Commercial Fishing Tips | Why meat is the bait at 6m - Grant Albutt

We’re just into autumn now and that means a little window of opportunity for meat to begin working on commercials. During summer, this bait takes a back seat to pellets, but when temperatures fall, there’s no better bait for carp, F1s, bream and skimmers.

Switch to meat when the temperatures fall to keep the carp coming

Whether you fish rod and line or the pole, meat works on them all, but there’s one particular part of a swim where fishing meat really gets results and that’s on the short pole line. Here are six tips on how to get the most from this deadly bait…

Hook meat correctly

Bury as much of the hook as possible, but leave a bit of hookpoint showing. My hook for meat fishing is the Drennan Wide Gape Carp in a size 14.

Bury as much of the hook in the meat as possible

Get your timing right

The final few hours are the time to fish meat short. Generally from around 1.30pm to 2pm is when I’d begin to concentrate fishing here. 

Time when you will start fishing the meat

Work the rig

Working the rig always pays off with meat. To do this, I simply lift the float 6ins out of the water and lower it back in every minute or so.

Lift and drop is a tactic that works well with meat

Cube sizes

Using a meat cutter will save you lots of time and also ensure that each cube is of a uniform size. For a mixed bag, 6mm cubes are best.

Meat cutters

When colours work

I normally use plain-coloured meat, but coloured baits can have their day. Bream and skimmers love yellow baits and red can also get results.

Coloured meat can work very well for skimmers

Find the right line

The 6m line equates to around five sections of pole, but the actual distance is dependent on the depth. I’m looking for between 4ft and 6ft of water.

Look for 4-6ft of water to fish meat in