Chris Yates - sweetcorn pioneer

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Gary Bills
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Chris Yates - sweetcorn pioneer

Post by Gary Bills »

I've spotted something rather interesting in Rod Hutchinson's book, Carp Now And Then: and it explains, I think, exactly why Yates decided to use half his tin of sweetcorn as bait at Redmire. One little line, I believe, slightly alters angling history as it is commonly perceived.
We all know the story, don't we? - how Yates, making himself a meal at Redmire, decided to give the golden grains a try and how he landed a eleven pounder shortly afterwards: the first Redmire carp on sweetcorn. The incident is always presented, almost, as a happy accident: but it wasn't. In fact, both Hutchinson and Yates were both experimenting with particles before they joined the Redmire syndicate, and Yates had tried sweetcorn one year before...in short, the idea of using corn was not a sudden brain wave he had on the banks of Redmire.
How can I be so certain?
Well, Yates write a letter to Hutchinson, shortly after Yates caught the Bishop, and Hutchinson printed the letter entire in Carp Now And Then.
Yates wrote to Hutchinson, specifically about their days before Redmire: "You'd fiddled about with small baits in the years previous, you'd hooked and lost a big carp using hemp-seed. I'd used sweetcorn the previous season but lost confidence in it..."
Obviously, Yates regained his confidence in corn, and the rest, as they say, is history...

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Kingfisher
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Re: Chris Yates - sweetcorn pioneer

Post by Kingfisher »

I read the same thing Garry and thought exactly the same as you.

We have a lot to thank Chris Yates for through reading his books or watching his series we've discovered a lot.

God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.

Izaak Walton

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Santiago
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Re: Chris Yates - sweetcorn pioneer

Post by Santiago »

Exactly what year are they referring to? In The Fisherman's Handbook, published by Marshall Cavendish in 1978, there is an artical about sweetcorn by Frank Guttfield, and he wrote that sweetcorn was relatively new (in the UK) and has had a great impact on the recent big fish scene, and that carp specialists fish started experimenting with sweetcorn in the early seventies. I certainly remember using sweetcorn from 1976 onwards.

Could it be that CY was late to the table, so to speak? I doubt very much he pioneered it's use in the UK though.
Last edited by Santiago on Sat Jan 28, 2017 6:50 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Mike Wilson
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Re: Chris Yates - sweetcorn pioneer

Post by Mike Wilson »

The use of [niblets] sweet corn was not however new. It was being used on the Charles River in the USA in June 1939. The use with what we now would call a baiting up spod was later published in the Fishing Gazette on March 30th 1946. The story is published in a book "Fishing In New England" by Leslie P. Thompson printed for the USA and Canada by the Chiswick Press 1955

Mike

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Bobby Marlene
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Re: Chris Yates - sweetcorn pioneer

Post by Bobby Marlene »

Some interesting thoughts about the first use of sweet corn in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=87&t=2072

Best, Bobby

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Santiago
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Re: Chris Yates - sweetcorn pioneer

Post by Santiago »

As one might guess, I didn't actually start that other thread on corn, as interesting as it is!
"....he felt the gentle touch on the line and he was happy"

Hemingway

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Nobby
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Re: Chris Yates - sweetcorn pioneer

Post by Nobby »

Santiago wrote: Sat Jan 28, 2017 5:58 pm Exactly what year are they referring to? In The Fisherman's Handbook, published by Marshall Cavendish in 1978, there is an artical about sweetcorn by Frank Guttfield, and he wrote that sweetcorn was relatively new (in the UK) and has had a great impact on the recent big fish scene, and that carp specialists fish started experimenting with sweetcorn in the early seventies. I certainly remember using sweetcorn from 1976 onwards.

Could it be that CY was late to the table, so to speak? I doubt very much he pioneered it's use in the UK though.


Frank Guttfield might think that sweetcorn was relatively new in 1978, but I remember eating it many years before that....around 1965 I think. Since maize was being fermented by Fred J Taylor to attract fish, surely someone tried sweetcorn on the hook before 1978?


Here we go....1960:

http://www.greengiant.eu/en/story


I had no idea it was French!

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Gary Bills
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Re: Chris Yates - sweetcorn pioneer

Post by Gary Bills »

It's true Fred J was using maize - and forms of the hair rig actually, in the late Sixties (good article about this in, "Carp Inspirations"). I think the interesting thing about the Yates letter is that it shows how, before Yates and Hutchinson actually met at Redmire, they were both firmly on the particle trail, so to speak. Who knows, perhaps it was Fred J's writings about maize in the angling press that made Yates think of sweetcorn? Certainly, it was Hilton's interest in maize which led to the famous "Knight of the Beer Barrels". Chris Ball has written most informatively on this subject in the Paisley-edited book, "Memories of Carp". Chris wondered how, in 1972, Yates and Hutchinson, in one camp, and John McLeod and Bill Walkden in another camp - on different rotas at Redmire and without informing each other -independently started using sweetcorn. Chris quotes a letter sent from Hilton to Paisley, in which Hilton states that he told McLeod and Walkden, who were struggling at the time, that he was thinking about using maize.
Chris writes: "Jack makes it clear in his letter that what he was actually recommending was maize, which John and Bill translated into the 'corn' that was available in the shops...." This decision led, of course, to the amazing "Night for the Beer Barrels" catch for John and Bill.
So - to recap: it seems (1) as if Yates was using sweetcorn as early as 1971, and that he may have decided to use it because of Fred J's writings about maize..although only Yates can let us know the hows and whys of trying corn in 1971... and (2) Bill and John used corn at Redmire because the syndicate leader, Jack Hilton, had recommended using maize....

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Re: Chris Yates - sweetcorn pioneer

Post by JPC »

When I fished at Redmire with Chris I did ask him how the sweetcorn thing came about and it was much as has been relayed. He took several cans of the stuff to eat with his meals and then decided to fish a rod with a few grains on the hook, that week he caught several small carp and a twenty one pounder.
I also asked him about the seemingly amazing coincidence that the following week John and Bill had their incredible catch also on sweetcorn. I thought that perhaps Chris had dropped a few grains here and there and either Bill or John spotted them and maybe put two and two together. What Chris told me was that as he was driving out of the estate at the end of his visit John McLeod came driving in, they stopped for a chat and Chris showed John a can of the Green Giants and told him that was what he had his catch on. From memory I think Chris said that at the time John and Bill were still using maggots and Chris assumed that they went into Ross and bought several cans sometime during their stay, Bill's 36 being caught on maggots, the Beer Barrels being caught on sweetcorn !

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Shaun Harrison
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Re: Chris Yates - sweetcorn pioneer

Post by Shaun Harrison »

Image
When Bill told me the story he said he had joined John for a session and John had already caught a fish on the corn before Bill arrived. 'The night of the Beer Barrels' they ended up sharing what was left of that one small can of corn.
The photograph JPC was about an hour after he had beaten his long standing PB of 36 that you mentioned. The face says it all.
One of my proudest moments was helping him beat that long standing PB.
Image

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