Tee-Cee
Senior Member
In reading the 1984 book 'Redmire Pool' by Kevin Clifford & Len Arbery some effort is made to establish when sweetcorn was first used at Redmire and it would seem June 1972 is, moreorless, the agreed date.
However it goes on to say it is probably true that several other anglers were independently developing the use of sweetcorn at the same time.Apparently the first time it was mentioned in print was in the Angling Telegraph (January 1972). Ron Clay, an exiled Englishman living in South africa wrote an article about the methods use to catch carp in SA.He wrote "Most of the bigger carp are taken on grains of sweetcorn, about three on a no 4 hook"
.....so is this the first time it was used/mentioned or does someone else have other ideas...?
In the early 70's I also lived in SA and fished for carp (occasionally) on the mighty Vaal Dam where a family member had a huge sweetcorn farm.His children introduced me to a paste made from sweetcorn (mealiepap?) with some form of curry powder added(?) and this was thought to be 'lekker' for the carp.I never caught anything big but it did catch!
Strangely, they never used the kernels on the hook,or at least not when I was around and it never occured to me at that time.Some years later I returned to the UK when the yellow peril rage was in full swing!!
However it goes on to say it is probably true that several other anglers were independently developing the use of sweetcorn at the same time.Apparently the first time it was mentioned in print was in the Angling Telegraph (January 1972). Ron Clay, an exiled Englishman living in South africa wrote an article about the methods use to catch carp in SA.He wrote "Most of the bigger carp are taken on grains of sweetcorn, about three on a no 4 hook"
.....so is this the first time it was used/mentioned or does someone else have other ideas...?
In the early 70's I also lived in SA and fished for carp (occasionally) on the mighty Vaal Dam where a family member had a huge sweetcorn farm.His children introduced me to a paste made from sweetcorn (mealiepap?) with some form of curry powder added(?) and this was thought to be 'lekker' for the carp.I never caught anything big but it did catch!
Strangely, they never used the kernels on the hook,or at least not when I was around and it never occured to me at that time.Some years later I returned to the UK when the yellow peril rage was in full swing!!