The Anglers Guide to Supermarket Bait ShoppingPart Two
Sweetcorn
With many leading supermarkets now selling there own in house brand of tinned and frozen Sweet Corn including Sainsbury, Tesco, ASDA and Morrison’s and with most brands producing a product of a similar high quality to the leading better known brands, there is absolutely no reason at all for any angler not to being able to get there hands on or regularly use this very affordable and highly productive bait. So with that in mind, please read on as the UKMA team put there heads together to give you a bit of an insight into how to get the best from undoubtedly one of the most successful baits to be found outside a your local tackle shop.
What is the top brand of Sweet Corn and why?The top selling brand of Sweet Corn in the Country and first choice for many anglers is without question the Green Giant Sweet Corn. This top quality sweet corn has developed a huge following amongst anglers based on the uniformity of size and the crisp yet tender consistency of the sweet corn that you get in the tins. I asked a few members of the UK match, carp and specialist teams, “When selecting a Sweet Corn suitable for use as a hookbait, do you have any personal preferences?". And most, but not al,l told me “We prefer to used Green Giant Sweet Corn as hookbaits, this is simply because it is ideal for hair rigging and standard straight off the hook presentations.”
Ringing the Changes with a Sweet Corn hookbaitNow you have selected your preferred brand, there are many different preparation options that can greatly improve the performance of Sweet Corn as a hookbait and in many different angling situations. By colouring the corn or adding different flavours you can create a totally different looking and smelling hookbait option that can really make a difference on rock hard days. Listed below are a few options that over the years have made a massive difference on those hard days you would normally not expect to catch on.
Flavours and Colours - On sessions where you are fishing heavily coloured waters and the wind is blowing a total gale. These conditions in particular make the visible locating and aroma recognising of your bait a near impossible task for fish. In many cases there is more chance of you seeing a flying pig than the resident fish catching a glimpse or a whiff of your bait, the only chance you will have of getting a bite in these conditions is to depend on a strong, aromatic flavour and highly visible colours to attract the fish to your bait. I have found that pre-flavouring and pre-colouring of your Sweet Corn works far better than doing it on the bank minutes before you intent to use it. By adding and freezing the flavour into your hookbaits prior to the session, this enables a maximum seepage of flavours, aromas and colour into the water, making your bait far more attractive and easier for fish to find. Over the years I found the best way to add flavour and colour to Sweet Corn and many other baits is to follow three simple but very affective steps;
UKMA can recommend the following flavours and colour combinations to enhance your Sweet Corn, over many years these flavours we have selected continuously produced fish all year round, catching everything from match to specimen sized roach, rudd, crucian carp, bream, tench, barbel, chub and carp on both still and moving waters. My first choice would have to be the incredibly pungent Squid & Octopus flavour from Solar Tackle and has been found to work really well when a fluro orange dye is added to enhance the visual presence of the bait. TOP TIP -This combination of flavour and colour has helped me to amass many big feeder caught weights in match fishing situations over the past fifteen years and works best when fishing in chocolate coloured waters after heavy rain in cool conditions. The Mulberry Florentine by Rod Hutchinson was the first flavour I fell in love with and I still use it as much today as I did when I first got introduced to it nearly 20 years ago. To increase the visual impact of your Sweet Corn when using this stunning flavour try adding a fluro white dye for best results. TOP TIP – When fishing on big commercial fisheries where white boillies are popular. Try making a fine boillie crumb and add a small amount of Mulberry Florentine. Then put the crumb into a PVA bag about the size of a 10p piece and use a single piece of white, flavoured corn on the hair. The results are impressive to say the least especially on rock hard, winter sessions, when the water is gin clear. My final flavour enhancement for Sweet Corn would have to be superb Rosehip from Mistral baits. This is something I have only been playing with for around 4 years but since I first got my hands on this potent liquid I have had some excellent sport using it. This like the previously mentioned liquids is a concentrate, so you only need a very small amount for optimum impact. TOP TIP - When used in conjunction with corn that has been dyed white and fished over the top of liquidised bread, this combo has accounted for quality river roach to 2lbs roach and my PB still water rudd of 2lbs 14oz falling to this instant all year round attractant. TOP TIP – To make the perfect corn hookbaits for pole fishing situations, ALWAYS freeze your corn before using it. This softens the corn making it perfect for burying the hook in and makes it soft enough to cleanly strike through when you get a bite.
|
If you are looking for a bait that will catch everything from match sized roach & rudd to specimen barbel, tench, bream and carp from rivers, canals, gravel pits and all types of man made commercial fisheries. Then you need look no further than these little yellow pieces of fish catching gold. For many anglers, Sweet Corn has become such an important and integral part of the angling feed and hookbait calendar, that if anglers ignore it, then they would be potentially missing out on one of the best all year round baits to come from the shelves of your local supermarket. 
