What is hominy: fishing technique and strategy

What is mamalyga

Mamalyga is ground corn porridge, which is distinguished by its aroma and softness and is not only a culinary dish for people, but also for fish, which also readily accept it as bait or bait.

You can catch the following types of fish using hominy:

• crucian carp;
• roach;
• bream;
• carp;
• rudd;
• chub;
• carp;
• ide.

As you can see, quite a large number of fish do not mind swallowing the hook on which the hominy will be located.

In addition, this bait has the following additional advantages that make it indispensable for fishing:

1. Hominy has a rather bright color and a persistent aroma that attracts fish from distant parts of the reservoir.
2. Mamalyga is several times cheaper than other baits, so the fisherman will not spend too much on buying it.
3. This bait has good viscosity and elasticity, so it does not dissolve in water for a long time and holds well on the hook.
4. Hominy has a porridge-like taste that is pleasant to fish, so it always readily bites on it.
5. There are more than enough hominy recipes, so a fisherman can combine them and feel free to experiment, creating his own unique bait.
6. Hominy can be used on many types of gear, which makes it a universal bait and bait.
7. It can be used in summer, autumn and spring, which is also very convenient.
8. Hominy can be easily rolled into balls and placed on a hair or hook.
9. Hominy is prepared very quickly - within 15 minutes it is ready.

Preparing porridge for spring fishing

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Cooking hominy

In order for the mamalyga to turn out correctly, you need to follow all the recommendations for its preparation and use only clean and high-quality utensils. There are a lot of recipes for making mamalyga, but here we will consider the most effective recipes, which have already been repeatedly tested in the process of fishing.

Recipe No. 1

To prepare mamalyga you will need the following ingredients and components:

• Corn flour (you can buy ready-made, or you can grind corn grits yourself).
• Wheat flour.
• Two transparent plastic bags.
• Water.
• Raspberry or strawberry extract.
• Stainless steel utensils.

1. First you need to fry the corn and wheat flour in a frying pan with sunflower oil. This will give the porridge a richer aroma and taste. The main thing is not to overdo it so that the flour does not burn.
2. There should be three times more corn flour than wheat flour, this should be taken into account when preparing. Wheat flour is needed to make the porridge more viscous.
3. After this, you need to add warm water to the flour and mix everything thoroughly. You need to add water in small increments so as not to overdo it. The resulting mass should look like a very thick cream.
4. Add raspberry or strawberry extract, distributing and mixing it throughout the mixture. If such an extract is not available, you can use honey or vanilla sugar. They will not in any way impair the attractiveness of the finished hominy for fish.
5. Then the resulting mixture must be carefully transferred into a thick plastic bag, then tie the latter well. To be safe, it is better to place it in another package, so that if the first one ruptures, there will be additional insurance. Also, it is important to know that using cloth instead of bags is highly not recommended, although some fishermen advise this. The whole point is that when cooking porridge from cloth, it can absorb foreign odors and waste its own, which will never happen in a plastic bag.
6. Place the packages of dough in a pan filled with water so that the liquid “covers” the entire package completely. This way it can cook well.
7. Cook for approximately 15-25 minutes. If the fish needs the hominy to be very hard and thick, then it should be cooked for about forty minutes, but if, on the contrary, soft hominy is required, then fifteen minutes of cooking will be enough.
8. After the required time has passed, you need to remove the hominy from the stove, leaving the packages in the same pan until it cools completely. After this, you need to leave the still packaged porridge for several hours to infuse.
9. After this, the hominy is considered ready, but it is advisable to unpack it immediately before fishing or during the fishing itself, so that the smell does not dissipate once again, and in this way the hominy will not turn sour.

You need to cut the finished hominy while fishing, into small slices, from the slices of which you need to roll small balls, which will then be put on a hook.

Recipe No. 2

We will need the following ingredients:

• Corn sticks – 15 pieces.
• Sweet shortbread cookies – 3 pieces.
• Soft white bread.
• Honey.

1. Place corn sticks in a saucepan and add hot water.
2. Crush the cookies and add them to the sticks.
3. Mix everything very well, adding pieces of bread little by little to the dough to form a homogeneous mass.
4. Add a tablespoon of honey and mix again. After this, the fish dish is ready for use. It is recommended to use it as bait in reservoirs with weak currents.

Hominy recipe No. 3

To prepare hominy you will need:

• Corn flour (1.5 kg).
• Water (1 liter).
• Sunflower oil – 2 tablespoons.

1. Pour water into a container and bring to a boil.
2. Add flour, stirring frequently with a spoon until smooth.
3. Pour in sunflower oil and mix again.
4. Cover the pan with a lid and turn off the gas. Leave to steep for ten minutes.
5. After this, the porridge should swell and you need to make pancakes from it about one centimeter thick and 7-8 cm in diameter.
6. Cook these pancakes in boiling water for 304 minutes.
7. After this, they need to be placed on a plate and allowed to cool.
8. After cooling, the pancakes should be crushed well with your hands, which must first be moistened in sunflower oil. This hominy can be used for fishing in a body of water with a weak current. In order for this bait to be used in a body of water with a large current, you need to add the following ingredients to this recipe:
   wheat flour;
9. semolina.

Hominy for carp or carp

In conclusion, we will consider the most commonly used additives for hominy when fishing for carp.

Of the main components, this is primarily vegetable oil. It can be added at the stage of kneading the dough, 1-2-3 tablespoons of unrefined oil, depending on the volume being prepared. You can also knead it together with the finished hominy while filling the spring.

You should not add grated cake or seeds to the dough. They will worsen the stickiness of such a nozzle and its color. When fishing, at the stage of creating a ball on a spring, it is better to mix hominy with grated seeds or dry bait. It’s good when the center of the ball is made of porridge and the top is covered with dry bait. After casting, separated from the porridge, its particles will additionally attract fish.

It has long been noticed that carp have a predilection for sweetish additives. You can use honey and juices of raspberries or strawberries. The smell of bananas and the smell of coffee beans may also appeal to carp in the warm season.

When fishing in the fall, as cold weather approaches, hominy loses its value for carp fishing. But even here, adding flavors such as shrimp, crab, caviar, crayfish, you can increase the attractiveness of our bait.

When fishing with a Japanese hook (with a spring), you can hide the hooks in the porridge, or you can attach a dung worm or crawler to them. This combination will not leave any carp or large crucian carp indifferent.

Features of preparing hominy for catching different types of fish

Cooking hominy for carp, carp and rudd has the following features:

1. Hominy for these types of fish is prepared according to the usual recipe, but with some additions and additions. The first is sunflower oil. It needs to be poured into the mixture when mixing flour and water. The amount of oil should not exceed two tablespoons per kilogram of corn flour. You can also lubricate casting springs with sunflower oil.
2. In hominy that will be used for catching carp and carp, you do not need to add macadamia or sunflower grains into the dough, since they will greatly worsen the elasticity of the finished bait and its color.
3. Grinded seeds and dry complementary foods can be mixed with ready-made hominy immediately before use. You can also dip hominy balls into dry bait, and then, after casting, this food will fall off and attract the attention of the fish.
4. For carp, the best option would be an additive with the sweet taste of honey, fruit, berries or vanilla. Carp also readily bite on hominy flavored with banana, coffee and strawberry. This trend especially works in the spring and summer seasons.

Recipe for making porridge for feeder fishing

1. Pour a liter of water into the pan.
2. When the water boils, add a glass of pearl barley and reduce the heat.
3. After 10 minutes, add two glasses of millet.
4. Add a packet of vanillin and a tablespoon of sunflower oil.
5. Cook over low heat until the porridge has absorbed all the water.
6. Turn off the heat and leave the porridge to cook for another 15 minutes.
7. Add a glass of barley porridge and a glass of corn porridge, stir.

We also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the recipes for bait for crucian carp.

The crumbly porridge for feeder fishing is ready. You can watch the process of making such porridge in video format in this video below.

Flavors and flavoring additives for fishing porridge:

• Vanillin.
• Anise.
• Hemp grains.
• Ground seeds (makukha).
• Sunflower oil.
• Coriander.
• Cinnamon.
• Garlic.
• Ginger.

Features of the preparation and use of hominy depending on the season and the equipment used

Depending on the season and the equipment used, various flavors can be added to the bait:

1. In the autumn, when it gets closer to cold weather, ordinary hominy becomes uninteresting for carp. To attract this fish, when cooking hominy, you need to add flavorings with the following odors:
   Shrimp.
2. Crab meat.
3. Red caviar.
4. In summer and spring, you can add the following flavors and ingredients to hominy:
   Honey.
5. Vanilla.
6. Sugar.
7. Garlic.
8. Sunflower oil.
9. Raspberry or strawberry extract.
10. Banana or berry flavor.
11. When fishing with a spring, in addition to hominy, you can use a red worm or maggot. This combination will work well when catching carp, crucian carp and carp.
12. When fishing with a regular fishing rod, the corn mixture should be baited in small portions and the bait should be changed frequently.

Flavors

There is a whole arsenal of ways by which fish bait is prepared from a corn mixture. Of course, everyone can experiment here. Don’t know how to properly prepare mamaliga for fishing? The recipe, as a rule, involves the use of flavorings, the concentration of which should not be too high.

To enhance the smell of bait, many fishermen add aromatic additives:

1. Jam. The result with the addition may exceed all your expectations, especially in hot weather. This attachment smells like cheap candies like tutti-frutti. Fish, especially carp, bite more actively on bait with such a smell and sweet taste.
2. Honey. Added to porridge when fishing in the warm season. In warm water, the smell of honey easily spreads over a long distance and attracts fish. It works especially well on carp, which readily bites on bait with a honey aroma.
3. Sugar. It also gives the bait a sweet taste and attracts fish from the carp family; it is used in warm weather. However, the fish do not bite as readily as when adding jam and honey.
4. Poppy. Adding poppy seeds to the mixture will give it a looser texture. This porridge is better suited as bait with excellent properties.
5. Vanilla. This aroma is one of the most common additives for carp fishing and one of his favorite smells. It also gives the bait a sweetish taste.
6. Garlic. It is recommended to add it in the summer. The smell of garlic actively attracts fish and stimulates them to swallow the bait.

We invite you to read: Secrets of catching bream for novice anglers - bait, baits, tackle, choosing a place

How to plant hominy

You need to put hominy on the hook tip in this way:

1. Cut the boiled bait into small slices.
2. Pinch off a small piece of porridge from a slice.
3. Roll this piece into a tight pea.
4. Thread this pea through the hook like this. So that the point of the hook peeks out a little.
5. The nozzle needs to be changed every fifteen minutes, regardless of whether it bites or not, or whether the porridge has dissolved in the pond or not. This is necessary in order to renew the smell of hominy, which over time becomes less in the water and does not attract fish.

How to properly store cooked hominy

The cooked mixture should be stored under the following conditions:

1. Packaged in a bag or other tightly closed container.
2. You can store it in the refrigerator for no more than two days, after which it is advisable to cook new hominy, since its taste and fish-attracting smell will go away.
3. During the fishing process, it is recommended to store the mixture in a jar, which will be covered with oilcloth so that the sun does not fall on it.
4. You cannot store hominy in the freezer, as the porridge will then lose its fish-attracting properties.

To add or not to add?

At the same time, some fishing experts adhere to a point of view that completely excludes the addition of odorous ingredients to hominy. They say, why do we need flavorings when corn already exudes a distinct aroma? Well, whether additives that enhance the smell are needed or not, everyone decides for themselves.

One thing to remember: you need to use only those aromatic components that are familiar to fish. As a rule, mamalyga made from corn grits for fishing contains sunflower oil, crushed sunflower seeds, honey, sugar, and fruit syrups. Representatives of the carp family usually respond well to sweets.

Finally, let's look at what ingredients should be used to enrich the porridge so that this fish reacts better to it. A win-win option is unrefined sunflower oil - 2-3 tablespoons will make the taste of hominy more rich. Carp also loves sweets, so in addition to the already mentioned honey or raspberry (strawberry) extract, you can add a little banana to the dough.

We suggest you read: How to wash bloodworms in the summer

Blitz tips

1. Properly prepared hominy should be so dense that it can be cut with a knife; if it falls apart and crumbles, it simply will not “sit” on the hook tip.
2. The porridge should not be burnt. During its preparation, the fisherman must stir the mixture and make sure that there is no burnt vent, since the fish will smell this unpleasant burnt aroma and will not peck at such bait.
3. A good hominy should have a pronounced, pleasant aroma and rich color. It is better to use hooks for hominy with number 6, since they are the ones that best hold the porridge on its tip.
4. If a fisherman plans to fish with a feeder and a bottom, then he needs to make versions of hominy of different consistency.
5. You need to cut hominy with a knife with a clean blade, which can be slightly moistened with water. So, the porridge slices turn out more even.
6. It is better to cook hominy in the evening before the day of catching, so that it is fresh and does not lose its aroma;

Cornmeal hominy recipe for fishing

In the southern regions of the Russian region, corn porridge with the interesting name mamalyga is very popular. In addition to being used for its intended purpose, it can be used to make a “catchable” bait for catching white, peaceful fish.

For the bait to be “working”, it must have a dense consistency, smell pleasant, and stay on the hook perfectly.

Hominy is caught not only with float gear, but also with feeders and donks. When fishing with English donkey, the corn mixture is both bait and complementary food.

A few words about the bait

Canned corn is simple: choose a product among dozens of “brothers” standing on store shelves, open it, and fish to your heart’s content.

But with corn bait you will have to tinker a little, however, the result can exceed all expectations.

Most fishermen cook hominy bait themselves, fortunately there are a whole bunch of recipes. You need to approach the process of preparing bait thoughtfully, having conducted a preliminary analysis of the taste preferences of the fish inhabiting a particular body of water.

The huge advantage of making this bait yourself is that the fisherman can create various flavored mixtures.

Corn grains and hominy are two completely different baits, although the original product seems to be the same.

In most cases, the grains are attached to the hook, but the hominy bait “works” perfectly both when attached to a spring, and when equipped with a hair rig, and when mounted on a hook.

In addition, dense balls made from porridge can additionally be used as bait for the fishing point.