960's! I also "hate" cubes and uniform shapes. Got to be big, torn off lumps, often two or three lumps to create a very big bait.

Look at the size of the mouth on this one!

JPG 13lbs 14oz.jpg


Here's a couple of snippets from my Upper Loddon chapter in Barbel Gold: Ancient history from over a decade ago but still very relevant!

"I started to catch barbel again. In fact, for almost two full seasons, I fished nothing but meat although I played around with flavours and colourings a fair bit. Perhaps, more importantly, in all that time, I did not introduce any free offerings at all. The only additional feed in the swim was the bits that fell off or were knocked off the hair. I still had my fair share of blanks, but my catch rate increased and the overall size of fish finding their way to my net also increased.

Those crays were sometimes frustrating but, with experimentation and patience, I could happily leave the baited rig in the river for long periods, sometimes up to an hour. I would get lots of taps and knocks and, sometimes, the centrepin would click over time and time again. I just sat on my hands and waited. When that distraction stopped it was time to concentrate even harder. Maybe the barbel had arrived?"
 
I use Gripz #2 or #4 on coated braid (ESP Strip-Teaze/12lb) with the last 3-4" stripped off above the meat. I mount it by pulling the hooklength loop through the meat, and 95% of the time I use Tulip Bacon Grill (cheap, and though). With that you/I can cast that 20-30m and be 100% confident it won't come off. 90% of bites are wrap-arounds...but I've had a few tentative pulls, followed by slow confident takes when I give it some slack. I had a 5lb chub give me a self-hooking wrap-around yesterday whilst I was rebaiting the upstream rod :)
 
Neil Maidment said:
Meat is one of my all time favourites, fished with it since the late 1960's! I also "hate" cubes and uniform shapes. Got to be big, torn off lumps, often two or three lumps to create a very big bait.

Look at the size of the mouth on this one!

View attachment 36257

Here's a couple of snippets from my Upper Loddon chapter in Barbel Gold: Ancient history from over a decade ago but still very relevant!

"I started to catch barbel again. In fact, for almost two full seasons, I fished nothing but meat although I played around with flavours and colourings a fair bit. Perhaps, more importantly, in all that time, I did not introduce any free offerings at all. The only additional feed in the swim was the bits that fell off or were knocked off the hair. I still had my fair share of blanks, but my catch rate increased and the overall size of fish finding their way to my net also increased.

Those crays were sometimes frustrating but, with experimentation and patience, I could happily leave the baited rig in the river for long periods, sometimes up to an hour. I would get lots of taps and knocks and, sometimes, the centrepin would click over time and time again. I just sat on my hands and waited. When that distraction stopped it was time to concentrate even harder. Maybe the barbel had arrived?"
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Great photo Neil! 👍
 
Neil Maidment said:
I'm old enough to remember the "good old days on Throop" - when it got a bit harder, we would actually take the meat out of the tin! :eek:
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I never did the massive lump of meat at Throop in the 80s but the tiny ( and I mean tiny) pieces on a hair of 1lb nylon attached to a size 8 Hilton hook ( seems all wrong) was very effective. I introduced similarly finely chopped meat via a bait dropper and sometimes they would take the bait before you could put the rod in the rest! Happy days that I miss so much.
 
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