Sweetcorn
This is a bait that will catch almost all fish, it is much loved by carp and tench and bream, but it will also sort out the larger roach. I have always used "Jolly Green Giant", straight from the tin, with any liquid being added to the ground bait. I am sure that any brand of sweetcorn is just as capable of catching as "The Giant". It is now possible to purchase sweet corn in a variety of flavour's and colour's. Which neatly brings me onto a point that confuses me somewhat. If we use, in this case sweetcorn, then why. Is it because the fish like the colour of the corn, or is it because they like the taste of it, or do they like the smell of it, or could it simply be that it is food, in a convenient size. If any of these is true, then why are we flavouring or colouring it. If they like the taste, then why flavour it strawberry, as this then masks its original taste. If they like the colour which is a bright golden yellow, then why would we colour it red. There seems to be some illogical reasoning in all of this, and the same argument can be applied to any bait that we colour or flavour. If we use luncheon meat, and then flavour it with something like curry powder, then why use luncheon meat. Is it just as a carrier for the new flavour, and could we not tempt a fish just as easily with a piece of rig foam that has been prepared with curry powder. Just a thought, but it is one that continually comes back to me. Perhaps in time, I will try to use foam of one sort or another, to carry flavour's and colourings and see how they perform against more conventional baits. If you purchase some sweetcorn from the supermarket, and then compare its price with the special offerings that you can find in a tackle shop, you will see a great difference in price, and this is because you are being told that coloured and flavoured corn is better than the original product. Is this true, or just another way that the cute manufacturers have found to take some more money from you. As you would have gathered I am a believer in the more basic approach to angling, and I try to resist all of the hype. BUT at the end of the day, it will be how many fish you can put into your landing net, compared to other anglers fishing the same water at the same time that will be the deciding factor. I will need to find someone to fish with on a more regular basis before I can make any sort of comparisons. Sweetcorn makes a good addition to your ground bait, and it seems sensible that if you are going to use sweetcorn on the hook or hair, then why not add it to the ground bait. Take a tin of sweetcorn, and put it in a food mixer and give it a twirl. Add the mush to some brown crumb until you have the correct consistency to either make small balls and throw to your hook bait, or do as I do, and ball it round a blockend feeder that is full of maggots. The wriggling maggots as they try to escape from the blockend will help break down the groundbait around the feeder. You will then be left with a pile of groundbait and those wriggling maggots.
