Steve Ringer on fishing with sweetcorn skins

By Angling Times

22 February 2010 12:19

Imagine a bait which stood out more than any other, fluttered enticingly as it fell slowly through the water, and was loved by every fish in the lake.

Now that would be something, wouldn’t it? Well, it’s a bait that most anglers have on their bait tray every weekend during the summer, but often leave it at home when the icy weather arrives.

What I’m talking about is corn, or more precisely, corn skins – what’s left of the grain when you squeeze out the inards.

These sweetcorn baits have added a new dimension to my winter fishing over the past few weeks and have given me an edge on matches where I’ve been struggling to get a run of bites.

It was during a practice session for a match a couple of weeks ago that I really started using them properly. I was catching a few big F1’s fishing down the track on a snake lake, however although I was catching I felt I wasn’t getting the most out of the peg.

I tried a few different hook baits without any success when I remembered a conversation I had with Alan Scotthorne around this time last year, when he had mentioned fishing with just the skin of the sweetcorn.

At the time I had thought that would work on the venues I fish such as Makin’s but like many things I never got round to trying it before all of a sudden winter was over.

This seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a try however.

So with all of this in mind I hooked on a corn skin and shipped back out. The float settled and buried instantly. In fact the bite was far more positive than any bites I’d had previously.

Was it a fluke though I asked myself? Well the answer was no as all of a sudden it was a bite every drop in and I even managed a couple of decent carp in amongst the big F1’s.

I’ve used them a couple more times, including last weekend where I fished them on an open water swim on a waggler, and I reckon that for the next few months at least they’ll be a major part of my armoury for both pole and waggler fishing.

STEVE'S GUIDE TO CORN IN WINTER

How to make a corn skin

Making a corn skin couldn’t be any easier. Step 1 is to select a grain of sweetcorn, and I always like to go for a largish sized grain.

Step 2 is to put the grain of corn between forefinger and thumb and gently squeeze. As you squeeze you should find that the insides of the grain of corn will be forced out, leaving you with a fairly flat in shape translucent, grain of corn, hence the name ‘corn skin’.

Step 3 is to hook the corn skin. Ideally I like to use a small hook for this and depending on the size of fish being targeted either a size 18 Tubertini 808 or Drennan Silverfish Pellet hook are ideal.

Hooking the corn skin itself couldn’t be any simpler. The way I go about it is as follows. Slide the hook into the blunt end of the corn skin, and then pull the hook up so the point just emerges through the side of the grain of the corn.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Easy to spot

Personally I think the answer to this question is down to the fact that being so lightweight corn skins fall much slower through the water than a conventional grain of corn.

Not only does a corn skin fall slower however but it also sort of flutters from side to side as it does so. It’s a combination of the slow fall and the fluttering motion that makes the corn skin such a deadly bait at this time of year.

Because a corn skin falls slower it is therefore in the fishes window of vision for longer and I think 90 per cent of the fish I have caught on corn skins are as a result of the fish spotting the corn skin falling through the water and then following it down.

A top tip when fishing corn skins on the waggler is to keep working the float.

This will cause the corn skin to rise and fall enticingly in the water and it’s this bit of extra movement that often proves irresistible to even the most reluctant feeders.
The other plus point as far as I am concerned as regards corn skins is the fact that a skin is very light and can be easily be sucked up by a feeding fish.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Feeding on snake lakes

Feeding at this time of year is always a difficult subject and with sweetcorn it’s no different. Get it right and you’ll have a good day, get it wrong however and you could well blank. With this in mind I always like to err on the side of caution.

If for instance I am on a snake type lake I will kick off by searching the swim with just a corn skin on the hook.

Once this has been done I will then look at picking an area of the swim and feeding just two or three grains of corn.

This might seem like a ridiculously small amount of bait but believe me at this time of year when the fish aren’t really hungry 2 or 3 grains is plenty and even once these grains are gone the fish are likely to stay in the area.

Interestingly, it’s very rare to get bites over feed straight away and in a match situation I would expect to wait as long as three hours before getting a bite on this line.

So just because after an hour you haven’t had a bite over this initial feed I wouldn’t assume it has been eaten and automatically refeed as this can kill your swim.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Feeding in open water

In an open water swim I always feel the fish are harder to pin down with a single hook bait on the pole, so for this reason I always feed when faced with open water.

Amount wise 6-8 grains of sweet corn is plenty, and I would probably add a pinch of casters or even a few maggots to this.

When fishing with a corn skin a better way of searching the swim when faced with no obvious features is the waggler.

When fishing the waggler in open water I always like to spend the first 30mins casting about to different areas of the swim with a corn skin on the hook.

This way I can cover a lot of water and hopefully pinpoint any small groups of fish that may be sitting in the swim.

If this fails then I will look to feed just two grains of corn via the catapult to try and spur a fish into feeding.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Colour is key

So which of these baits stands out the most! As far as I’m concerned the main reason corn is such a prolific bait at this time of year is purely down to its colour.

In simple terms I regard corn as being purely a visibility bait, something which is backed up by the fact that in coloured water I have never really been able to make corn work on a consistent basis. In clear water it’s unbeatable, but you need to switch baits in darker coloured water and rely on smell instead.

This was really shown to be true before Christmas on a league match I fished at Makin’s. I drew Crater pool and the week previous the water had been extremely clear and all the fish had been caught on corn.

This particular week however the water was highly coloured. As a result of this pellet which has a much stronger smell and attraction was the number one bait.

If you compare it to other baits such as pellets, maggots, luncheon meat etc sweet corn stands out better than any of them in clear water.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Full grain hookbaits

Other than skins there are two other hookbaits I use when fishing with sweetcorn. The first is the traditional single grain of corn. This is a bait that will always catch fish although because it’s such a commonly used bait I have found that in the last year or so carp seem to have wised up to the single grain approach somewhat.

Because of this when fishing a single grain of corn I now fish a small hook, i.e. a size 18 or even a 20 and I also always bury the hook in the grain of corn so it can’t be seen at all.

If I’m on the pole or waggler I always hook the grain by burying the hook. For the straight lead or when using it inconjuction with a PVA bag then I’ll always hair rig the bait lengthways with the round end of the grain sitting on the bait stop. This way the bait sits flat on the bottom and you get the maximum exposure of the yellow colour.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Double grains

A lot of anglers seem to have the attitude that when it’s hard smaller baits are the way to go whereas I have always found the opposite in that when I’m fishing for one bite a big bait is more often than not better.

Two grains seems to get me bites on even the hardest of days. I think the reason for this is twofold. Firstly two grains are more visible than one so the bait stands out far better than a single grain does. Secondly not many anglers seem to fish with two grains of corn, particularly when it’s hard.

Because of this carp seem to treat two grains of corn will less suspicion and I have lost count of the amount of times I have been struggling for a bite on a single grain, put two grains on and the float has buried immediately.

Again, on the pole or float I’ll hook as normal, while I’ll always hair rig on the straight lead.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Grain size?

Contrary to popular belief grain size can make the difference between getting bites and not when using sweetcorn.

As a general rule I have always found the bigger the grain the better when it comes to getting bites but I remember one particular day when at Makin’s I was getting a lot of funny bites from small newly stocked carp a few years back.

I was connecting with a few but missing the majority. When purely by chance I picked a tiny grain of corn out, I was going to disregard it but thought why not give it a try. First drop the float buried and from then on I never looked back.

Just to make sure I reverted back to a large grain of corn, three missed bites later and I was convinced.

So next time you are missing bites or getting indications try varying the size of the grain of corn you are putting on the hook. You might be surprised at the difference it makes.