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Maize - Is mine still any good ?

Steve Cole

Steve Cole

Senior Member
Early last year in anticipation on some fairly serious Carping sessions I prepared 20kg of Maize, bagged it, and popped it into a newly acquired second hand chest freezer. It was full to the brim.

Well to cut a long story short the Carping didn't happen so it's been sat there all year. No worries though I'll be using it this year - or so I thought.

Periodically I have had a look in and all's been well, but yesterday I discovered that sometime fairly recently, within the last few weeks I guess the bloody things packed up.

So my question is - it the stuff I'm left with of any use. It looks to all intents and purposes exactly the same as when it went in, but it doesn't smell so sweet. I'd say the smell is very much garbage bin, but not totally over powering as I did manage to keep my recently eaten lunch down.

Is this the wrong kind of smell? The wrong kind of aging ?

With no previous experience I'm on the verge of binning it, but I'm finding posts on Carping forums where SOME anglers like very well fermented particles. Mine isn't really fermented though.

Currently it's all in bait freezer 2 - as conveniently I'm all out of deadbaits.

The bin men are due tomorrow. Should I be wheeling it out for them ?

Steve
 
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hard to say without a sniff...lol
i know some i prepared some years back went a bit sour at room temperature after 3 days.
 
That's the sort of thing I would consider 'fermenting' David. I find my hemp 'turns' after a few trips out. I'd call it 'vinegary' and the fish love it. I'm thinking my maize hasn't had any heat (barely ambient temperature exposure), or oxygen (as its bagged in approx. 1kg amounts) If that makes a difference.

So it doesn't smell good like my hemp has in the past.
 
Steve Cole said:
That's the sort of thing I would consider 'fermenting' David. I find my hemp 'turns' after a few trips out. I'd call it 'vinegary' and the fish love it. I'm thinking my maize hasn't had any heat (barely ambient temperature exposure), or oxygen (as its bagged in approx. 1kg amounts) If that makes a difference.

So it doesn't smell good like my hemp has in the past.
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well, i still used mine even if it did smell rank.
 
In my opinion Steve, it should work perfectly well. We know fermented maize works superbly, so I see no reason why it being half way to that state would put the fish off.

Cheers, Dave.
 
David Gauntlett said:
In my opinion Steve, it should work perfectly well. We know fermented maize works superbly, so I see no reason why it being half way to that state would put the fish off.

Cheers, Dave.
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Rotting or Fermented ? Are they the same thing ? They don't smell the same (to me anyway)

After further internet reading (Canadian & American Carping) I've decided to start an experiment and see if I can progress to a fermentation state. It seems they really like 'aged/sour' maize across the pond, so I've a batch out the back sat in an open bucket of water. I'll let you know how things develop.

Steve
 
Farmers over here put their maize into long tubes of plastic (30 metres long by 2 metres wide) and seal the ends after harvest. Around four months later they open one end and start using it as animal feed through the winter. Because the harvest was so good last year many farmers have unused maize so they have re-sealed the tubes to use next winter. As long as air doesn't get in it will be OK, other than the bit that was exposed to air before re-sealing. Anything with mold on it gets discarded.

The fermented maize smells like vinegar, is dry and has no mold on it. As long as it is in that state it will be OK to use as bait. I've bagged some in freezer bags, sealed tight after excluding as much air as possible and put them in a dark place. They are still good to use after a couple of months so I reckon they will stay OK for a lot longer.
 
Thanks guys - the batch in the bucket of water outside is begining to smell vinegary already, so it looks like I can 'save' what I have. It may even be a blessing in disguise, and really produce the goods.

Next issue will be handling the stuff without me ending up stinking. :D

Steve
 
Steve Cole said:
Rotting or Fermented ? Are they the same thing ? They don't smell the same (to me anyway)

After further internet reading (Canadian & American Carping) I've decided to start an experiment and see if I can progress to a fermentation state. It seems they really like 'aged/sour' maize across the pond, so I've a batch out the back sat in an open bucket of water. I'll let you know how things develop.

Steve
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Geez Steve looks like you got some good 'ol Moonshine going there fella!:eek:

Stuff the carp this is really interesting :)
 
I've two bucket loads out in the garden now Neil. That's 10 days so far, and its getting quite 'ripe'. Another week will do it good, then we'll see if it works :D

Steve
 
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From memory John it was only £12 for the sack. It was just the time element in preperation that I'm trying to avoid repeating.

Anyway, everything is progressing well - although the aroma hasn't really got any stronger than a week ago.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to pre-bait so I'm going in blind this weekend :cool:
 
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