Corn, and your experience with barbel?

[theartist]

Like it or not, corn has been around a lot longer than pellets and it'll still be being used when wev'e run out of halibut to make into effin pellets mg:.

Making Halibut pellets out of Halibut? mg:mg:

Is that what they are made from?

I rest my case

 

[thecrow]

Making Halibut pellets out of Halibut? mg:mg:

Is that what they are made from?

I rest my case

You have no worries about the harm you could be doing to fish stocks then?

 

[tigger]

Making Halibut pellets out of Halibut? mg:mg:

Is that what they are made from?

I rest my case

Of course they are, they use their eyes don't cha know LOL.

Oh, and what do cows drink pmsl .

 

[108831]

If halibuts were banned tomorrow anglers would find another bait,if pellets have caused fish deaths,then they should be banned,again where is the EA's standpoint,it's sh*te,we are reliant on these people to informed and controlled so as to do the right thing for our waterways.

 

[peterjg]

I have caught quite a few barbel on corn by accident when roach fishing. When roach fishing the tackle is much lighter than if I was deliberately fishing for barbel - what is apparent though is that barbel do not always give huge wrap around bites, sometimes their bites are very slight and are detectable with the more sensitive roach tackle - I have caught barbel using sweetcorn on light float tackle, laying-on with a 20ft rod and also light quivertipping.
With regards to previous posts on this thread - in my experience small pellets are preferred to sweetcorn, it's almost as if sweetcorn is taken out of curiosity and therefore less is better. More pellets can be fed because (I think?) they are less conspicuous and because they quickly break down.
Tigger's findings and results are interesting in as much as he catches well on trotted corn which maybe is because corn is a very visual bait for barbel to take?

 

[itsfishingnotcatching]

Anyone who fished the Wye last year may be interested to learn that Kevin, my Brother in Law, fished the same stretch two weeks ago and was advised by Mick, the bailiff, that corn had been the most productive bait on the stretch this season. He caught half a dozen barbel on it plus some decent chub. It's never been my 'go to' bait when trotting but in the light of this, and comments on this thread maybe it's time I tried it as an alternative to the maggots I normally rely on.

 

[thecrow]

If halibuts were banned tomorrow anglers would find another bait,if pellets have caused fish deaths,then they should be banned,again where is the EA's standpoint,it's sh*te,we are reliant on these people to informed and controlled so as to do the right thing for our waterways.

I think its more the oil content in the pellets that does the damage, I have only used low oil course fish pellet since reading about this on another forum (bfw) also involving GE iirc.

Unfortunately there are plenty of catch at all cost anglers that are prepared to continue using high oil pellets, the damage being done is not visible but I believe that it is there all the same.

Look at some of the photographs in the press of Barbel, some are fatter than me (that's fat ) they are not what I remember Barbel looking like years ago.

When I first fished a lightly fished stretch of a small river where lots of pellets didn't go in I was amazed that a fish that was 10/11lb in length actually weighed 8lb it was what I would call a proper shape barbel, it cant be a coincidence that all the other fish I caught were the same and that loads of high oil pellets were not being used.

I still used single/double high oil pellets as hook baits but for freebies I will never go back to high oil and would go so far as to say that any angler that ignores the information given to GE by the manufacturers are responsible in part for the decline in barbel being selfish enough to continue using them to catch at any cost, sadly that cost is to the Fish we love.

 

[Philip]

I've been stood mid river and under arming corn on barbels heads in 2 1'2ftof water and the corn literally slid down and of their bodies...the fish just ignored the corn, they didn't even feed on it. It was very frustrating to be stood a rod length away from barbel holding station in the current and they just wouldn't take my corn or maggots. I then noticed small groups of barbel moving along the bottom and hoovering up the corn as they passed by. I removed my float, added a couple of swan shot and fished corn on the deck. I actually watched the fish take the bait and the way they reacted when I struck the hook home. They all did exactly the same thing, they'd shake their heads and bolt away, often bolting straight into the stationary fish knocking them out of their spot but they just moved straight back to the same spot and completely ignored the fact that the hooked fish where going daft. I even witnessed groups of barbel (as perch often do when you hook one) all bustling around the hooked fish trying to get to the visible bait on the hook in it's mouth. Up until then i'd never witnessed any of this and it was an eye opener. This happened during very warm conditions in the height of summer in low levels and clear water.

I have also seen it when corn (& other baits) can be missed as it flows down the current but then the same bait is picked up when its static on the bottom by fish working their way up river.

Obvously I dont know for sure but I think it may be due to Barbel having naff eyesight and sometimes they just dont see it when its flowing down relativly fast past them. However when its static and they are working their way up river they detect it on the bottom with their babels and suck it up.

...Mind you, saying that rolling or moving baits obviously catch loads of Barbel as well so what do I know. I guess it depends on the situation on the day. Maybe some days the Barbel are just more tuned in to expecting moving baits coming at them whilst others they are in heads down mode and more preoccupied looking for food static in the bottom itself

 

[tigger]

I have also seen it when corn (& other baits) can be missed as it flows down the current but then the same bait is picked up when its static on the bottom by fish working their way up river.

Obvously I dont know for sure but I think it may be due to Barbel having naff eyesight and sometimes they just dont see it when its flowing down relativly fast past them. However when its static and they are working their way up river they detect it on the bottom with their babels and suck it up.

...Mind you, saying that rolling or moving baits obviously catch loads of Barbel as well so what do I know. I guess it depends on the situation on the day. Maybe some days the Barbel are just more tuned in to expecting moving baits coming at them whilst others they are in heads down mode and more preoccupied looking for food static in the bottom itself

You know what, i'm thinking of popping over to asda for some corn and maybe some luncheon meat while it's on offer, that's just for me and my dawg's though ....fekc the pellets they're last .

 

[dicky123]

Spoke to a match angler on the Trent last week while out fishing, on the Trent of course. He said the better roach are really on pellet, and good fish too up to a pound and a half was his best.
Now you'll have to fish a 4 mm bait I'd guess, but they do have a lot of advantages over say maggots or caster. I for one are going to give them a try, not the oily dark ones, but the lighter ones they use for carp. I'm told they are low oil.

Also the corn in my car will get some use I guarantee.

 

[108831]

****y,when I fished the D.Stour a few years ago the roach kept taking double 10mm boilie,not big fish,up to 12ozs or so,I had to use double 15mm ones instead to stop them,a lake I fish they target the big roach on 10mm boilies,i've caught lots of roach there on 8mm pellets,they take them instantly,so the hardness isn't an issue,we need guidance,derived from proven research,I for one have no problem not using pellets,if they are derogatory.

 

[peterjg]

A bit off of subject: I use pellets a lot on the Kennet for roach. The roach there (usually) prefer the lighter carp type pellets to sweetcorn. The 8mm pellets are best fished on an upstream leger for easier to hit bites.

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

I caught my first ever wye barbel on a hair-rigged stack of corn.

Whenever I'm using groundbait - be it on the method or open-ended on the river - for whatever species (cept perch maybe!) then I'd always feel happier having a few grains of corn in my mix.

It might not be the first thing I'd try on the hook, but it's very rare that in a session I wouldn't give it a go, and the reason for that is because it works! A bit like my favourite Man Utd player of all time (and I'm a Liverpool fan...) Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Not necessarily in the starting line up, but often the difference between a good day and a bad one...

 

[Philip]

Corn is an amazing bait and totally instant. I caught Carp on it in a River in Australia & no way had those fish ever seen Corn before yet they gobbled it down like there was no tomorrow, fish after fish while a strawberry bolie right next it sat there ignored for hours.

No idea why but I just thought of this but does any one recall the article in the anglers mail annual one year that was entitled - "maize the a-maizing bait" about a session catching Chub on it ?

 

[tigger]

Corn is an amazing bait and totally instant. I caught Carp on it in a River in Australia & no way had those fish ever seen Corn before yet they gobbled it down like there was no tomorrow, fish after fish while a strawberry bolie right next it sat there ignored for hours.

No idea why but I just thought of this but does any one recall the article in the anglers mail annual one year that was entitled - "maize the a-maizing bait" about a session catching Chub on it ?

Philip, don't ya know that apparently pellets are much better than corn, especially for barbel
Corn's way too intrusive LOL.

 

[Philip]

Sure someone must have made a corn flavoured pellet. That would be ironic wouldnt it !

 

[tigger]

Sure someone must have made a corn flavoured pellet. That would be ironic wouldnt it !

You'd best get a patent on that sharpish, then get on dragons den!

 

[sam vimes]

Sure someone must have made a corn flavoured pellet. That would be ironic wouldnt it !

I'm pretty sure that maize pellets have been done before. I seem to recall some using them in conjunction with corn steep liquor.

 

[tigger]

I'm pretty sure that maize pellets have been done before. I seem to recall some using them in conjunction with corn steep liquor.

I remember many years ago, a good m8 of mine and myself raiding a field full of sweetcorn with huge cobs of lovely yellow looking corn .
We both took them home and it was a race to get them on the boil ready for the tasting session. Anyhow I sat down to mine admiring it steaming on the plate with a large chunk of butter melting on it, but upon biting into it it was hard, tough chewy stuff and wasn't sweet at all! Shortly after my m8 phoned me up "that sweetcorns effin shyte in'it"....my mrs was laughing and said that's because it maize you fools !

I always use sweetcorn when fishing and I could understand someone saying pellets are better than maize .

 

[sam vimes]

Sweetcorn is maize. Sweetcorn is just a variety of maize that's a bit sweeter than many others when fully ripened. Most maize/corn grown in the uk doesn't get chance to ripen and sweeten, even if it's of the correct variety. As it's invariably used for fodder and biofuel, it doesn't really matter.