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Meatballs-Lot cheaper than Luncheon Meat !!!

Rob Smith

Rob Smith

Active Member
Hiya Guys,

I haven't been barbel fishing for a while and yesterday I travelled to Knowle Sands on the Severn to have a go for the Barbel. My main two baits were going to be meat and halibut pellet, but when I went to Tesco's to get the luncheon meat I saw it was £2 a tin so I decided to try a cheaper alternative. On the same isle but a bit further along I saw tins of Tesco's own brand meatballs at 39p so I decided they were worth a go. I also purchased some curry powder and chinese 5 spice.

When I got home I washed the tomato sauce from the meat balls and dried them, put them in a bait box with a small amount of olive oil, added the curry powder and 5 spice and shook the ingredients up. Then I put the baitbox in the microwave for 2 minutes which I hoped would help the flavour infuse into the meat. The powder had stuck nicely to the meatballs and they were an ideal size for barbel bait and every meatball was a different shape.

Perfect !!!

Well how did they work I hear you ask ???

Well, there were 3 of us on the Knowle Sands 1+2 stretch yesterday, I was the only one using curried meatballs and I was the only one to catch. I only caught 4 but missed a few too. All fish were caught on the curried meatballs. I had 2 rods out, one rod had halibut pellet on and the other had the meatballs. I tried swapping bait from rod to rod but it made no difference. The meatballs caught and the halibut pellets didn't.

May be worth giving a go as a cheap luncheon meat alternative.
 
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Rob, it does work, my brother put me onto the bait when he used it as a carp bait in the 1970's and 80’s, he used to fry them for a little while minus the gravy with curry powder to toughen them up.
Back then he would use a small piece of reed as a stopper to some success, we never told him that occasionally his bait was another 10 yards from his bare hook though....younger brothers eh.
 
Adam Ditchburn said:
Rob, it does work, my brother put me onto the bait when he used it as a carp bait in the 1970's and 80’s, he used to fry them for a little while minus the gravy with curry powder to toughen them up.
Back then he would use a small piece of reed as a stopper to some success, we never told him that occasionally his bait was another 10 yards from his bare hook though....younger brothers eh.
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If you use the Enterprise tackle "Meat Mate" product it keeps the meatballs on without any problems.
 
i love meatballs, i pretty much just use out the can, still work, abit soft is the only drawback.
 
Use them for rolling meat semi frozen, works really well.

They are really versatile, can be flavored easily and not that many people (up until now!) use them.

I just tend to use a bit of stck or if I am feeling flush a fox meat stop to keep them on the hair if static fishing.

Tom
 
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Michael Joyce said:
is this the record that steve pope witnessed?
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Along with a certain Lol Breakspear, Chris King and Dave Evans. Never spoken with any of those and the closest I have come to SP is the back of his head at a BS meeting:) But I have met the capture and a top bloke too.
 
The man in question is Howard Maddocks and he caught the old record on the old BAA stretch at upton, which they no longer have..If memory serves me right he only used Campbells meat balls with 8lb line straight through..
 
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