Steve Ringer's favourite corn hookbaits for carp!
I use both corn and wafters for hookbaits, and will change my hook based upon which bait I’m using. When fishing corn on the hair I’ll use a size 18 Super MWG.
If I change hookbaits from corn to a yellow wafter I will switch to a size 14 QM1 hook and a 0.17mm hooklength – still 75cm long, of course.
In terms of hookbait choice, contrary to popular belief corn gives you quite a few! To simplify things, though, there are three I like to concentrate on...
1) Corn stack
This involves hair-rigging multiple grains through the narrowest part. The advantage of fishing a stack is that you are creating a big, stand-out bait and offering the carp something a little different to what they are used to.
2) Dumbell wafter
A 10mm yellow dumbell wafter resembles a grain of corn and blends in well with the loose offerings. It has two key benefits over the corn – being so light it sinks very slowly through the water, increasing the chances of a carp seeing it and following it down. Then, once on the bottom, it becomes a very light hookbait that is easily sucked up by a feeding fish.
3) Corn string
This is a real favourite of mine. The ‘string’ is a number of grains hair-rigged through the long part of the grain, and gives the fish an easy bait to spot. It gives the appearance of multiple grains lying next to each other on the bottom, and fish can pick up a lot of feed in one easy go.