Adding Flavour To Luncheon Meat?

[mant01]

Just wondered how many people add different flavours to their luncheon meat and what you use? I read about using curry powder to make it spicy but so far havent tried anything. Anything you can recommend?

[Andy Macfarlane]

I met a bloke using luncheon meat that had been coated with icing sugar. A mate in work had told him to try it. He wasn't much of any angler. He had heard this and was trying it on a pond I know of. While he was daydreaming, his line picked up about 4 feet of slack line twice and I had to tell him. The only fish in the water are carp, perch and small roach.

 

I think he had a take from a carp and didn't even know it.

[Anthony78]

I use alot of flavoured meat during winter when there is extra water and colour in the river. I fish both the Teme and Severn and the flavour I use is Turmeric and curry powder and this works a treat. As 'teme man' mentioned freezing the bait will draw the flavouring into the meat and this will ensure that the flavour takes much longer to leach from the bait. I normally cut the meat into 1 1/2 inch square strips and then break the meat into chunks with my fingers. This creates rough edges that will break off and run down stream and will also hold the flavour better. It will also fool those clever fish that know a square bait is usually attached to a hook

 

Regards

 

Ant

[Andy Macfarlane]

Rough edges also means greater surface area and therefore, more stink.

[BoldBear]

Most anglers have their own favourites on their waters but my favourite flavours for Barbel on the upper reaches of the Lea in order of preference are:

 

1. Nice-and-spicey pre-flavoured Luncheonmeat. (easily outfishes the other flavours on the waters I fish but unfortunately I can't buy it anymore).

2. Chilli flavour

3. Garlic flavour

4. Curry (Tandoori) flavour

5. Lamprey flavour

Edited June 6, 2010 by BoldBear

[AddictedToScopex]

Just wondered how many people add different flavours to their luncheon meat and what you use? I read about using curry powder to make it spicy but so far havent tried anything. Anything you can recommend?

I used to try a lot of flavours in my meat but I am now very much of the mindset that if it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

I was using my pole the other night at a local carp pond just to pass some time. I saw some swirls at my feet and thought why not put a few bits of hand crushed spam in their to guage the response. As soon as they hit the water i saw what looked like four big carp moving around to hunt the spam down. I decided to drop my rig in and had an 11lb mirror on size 14 elastic (that was fun to try and keep away from the reeds!). It was my biggest carp on the pole beating my previous 10lb 2oz. This continued all night. I was simply crushing the spam into bits with my hands and then putting a roughly torn piece on a size 12 hook. It was literally a fish a chuck with no fish less than 6lbs (apart from two crucians and a rudd with eyes far bigger than it belly!!!). It was great fun. Obviously I had to sit as still as a statue and maintain total silence but it was great. I could literally see the carp turning around to come back for my bait. Most people were struggling to catch on a variety of baits including the much loved prawn so it felt good that I had used my brain to test a theory and started hitting into some really big carp. I even let a friend have a go who has now become a pole convert after seeing how much fun it is to catch big carp on a pole. Needless to say i had a few people trying to see what i was using and a few of them switched to fishing at their feet too with little success due to their seeming inability to keep still and quiet. Anyway i digress

 

I do agree that flavoured meat may have a slight edge in winter in particular a meat using chilli as one of the ingredients because the oils in a meat disperse more slowly so a liquid flavour additive would put flavour into the water much quicker, this has proved the case for me so far but in this warm weather with nice warm waters the oils and meat and salt flavours released from standard spam are hard to beat. As i said the swim i was baiting was just swarming with large carp and other fish. I even had two lovely crucians with one at 3lb.

 

I have tried all sorts from shop bought to DIY flavoured meats and they all produce similar results to each other. Many flavours are water dependent. For the river this summer the only three i will be using are halibut (if im looking for big bream in particular, standard spam (for all others) and spam glugged in dynamite's spicy tuna and sweet chilli liquid (for carp and barbel).

 

p.s . I am not affiliated to the spam company in any way