Maize and sweetcorn

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GloucesterOldSpot

Re: Maize and sweetcorn

Post by GloucesterOldSpot »

The happy angler wrote:ive used sweetcorn since i started fishing and have just starting ,or tring to cook Maize for hair rigs,not sure if cooking it right..im soaking it for 24 hours and then boiling for ten minutes...........any advice fellow Anglers :-)
I'd boil it longer - 30 minutes at least. Thereafter keep checking it and when the grains just start to split it's done. It's worth leaving it soaking for 48 hours before cooking as well. I add Thaumatin-B at 5ml per kilo of uncooked maize to the water in which it is both soaked and boiled, which seems to give it an extra something.

It's an excellent under-used bait which seems highly attractive to carp, tench and bream. Cheap too. Only problem for traditionalists is that it's too hard to fish straight off a hook and is best fished on a hair rig - not that you can't get it on the hook, but it tends to impede penetration on the strike.

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Mitch300
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Re: Maize and sweetcorn

Post by Mitch300 »

As I remember, there was plenty of discussion of sweetcorn kernels as a bait in the angling press in the mid 70's. There was nothing special, secretive or especially new about it. It was very easy to fire out with your catapult and convenient for pre-baiting. I only tried it a few times because maggots and breadflake were so successful in the local gravel pits. The first fish I caught, on a kernel of sweetcorn on a size 14 hook, was a 5 pound tench in 1976--a lightning fast bite that pulled the silver paper milk-bottle top up to the butt ring. I was just a teenager then---didn't belong to a specimen group or anything like that. I do remember being pleasantly surprised that it worked, but I had more confidence in maggots and, on my favourite pit, there were few little fish so you didn't need to use a bait they would leave alone. I think the real question of that era regarding sweetcorn was: would it work for carp on certain waters? Mr. Yates answered that one rather emphatically.

G. B.

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