By Tom | No Comments
Last updated: Thursday, January 17, 2008

When catching a lot of fish is on the cards, few baits are more effective than luncheon meat. Tom Scholey joins Garbolino Ossett ace Andy Geldart to find out his approach with the bait……

Meat is undoubtedly one of the most popular commercial baits in warmer months. A real favourite with carp of all sizes, meat will also attract bites from the better silvers in the area, meaning a truly mixed bag can be on the cards when the fish are having it properly.

Garbolino Ossett rod Andy Geldart is an angler who has had more than his fair share of success on meat. “It’s a bait I’ve got a lot of confidence in, and I’ve won a lot of money with it, especially at Woodlands up at Thirsk, and down at White Acres” Andy told us. We caught up with him at York’s Tollerton Ponds for a lesson on how to do it.

Plumrose

Andy began by detailing the meat he used and how he prepared it. “I use Plumrose Luncheon meat, which is probably the most popular kind to use with anglers these days. I don’t use any colourings or flavourings, preferring to present as natural an offering as possible to the fish.” He used a meat cutter to cube his Plumrose into quarter inch cubes, preparing three tins in this way so as to give himself plenty of bait to feed. He also prepared a further tin, which instead of cutting into cubes, he cut into strips around one inch long and a quarter inch thick.”The smaller fish struggle to eat these, which means by feeding a few of them I am always insuring there is something left on the bottom for the bigger fish if they move in” he said

The only other thing on Andy’s bait tray was some sweetcorn. “This is only there as a back up bait really, I will put a bit in just in case the fish back off the meat, it gives me another option. As a general rule though if the fish come onto the meat properly there is no need to feed anything else. I don’t like feeding smaller, particle baits like hemp or micro pellets, as I think sometimes the fish can get preoccupied with them. Its far better to feed what you are fishing, that way you hook bait seems more familiar to the fish.”

Andy found that by mounting his meat on a hair riggrd bait band, his bite to fish ratio was greatly improved

With bait preparation taken care of, Andy then began to set his rigs up. Again, presenting the bait as naturally as possible to the fish was the key thing he was trying to achieve. He plumbed up on three lies, his first one was at six metres in front of him, where he found the bottom of the near shelf. “I always like to feed a line close where possible, I often find on commercials that this line can produce some really big fish late on in the match, and it sometimes produces early as well. The added bonus of it being so short is that I can feed it by hand, meaning that I don’t have to interrupt whatever I am doing long to top it up” he added.

His main line was to be at 14.5 metres, where he looked for as flat a piece of bottom as possible. “It might seems strange going so far out, but I am looking to catch shallow later on if possible, and I like to fish a good distance out so that the fish feed that bit more confidently, and don’t spook as easily.”

In terms of rigs, for his depth lines at six and 14.5 metres Andy opted for 0.17 Preston Powerline to an 0.15 hook length. “I use hooklengths for all my fishing, it just makes everything so much more efficient, you can change a hook as and when you want to without effecting the depth you are fishing at. Furthermore, if you are unlucky enough to foul hook a big fish and it snaps you, at least you haven’t lost the full rig, you can change your hooklength and you are away again.” Andy said.

Floats and Stotting

In terms of floats he opted for a 4X14 Carpa Porth on both lines, with a tubertini 175 hook completing his rig . He shotted this with a bulk of No9 Stotz 14 inches away from his hook. “I don’t normally bother with droppers if I can help it when doing this type of fishing. I prefer instead to use a simple bulk and then leave a fair bit of line clear before the hook. I believe this creates a more natural fall through the last foot of water often resulting in more positive bites”

“Of course, the effectiveness of such a rig is largely dependant on the way in which you fish it. This is why I like to keep lifting and dropping my rig all the time so my hook bait is moving through the last foot of water.”

In addition to his depth rig, Andy also set up a shallow rig. This comprised of a 4×10 Carpa Shelf mounted on 0.15 Powerline to an 0.13 hooklength, with a PR36 hook completing his set up. In terms of shotting , a simple bulk of two No8 Stotz set half way down the 1 foot rig completed his set up.

For his deck rig, Andy used black Hydolastic, where as shallow he opted for grey Hydro. “It is important to fish as soft an elastic as possible shallow, it helps to stop them bolting and causing too much disturbance in the swim.”

Andy kept on feeding meat with his catapult to keep bites coming

In addition to the pot he had fed, Andy was also constantly loose feeding with his catapult, putting eight to ten pieces in every 30 seconds. “Its very important to keep bait going through the water, as this will draw fish into your peg” said Andy.

It didn’t take long before he was into his first fish, a carp around 5lb, the fish providing a really positive bite as Andy had predicted. He kept loose feeding all the time, even while playing and landing the fish so as to keep a steady stream of bait going through the water.

Next drop in, he took an ide straight away, and it was obvious that his approach of loose feeding regularly had drawn fish into the peg. The ide was a good stamp as well, weighing the best part of 2lb. “A few more of them wouldn’t go a miss!” chuckled Andy.

As the session started I had noticed that Andy had left quite a lot of float bristle showing instead of dotting it right down, and as more fish arrived in his peg, it became apparent why he had done this. He was getting a lot of indications, but most of them weren’t bites, just fish brushing against the line and taking the float under as they competed for the meat Andy was feeding.

Quick Pulls

Andy was waiting for definite, quick pulls under before striking. “Its just a case of reading the peg that’s all, obviously when there are a lot of fish there you will get line bites, but when there aren’t so many fish there it is worth lifting into everything, it’s a matter of working out how the fish are having it” he told me.

It was really noticeable how often Andy was lifting up and dropping back in so as to keep his bait falling through the bottom foot of water. Often soon after his float had settled he would get a bite and be into a fish however, which proved just how well his method was working.

As the sun rose higher up in the sky, there seemed to be more and more fish up in the water, and Andy felt it was worth a look shallow. “The beauty of feeding the peg with the catapult is that it often does get the fish competing for food, and they will come up in the water if they get chance. You can often catch them best here when they are really having it.”

With that, Andy picked up his shallow rig, and started feeding more regularly, perhaps every 10 seconds now instead of every 30 seconds. I was interested to see how he mounted his meat on the hook with a bait band, rather than hooked it through the side as you would normally do when fishing on the deck. He had tied a hair rig, but attached a bait band instead of tying a loop as you would do normally. He was mounting the meat on his baiting needle, then using the hook of the baiting needle to stretch out the band and sliding the meat up it. The elasticity of the baiting needle then meant it swelled up and locked the bait on the hook.

Hooking Themselves!

This proved devastating, and meant that often the fish pulled the elastic out without Andy even needing to strike. Again, while fish shallow he was constantly lifting and dropping his rig to present a falling bait, and fish were sometimes intercepting it before the float had even settled. The fish seemed bigger up in the water as well, with Andy taking several over the 5lb mark.

After about half an hour of really catching well, the fish seemed to disappear, an Andy had to go back on the deck again to start getting bites again. “I wonder if the water is just a little bit clear for shallow fishing so the fish have spooked” Andy said

Following a few fish on the deck, it was clear that the fish were back up in the water as every time Andy loosefed there were swirls. He tried his shallow rig again, and was back in action straight away, which proves his theory about the clearish water was correct.

After around three hours fishing Andy pulled his net out to reveal well over 80lb of hard fighting carp, along with pristine ide and skimmers. “It just goes to show how effective and versatile a meat attack can be. I’ve caught loads of different species today, but the carp in particular have honed in on the meat. I think I might stop on for an hour after we’ve done the pictures and catch some more” said the Garbolino ace.

Andy scraps with a meat caught carp