My First Attempt at Flavouring Luncheon Meat

[Mole-Patrol]

On another forum there was a thread about baits and one member mentioned that he worked in a restaurant and regularly discarded chorizo oil, that is the oil left behind when chorizo is fried. That was a light bulb moment to me

Chorizo is favoured with smoked paprika. Smoked paprika is the key ingredient of Robin Red and is what I used to flavour luncheon meat. Normally the method is to cube the meat, put it in a plastic bag, add smoked paprika and shake it all about to distribute the paprika all over the meat. This is very successful for barbel and carp, but the paprika has the disadvantage of washing off the bait over time. Now, when I make a paprika flavoured chick pea dish for lunch I melt chorizo in a pan and then baste the chick peas in the oil. Same with a paella; melt the chorizo and use it to flavour chicken thighs. Why can't I do that with the luncheon meat? Well, I can - and have! And it works much better than adding powdered paprika.

The marinading as OMR has discovered makes for a bait that remains flavoured for longer. And chorizo is as good as anything to marinade it in.

[Pallenpool]

Chorizo Oil is an excellent additive - but any oil or juices from meat is a good addition - bacon is another - just the everyday bacon. In short when flavouring try anything that takes your fancy - peanut oils also are good, I have had success using gently fried caraway seed dried and powdered- I think the options are limitless.

[Olly]

Sometimes it is how the flavour is applied to the bait that can make a difference - an overpowering smell or very subtle.

As fish have a very good sense of smell it can easily be overdone. That's why some boilies used by anglers are old.

[Mole-Patrol]

I think the reason carp anglers use washed out boilies is to catch carp that have become wary of newly introduced bait on heavily fished waters. Fish will readily take strongly flavoured or scented baits as has been demonstrated time and time again. Some anglers I knew back in the 70's used Gorgonzola cheese that was so ripe it made me gip. But the regularly caught good sized barbel on it. Others have caught on things like raw salami. There was an experiment carried out with pollack in an aquarium where they tainted the pollack's favourite food with all sorts of noxious products including creosote. It didn't put the pollack off.

Scent and taste which may be the same thing in water isn't very well understood. Rod Hutchinson was aware of the difference and incorporated scents into his baits that worked in the aquatic environment. He said that many strongly scented products that anglers used in their baits didn't work very well in water.

My experience with police dogs showed that dogs could detect the minutest traces of scent. We used to dilute scent almost to pure water and they still could detect it. Once I helped set up a fake murder scene in an old manor house near Rotherham. A spot of blood placed under a carpet tile. Another spot of blood diluted in water and carefully poured down a sink's plug hole. All sorts of minute pieces of evidence were hidden in the rambling manor, its cellar and grounds. Everything was left for six weeks. When the dogs were searching they each found every 'hide' as we called them and also indicated the sink where we had washed out a mop and bucket after cleaning up a blood spill hide with bleach.

But in a river or lake environment the level of dilution would effectively be much, much greater and so I make my groundbait and loose feed a lot more strongly scented than the hook baits, and in rivers make a wide strip of bait across the river to allow a broader band of scent to drift downstream. Adding layer's pellets and fatty baits like luncheon meat also helps as they release buoyant scent that adds a third dimension to your baited area.

[Homer Simpson]

Just watched the YouTube mentioned here
https://traditionalfisherman.com/viewto ... 62&t=35494

So had a read of this thread.

I have never bothered flavouring baits but might have a go.
I wonder how much is down to confidence of what’s on the hook and persevering?

Other than worms, paste, and maggots, I use a baiting needle for everything even sweet corn.