There are a lot of things that will repel and spook fish. Knowing what they are is important, just as important than what attracts them imho. This is especially true when using an 'attractive' hook bait amongst 'something' contained within a ground bait or method mix that can potentially repels/spooks them. Far safer to make up your own feed and test to see if you can catch fish on each individual ingredient before combining.
Also worth considering are the metals used, hooks, leads, swivels and clips. Okay on their own but dissimilar metals in close proximity will spook fish if not masked.
I have two favoured groundbaits I use. My Two Dog for carp and F1s and my Surf 'n' Turf for bream and tench. I am suer that Two Dog puts off bream and tench and Surf 'n' Turf will deter carp. I was in a match at Beaver a month or so ago and I was using my Two Dog. By mistake I over-wet it and did not have any more with me, having picked up a spare bag of Surf 'n' Turf by mistake. Deciding that all this talk of one groundbait being better than the other was just that, I mixed the two together, riddled it a couple of times to get to the consistency I wanted and proceeded to fish.
In six hours I did something I did not think was possible on Jeff's Lake - I blanked. Not even a line bite. Nothing. I am now sure the combination of the two groundbaits put all the fish off. Suggesting that my theory that the groundbait selectively repels rather than attracts may have some merit.
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If sweet corn is BBQed it's lovely. Apart from that it's useless.
Not a fan then?
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Thanks for that, fishplate. I think you've set the benchmark for consumer bait reports. I've been using corn more than ever lately, and I was pleasantly surprised when I opened a tin of Batchelors Sweetcorn (3 x 198g tins @ £1 in BM stores) and found the quality - size, firmness etc - as high as in those expensive marketed-to-anglers brands you find in tackle shops. These small tins have ring-pulls, which saves opening tins you might not use or carrying a tin-opener.
I found that some of the cheaper brands can vary quite a bit from one tin to another, and I hat to say it because I was convinced it was a con, all the Green Giant tins I opened all seemed to be consistent.
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Has anyone tried some of the other tinned corn in the Green Giant range, such as Super Sweet White Corn, Mexicorn or Cream Style Sweet Corn?
I cannot say I've seen any of them on the supermarket shelves, so maybe only sold I Europe, or online.....?
The all sound interesting.
I did not include anything but the 'standard' sweetcorn in my tests as it was getting far too complicated as it was. I could have found twice as many own-brands out there but it would have got silly (okay, sillier!). I did notice all the tins of added stuff and I suspect they might be worth a try, but you could just make your own mix...
...I did not look at the tackle shop stuff as that is a totally different ball-game.
Ralph.