The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I first started using sweetcorn in about 1976 for tench and bream, well before I read about Chris Yates exploits. But the lake I fished only had a handfull of carp in, compared to tench etc, but the first carp I ever hooked was on sweetcorn, again prior to reading about it as a carp bait.

ps. did I tell you about the Thames sea trout I caught on sweetcorn, I am holding it in my avatar!!!

I remember using sweetcorn in the early 70’s, I also seem to remember Ron writing an article on the ‘big hook’ technique of hooking sweetcorn (he’s probably too modest to say so himself )in the early 70’s
Jerry

I don’t think Chris was credited with Pioneering the use of Corn or at least the way I have always seen/read it is that he just made it more popular than it already was.

I've heard it claimed that CY was the first angler to try sweetcorn at Redmire (June 1972), but without any implication that it was a novel bait elsewhere.

davyr wrote:I've heard it claimed that CY was the first angler to try sweetcorn at Redmire (June 1972), but without any implication that it was a novel bait elsewhere.

I would add to that, that it was tinned sweetcorn to avoid confusion - as anglers in the 50's/60's may possibly have tried maize in its pre-tnned sweetcorn form at Redmire.
I think that therefore Chris Yates was possibly one of the early ( but not first) anglers to seriously try for very large carp on a difficult water with tinned sweetcorn.

Julian wrote:

davyr wrote:I've heard it claimed that CY was the first angler to try sweetcorn at Redmire (June 1972), but without any implication that it was a novel bait elsewhere.

I would add to that, that it was tinned sweetcorn to avoid confusion - as anglers in the 50's/60's may possibly have tried maize in its pre-tnned sweetcorn form at Redmire.
I think that therefore Chris Yates was possibly one of the early ( but not first) anglers to seriously try for very large carp on a difficult water with tinned sweetcorn.

As far as I know, canned sweetcorn has been available since before WW2. In South Africa the most popular is Koo Whole Kernel Corn. In the USA it was most likely Green Giant Niblets which many of us use today.

Personally I think the stuff is horribly expensive in the UK. I used to get a 20 kg bag of maize for less than a quid. In fact I bought such a sack for R9-50 earlier this year when I was in SA.

Here is a tip for all of you. Flavour your corn with a few drops of Goo, marketed by Korda. It consists of wholesome harmless ingredients and although I think it's horribly expensive, it does give you an edge against shy carp that have seen the lot.

Best stock up on the yellow nuggets as prices may rise due to the drought in America

I had a bizarre experience last night. I bought a bag of frozen sweetcorn and defrosted it took it to the pool and threw some in as freebies - they all floated!

Frozen sweetcorn has done that to me in the past, hence I only use tinned stuff now.

Could be a new edge when floater fishing though........

Cue the pellet pump/wine saver?