Maize?

We all know what a superb and instant bait Maize is, but does anyone know the history of Maize as a Carp bait? Who first used it, when and where?

Thanks.

Ron was one of the first to use it. It was used by the South African anglers........

in south africa.

I did read sometime ago that on a carp water in south Africa or maybe America ? that they used to leave a big water butt by the lake filled with fermenting maize and then just throw a couple of handfulls in everytime they fished or just passed that way .
It would have been very "high " maize .

It's standard carp feed in the Czech Republic and other land-locked countries where freshwater fish are farmed for food.

Sweetcorn

noknot said:

We all know what a superb and instant bait Maize is, but does anyone know the history of Maize as a Carp bait? Who first used it, when and where?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

What about the sweet corn kid and his big 52Lber on redmire, it's just about the same stuff only you don't have all the messing about soaking it, lust open the tin.

pandafodder said:

lust open the tin.

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Please tell us more about this Lust opening tins technique

pandafodder said:

What about the sweet corn kid and his big 52Lber on redmire, it's just about the same stuff only you don't have all the messing about soaking it, lust open the tin.

Click to expand...

you can buy a sack for about the same price as a couple of tins lol!

Lust

Stealph Viper said:

Please tell us more about this Lust opening tins technique

Click to expand...

It's a bit like when i use a pixed fool or benter fin reel when i go fishing

---------- Post added at 15:30 ---------- Previous post was at 15:23 ----------

Frothey said:

you can buy a sack for about the same price as a couple of tins lol!

Click to expand...

Good point but sweetcorn tastes better when your not catching

Frothey said:

you can buy a sack for about the same price as a couple of tins lol!

Click to expand...

Do you hair rig the sacks, or fish them straight off the hook?

you don't know the sack rig? if you aren't in the know..... well, lets just say it takes balls to use it.....

And very high TC rods to punch them out at range:j

Maize sack

Frothey said:

you can buy a sack for about the same price as a couple of tins lol!

Click to expand...

Thats another good point that ray made, as i have seen quite a lot of anglers launching pounds of particle bait into ponds and lakes sometimes the amount being enough to keep a cattle farmer happy for a month ( please se "fish monument" on urban dictionary http://www.urbandictionary.com/ ) so a sack full of maize on the hair could work well, looks like my origional point's been thrown out of the window:j

Maize is still a top bait in SA, and cheap as chips.
Together with Tigers Nuts and Hemp it's almost all you need.
Caught many fish or almost all my fish and my biggest the last 10 years using these baits.

Fishmeal boilies is a major problem in the Summer Months due to big Cats that can completely kill your Carp session.

So yes Maize is still the most populer bait in South Africa, and will continue to be for a very long time.
Some of the biggest Carp currently caught in the country has fallen to Maize.

---------- Post added at 21:39 ---------- Previous post was at 20:56 ----------

Dave Lane and Paul Froward is currently fishing in SA.
Here is a pic taken yesterday.

If i get more i will post it for you guys if you want.
The biggest so far is just over 32Lb.
I can almost guarantee that maize is playing a big role in their session.
22 Carp caught so far with just 1 under 20 pounds.
They are fishing from the 2nd up to the 12th of November at this specific venue.



---------- Post added at 22:40 ---------- Previous post was at 21:39 ----------

UPDATE

Dave, Nick and Paul so far have managed to land no less than 16 x 24lbs+ carp. Only two came in under 20lbs, while most of them are in the 27-32 lbs range. Nick landed a beautiful mirror of 27 lbs and he also has the biggest fish so far, a beautiful common of 32 lbs. We have not managed to land the real big ones yet, but it is still early days.

Hi Gert,

Great stuff, say Hi to Paul for me from Kevin who worked with Ozzy in the Canterbury tackle shop. Keep catching guy's, maize is awesome!

Hi Noknot.

I am not fishing with them and are in the UK but are getting updates regarding their session.
Will post more as soon as i hear anything.

I see, wish them luck!

Hi Gert,

The use of maize (meilies) goes back a long time. As far as I know maize was being used as a bait in South Africa in the early 20th century, Carp were stocked into SA waters during the reign of Queen Victora, mainly to supply a source of food for the growing mining population.

As far as I know, maize came from America and was cultivated by the American Indians, Incas and Aztecs. Maize was probably first used for carp bait in Spain.

I started using maize for carp bait in 1968. This also included canned sweetcorn which at that time was one of the most common baits used by South African Anglers. Best Brand was KOO.

Hi Ron.

Good to hear from you again.
Yes KOO is still very populer and used widely.
Thank you for that info i don't know much about the history of maize but what i do now is as a young South African boy you grew up next to the water with Maize en yes KOO.
As you would know maize is also basically the staple food of much of the population.

Ron i do not know how much contact you still have with the country but i am sure you would be interested to know that Specimen Carp angling is really taking off there.
And Carp Care is really being made a priority although some work still need to be done.
And the guys are also having allot of good catches out there.
But i know you had a couple of BIGGIES out there aleady yourselve a long time ago.



UPDATE

36 Fish. Average 28 lbs. Biggest fish 42 lbs.








After 2,5 days of fishing we decided to move on to another, more challenging venue. We are looking for a few mirrors.

We arrived at the new venue just before sunset. The guys spent some time on the water to do a bit of feature finding and had the rods in soon afterwards. And, guess what, Paul caught the first catfish! There are snags all about and with the catfish taking the tigernuts, fishing this venue will not be the same as the other.

Paul's buzzer woke us at 05:30 this morning. He landed the first carp of this session. It was small, but we are hoping that the big ones will move in shortly.

The area we are fishing has quite a lot of snags. We are not using the boats at all, as we do not want to fish over the snags

Two hours after my last post, did Dave land the first notable fish. The guys are fishing close range at the moment (only casting distance). While I wasn't really sure that it was going to work, their strategy paid off!

When we left the other lake, we told the guys that we cannot offer any guarantees at the new one. They did not have a problem with that and they eagerly took on the challenge. Apart from that, they are also looking to land at least one African mirror each.

At about 08:30 this morning, one of Dave's rods went. It was clear that this fish wasn't going to make it easy for him as it was running towards each and every snag we have plotted out so far. Dave could feel it wasn't a small fish so he applied just the right amount of pressure to keep the fish away from the snags. After swimming a couple of circles around Nick, Nick was able to get it into the net.

After having a look at the fish, a beautiful 27 lb 2 oz. common, I saw something in Dave's eyes, which I haven't seen before on this trip. Landing this fish of only 27lb definitely was more of an achievement for him than any of the other fish we caught at the other lake. "It felt more real", Dave said.

Now that the guys know at which depth and where the fish are, I believe we will soon see some more action.


Dave
with a common of 27 lb 2 oz.

Fishing the new lake definitely is a whole new ball game. There are more snags around and we'll have to work harder for our fish. On the first day we only managed to land two fish of which Dave's 27lb 2oz common was the biggest.

Dave and Paul are still keen on getting a good sun tan. Fortunately for us it was overcast for most of the day. I believe the heat would have been unbearable otherwise.

It is now 3 o'clock in the morning. We all agreed that if the fishing is not going to pick up soon, we'll definitely rethink our strategy. Until now we have been fishing about 80-100 metres out, in front of the snags. We might have to find a way to fish over them, looking for fish a bit further out.

We have seen a couple of hippos and fortunately the snakes, mosquitos and ticks kept their distance. All in all we could not have asked for better conditions.

It is now 3 o'clock in the morning and I have noticed that the weather has cleared up. Today might be a scorcher, I'll keep you up to date as the day unfolds...


At about 6 o'clock this morning Dave found that he forgot to switch on his alarm and that he had a fish on. It wasn't a surprise to find that the fish was snagged up. After about half an hour Dave and Steve managed to free the fish.

Dave really got excited when he saw it was a mirror. Steve netted the fish and after weighing it is was returned to the water. Dave had his first African mirror weighing 22 pounds!


Dave Lane
with his first African mirror carp of 22 lbs.

Wow, some stunning looking fish there, the first picture of that large mirror looks really impressive.