Hotdog sausages

[MaggotDrowner]

Has anyone any experience of using these as bait? What have you caught on it? I'm thinking of giving it a go for barbel and chub.

[Snape]

Yes they are good but no better than luncheon meat.

[Macdescruple]

Try it MD, they certainly work on the Chub round here. They "Woof" them down . (I've had Tench on them too)

[Dave Burr]

Excellent bait but with a few drawbacks. They are very soft which makes them attractive to fish but a bugger to cast. I get around it my leaving them in a bag with a bit of groundbait or similar which draws the moisture from their skins and toughens them a bit and pass the hook through them and put a bit of grass stem under the bend to cushion the force of the cast.

Some brands are very buoyant and may even float, not very useful so find a good brand and stick to it.

I have found that where luncheon meat has been over used they make a great change of bait for barbel and chub but I recently used some on a commercial carp water and didn't get a touch whereas everything else was grabbed in an instant. Go figure.

[Michael]

I`ve had reasonable results with both chub & barbel. I used the mini ones, both on hook and hair. I`ve also fried them lightly to toughen up the skin/surface. I was told yonks' ago, it could have something to do with the higher salt content?....

[MaggotDrowner]

Thanks guys. I did wonder if the salt might be something they would like, Merlot. You never really know what they like.

Dave, I don't tend to cast that far on the Dane. Its not very wide where I fish. If I do have trouble with it coming off the hook I'll put it on a middy meat carp - a hair rigged spiral of wire. I use them whenever I ledger with meat. I think they're great and they stop bait coming off on cast.

[Nobby]

Yes, like Merlot I found that you could toughen them up a fair bit if you slice them and dry-fry them. You can do the same with a slice of luncheon meat too for that matter. You might always consider a lump on a hair rig too. I have a pal who only fishes this way....never tries anything else...huge lump of meat on a hair. He catches rather a lot of fish actually.

[MaggotDrowner]

This is the product I'm talking about.



You screw the meat onto the metal spiral and it's fixed on and will not move. I find a normal hair sometimes cuts through the meat a bit.

After the rig is finished with I keep the spirals and tie my own. That way I can make some for longer hairs for bigger baits.

[Olly]

I have found them too soft to use straight on the hook - but put in with ground halibut pellet/groundbait they make a good paste!

I don't like those wire spirals - I always wonder where or if they could or will stick into a fish! Same with the 'bait pins', by Solar now I think.

Some 'paste' hooks have a spiral on the shank which I think is much better.

[MaggotDrowner]

I have never had a problem with the spiral sticking into a fish. They aren't that sharp like hooks. I have caught probably 100 fish on them and the spiral is always hanging out of the mouth.