The Coach
Zac Brown’s meat tips
THE beauty of a tin of supermarket luncheon meat is its versatility.
A single tin enables you to feed and fish a huge variety of presentations, and yet it is a bait that many anglers shy away from in the colder months.
One man who fishes meat all year round – with lots of success – is Preston Innovations’ Zac Brown.
“You can use it just as effectively on the bomb, pole, feeder or waggler, but in the winter I usually opt for a straightforward approach of meat with a free-running bomb set-up,” says Zac.
“Hookbait will be either a simple meat cube, a torn-off larger piece, or a piece created by a meat punch – all can work on their day.
“Then there’s colouring, flavouring or ‘twice-cutting’, where the cubes are run through the cutter twice to produce meat of uneven sizes.
“Another reason meat takes pride of place on my side tray is that it will enable me to catch almost every species found in commercials. Carp, F1s, bream, skimmers, tench, stillwater chub, barbel and even roach all love it.”
FISHING WITH MEAT
In winter, the apparent disadvantages of meat need to be overcome because it is high in protein, which makes it filling, and it is very fatty into the bargain.
Zac has no problem with the fact that it is more filling than maggots or casters – he simply feeds less.
And to reduce the fat content, he always stores his meat in water while he fishes to wash much of the fat off as well as preventing it from drying out.
“Keeping the cubes in water helps stop them sticking together,” explained Zac.
“This means it catapults more accurately, rather than a ball of several cubes breaking up in flight and spreading much wider than you want. It is not how you feed the meat as much as how you regulate it that counts.
“In winter this will be just three 8mm cubes of Lidl’s Chopped Ham and Pork every two minutes.”