Does anyone use a bread / meat punch

[Robbi]

I've never used a bread or meat punch, to be honest i've never seen the need for one but a young relative has got me a bread - meat punch set for christmas so i'm going to give it a try.

Any advise or tips would be useful, and indeed, are they any good ?

i normally just cut up the meat into the sizes i want and just pinch the bread around the hook, what are the advantages of using a punch, if any ?

[JimmyBobkin]

Ideal for small hooks and pole fishing. Not used it for years though.

[Robbi]

why pole fishing and not just ordinary float fishing ?

[Dave Burr]

Put your bread on a level, firm surface when punching it then just hook the disc and fish. It swells up in the water and stays on quite well. It must be fresh bread and some steam their bread first - not something I've ever done. Great bait for roach, crucians etc.

[CWK]

The Drennan bread punches are excellent for presenting a uniform size and shape of bait . However , one needs a relatively sticky slice of bread for the best results . In my experience the cheaper loaves are better suited for this application . Can be devastating when used with either liquidised or mashed bread loose feed .

[Bjp]

there is a guy called jeff hat i think who has a blog i'll find it later and he has some very strong views on fishing bread discs made a lot of sense to me, hope i am allowed to post his link if not sorry.

found it

http://idlersquest.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... bread.html

[Robbi]

what a great article, many thanks indeed

[JohnL]

I use a home-made 8mm one for much of my roach fishing, works a treat, you don't get any hard compressed bits of bread like you do with pinched on flake. Chub, carp, tench, dace and even trout take a liking for it too.

[JohnL]

That's a good article Bjp, although I don't know about the Warburtons Blue (sounds more like a cheese) that he recommends, all the Warburtons breads I've tried have been absolutely rubbish. I'll stick to Hovis.

[Marc]

I use a bread punch quite often. Good for Crucians and roach when they're shy biting. I've never used a meat punch. I've never had a lot of success with meat to be honest.