Maize Preparation

[Steve Thursby]

Hi guys, hope everyone is ok and enjoying the great weather.

i found a supplier of cheap maize to help cut costs, i need some tips and advice on preparing it and other uses etc.

Any help would be useful and i'm looking forward to a reply.

Many Thanks (Y)

 

[mol]

Soak it for at least 24 hours in salted water. I bring it to the boil, simmer for 5 minutes and then transfer everything to an air tight bucket where it finishs cooking. If you don't have an air tight bucket then simmer it for around 20 minutes or so.

I've done well fishing some of the hot maize out before it goes into an air tight bucket and adding it to mistral's rosehip isotonic dip and leaving it to soak.

 

[stu_the_blank]

Steve,

Soak for min 24hrs in enough water to cover the bait after it's soaked it up (keep an eye on it and top up if necessary), I add generous amounts of salt and sugar. Boil/simmer for 30 mins or so.

Drain off, use the liquid to mix groundbait or soak other particles, allow to cool.

Options, add CSL or sweetcorn oil after boiling.

You can then bag up and freeze or use staight away.

Very easy (and relatively wife friendly!) and a very good summer bait/loose feed.

Stu


Sorry Mol, you posted while I was typing!

 

[noknot]

After cooking, bang in a full clove of crushed Garlic!:w

 

[Steve Thursby]

thanks for your replies guys may the gods of fishing be with you

 

[sagalout]

An easy alternative is to put some in a flask and fill with boiling water. Ready in 12 hours. Make sure to leave enough room for the expansion of the maize.

 

[dezza]

Soak it overnight then simmer it until it turns soft. Then soak it for at least 10 days in a warmish place. You can add yeast, but the wild yeasts in the atmosphere will invade the maize and fermentation will take place. At this period use it on the hook hair rigged.

I warn you the aroma and fumes from the mix might send you a little ga ga. No driving after preparing this stuff.

But the fish, especially the carp will fight to get at it.

 

[noknot]

Indeed Ron, and Carp love the stuff and it is also an instant bait...

 

[dezza]

Fermented maize both whole and crushed is a well proven bait for carp in South Africa. I wrote an article in Carp World way back in 1996 about it's effectiveness and how it was prepared. A friend of mine once dumped 1/2 a ton of fermenting maize into Vaal Dam in an open weave sacks,

The spot he dumped it was one of the best big carp swims in the area for years.

Another fantastic groundbait is the black residue from the fermentation of African Sorghum beer. It don't half pong and carp as well as other fish go potty for it.

 

[the indifferent crucian]

Ron's 'recipe' is the one that Fred J Taylor used. It is important that the maize sugars ferment, says Fred.

Using salt would stop any fermentation taking place, as salt kills yeast.

I think the best thing would be to leave the boiled maize out overnight to collect wild yeasts from the descending night air, as they do in the Lembeek valley in Belgium to make Lambic beers. These aren't technically yeasts, but they are still killed by salt. My time as a brewer makes me suspect that rather than boiling you would do better to hold the maize at 68 degrees C for three hours if you can manage it, to convert and release the maximum ammount of sugar from the maize

The fumes given off are alcohol...you really don't want to breathe them in!

According the Fred this bait is quite simply amazing for carp.

 

[little oik]

My nearest brewery is over a hundred miles away but I have been thinking would old hops and barley etc be any good in groundbait,or would it be well used and no smell and goodness left by the time the brewing process has been done.

 

[dezza]

I don't think the vast majority of British carp anglers realise the potency of fermented maize as both groundbait and hookbait. I've seen SA anglers catch 50 plus big carp, eg all over 10lbs in a day. It really is that simple.

I guess the method would soon be banned if allowed on many UK commercial waters.

I have also used such techniques, but at the end of the day when you are catching lots of big fish so easily, what more have you got to prove?

---------- Post added at 02:53 ---------- Previous post was at 02:50 ----------

Fermented barley would, I think make a good additive to groundbait. Hops? I wouldn't bother. Hops are only added to beer to give it the bitter flavour.

 

[the indifferent crucian]

Hops are indeed very smelly and very bitter, I don' think they would attract owt for their food value. Though I love to sleep on a hop pillow in the Autumn when the bines have just been cut down.....

The rinsed barley grains from a 'full-mash' brew( known as 'spent goods') shouldn't really have much goodness left in them if they have been sparged properly, but they always do, and are usually sold off to pig farmers.

It would be most interesting indeed to see what carp thought of a handful.

If anyone is tempted to try some, and has to make their own you need to buy what is known as 'crushed' malt so that the outer shell is burst slightly and the hot water can get at the endosperm, and the converted sugars seep out

 

[klik2change]

Nobody has mentioned adding sugar to aid the fermentation. Is it necessary?

 

[stu_the_blank]

Thanks Ron, I'll give it a go.

I tend to do particles in bulk these days, could you freeze it once it's ready or does that take away too much of the potency?:w

 

[the indifferent crucian]

Nobody has mentioned adding sugar to aid the fermentation. Is it necessary?

It will increase the alcohol given off, and I'm not sure that is what drives the carp crazy for it....I 'think' it's the smell and taste of the maize as it starts to rot. More alcohol would actually inhibit this.

---------- Post added at 07:25 ---------- Previous post was at 07:22 ----------

Thanks Ron, I'll give it a go.

I tend to do particles in bulk these days, could you freeze it once it's ready or does that take away too much of the potency?:w

I see no reason that it wouldn't freeze successfully, though it might damage its quality as hookbait if you are having to cast a long way.


If you try it, let us know what you think. I'm determined to give it a try this year...been meaning to for ages.

 

[stu_the_blank]

It's been soaked, boiled and put in a bin. Awaiting nature to do it's bit!

Used maize as a loose feed over the weekend (my unfermented variety) got the fish nosing around in the reeds and managed three fishing close by.

I used to ferment a mixture of flaked maize, groats, seed and crushed hemp years ago, I still use it but have been sold on the attraction of salt for some years now. To be honest, I hadn't thought that the salt would stop the fermentation, it still produces bubbles and the groats and maize produce the 'gloop'. A seemingly quite basic question has produced answers that have got the little grey cells thinking again! Thanks guys, I've only been fishing for 50 yrs!
TIC, if Ron’s timescales are correct, I should be trying out the fermented variety next week sometime. I will let you know the results!

 

[stu_the_blank]

Just started to bubble a bit. I reckon at least another week to go.

By the way, it's RAINING!

Stu

 

[little oik]

I have just got hold of a bulk bag of wheat .I have put some of it in soak and will see how long it takes .They were also selling bags of oats as well but gave it a miss this time until I got some more room in the boot of the car .They both look like good source birdfood as well .Would there be a problem using it as that .Normal birdseed sells about 3 yo yos a kilo .This stuff works out about 40 cents a kilo I know its not a mix but will it do do you think.

 

[stu_the_blank]

TIC, if Ron’s timescales are correct, I should be trying out the fermented variety next week sometime. I will let you know the results!

TIC, haven’t forgotten, it’s just that during the week after my post the hot dry weather produced a huge Diatom bloom at the lake which resulted in 6 Carp and a few Tench dying. As I’ve looked after and nurtured this water for 19 years now it hit me pretty hard. A few weeks, cooler weather, half a ton of limestone and a bit of rain later the water has cleared, the bottom has lost its slime, the zooplankton and snails are on the march and the fish have finished spawning (that could be the subject of another thread this year!). The whole place has stopped feeling ‘sick’.

Had a couple on Thursday evening and am now going to give the ‘Ron the Hat’ maize a proper go (it’s been sitting in the freezer). Will let you know how it goes!

Stu