Bait According To... Terry Hearn

The bait that changed everything for you was…
“I’m going back a long way to the late 80s and my teenage years for this one, when I’d spend many a happy day fishing the ponds at Bushy Park. I’d already caught well using peanuts on the easier of the three ponds on site—the Leg Of Mutton—but it was fishing the Heron Pond one winter which showed me just how good a bait they could be. After several short day sessions using boilies I’d managed just one run for my efforts: a common of 13lb, although believe it or not, the biggest in the pond—things were different back then! Looking back, it’s fairly typical that the one take I’d managed to get on a boilie came from what turned out to be the biggest, but that was it after that, no more action, not until one afternoon when I decided to give peanuts a try on one of my two rods. 

“Three carp came to the nuts that afternoon, and over the following weeks myself and friends totted up over 30 commons between us, the bulk of the stock, and all on peanuts fished as single hookbaits. The difference they made was so clear that I thought I’d never use another boilie again! And the funny thing is, we never fed a single nut! 

“Of course, since then I’ve learned that not all waters are the same. A bait that does the business on one lake might not be so good on another, but I’m still convinced that peanuts were once a much more effective bait than they are today. They still work well on some venues, but I suspect that the main reason for their incredible success all those years ago was their high oil content. This was well before trout pellets and fishmeals were being used in any quantity, if at all, and looking back I wonder whether we were giving the carp something that they craved—namely fats—which at the time they were getting very little of elsewhere in their diet.”

The game-changing baiting moment which altered everything for you was…
“Dad putting a 17ft cabin cruiser on the River Thames would probably have to be right up there, without which we’d have never been able to use the quantities of bait or fish the same areas. The same goes for the times I’ve been able to use a dinghy, and even the remote boat—they all make a huge difference where allowed. Outside of that, those rare occasions when I’ve figured out a secret route in my waders, maybe across a bar or along a margin, where
I’m more easily able to bait up and lower in a rig with accuracy.”

A bait-related item you would never part with…
“A catapult and baiting up pouch. I’ve never been much of a throwing stick man, but I’ve lots of catapults and always carry spares in my kit, plus extras in the car. They might not achieve the sort of range that you can get with a stick, but for the close in fishing I tend to do, they’re more accurate and something I couldn’t imagine being without. The same goes for a baiting up pouch, and whether I’m putting bait out from a standing position on the bank, from up a tree, or stood in waders out in the lake, my baiting up pouch is always at hand around my waist.”

On your wish-list for a future bait-related item…
“I’m struggling with this one, but I’m sure something will come along in the future to surprise me. Last year, in the corner of a field local to home, I came across thousands upon thousands of worm casts, a good couple of acres of them only inches apart. My wish is that they’re still there when I go out with my torch and a bucket later this autumn.”

You have an excessive collection of…
“Pop-ups, and I’m sure I’m not the only one! I went many years only ever carrying around a couple of tubs of corkball pop-ups, generally whatever fishmeals I was using at the time, and perhaps a tub of something brighter, particularly in the winter. After a quick search in my bait bag I can see that I took six different tubs of pop-ups with me on my last trip, and they’ve recently been thinned out. The funny thing is, I never used any of them, I had bottom baits on!

“I’m going to have to have a clear out of my pop-ups at some stage as it goes, my bait fridge is full of them going back several years—it’s time for a fresh start. Saying that, there’s some in there that I just couldn’t bear to throw away, no matter how old, ones that I know in the right situation are sure to do the business. Some pop-ups age like a fine wine.”

Two baits you long to use again…
“Pooley [Ian] mentioned the trout and salmon pellets of old in his interview a few months back, which I agree were a different ball game to what we get today. They were of a much better quality, dusty on the outside and sodden with high quality fish oil, especially when you got towards the bottom of a sack. Today they’re often dry, shiny and smooth textured, with a more sealed finish. Most still work well enough, but they’re not the same as the pellets of the past.

“Another that I miss from time to time are Dynamite’s Red Fish boilies. That bait was a real winner, rolled with liquidised fresh herring instead of eggs, but unfortunately, as a commercial thing, it proved too much to keep going. I can drive up to the factory and get some help rolling a small batch for my own fishing if I really, really need something a bit special, which I’ve done in the past, but last time round I came away feeling a little guilty that I’d left the product development room in a bit of a state. 

“To liquidise twenty kilos of fresh herrings, we had to put them through a couple of cheap kitchen blenders, and that’s after first chopping off all the heads and tails. Geez, what a mess—blood and guts everywhere! A couple of the lads kindly helped me out for the day, and after loading the still cooling, lovingly rolled and boiled baits into the back of my car, they left me to get on my way, insisting that they’d take care of the mess when they got back after the Bank Holiday weekend. Can you imagine what that product development room must have smelt like when they opened up the door three days later, after a stinking hot weekend with liquidised herring splattered all over the walls and work tops…!”

Your preferred baiting approach nowadays is…
“I might have already half answered this one with the catapult bit earlier, which is definitely my preferred method of baiting up for close in work. Obviously, if it’s particles and further out than I can catapult, then I turn to a small Spomb or spod. I still like the little yellow Pocket Rockets from Gardner, which I find perfect for putting out a light scattering of broken boilies, pellet, hemp, nuts, etc.

“As for how much bait I use, then obviously that varies. If it’s a new spot which I’m fishing for the first time, then I tend to start off by fishing over a light scattering, just enough for a bite. On other occasions it could well be a spot I’ve already been pre-baiting for a while, somewhere I’m well set on and more sure of. Either way, when it comes to actually fishing it’s not often that I fish over any more than a kilo of free offerings. Other times I might fish singles, it really does vary greatly.

“Another that might fit into the ‘baiting approach’ category would be raking off a spot. Obviously if I’ve gone to the effort of raking then I’m also quite likely to bait the spot once it’s ready, but even without doing so, carp find freshly disturbed ground very attractive in its own right.”

In your bait bag we will always find a good selection of…
“Pellets and particles. I’ve generally got both Complex and Marine Halibut Pellets in both 6 and 8mm, along with a little pint bait box which I use for scalding them in, just a couple of handfuls at a time. I don’t always scald them, only through the winter when it helps to ‘activate’ and soften them all the faster. Particle-wise, it’s rare for me not to have at least a little bag of tiger nuts, a tin of corn, and a tin of hemp with me, even if I’ve left one or two bits and bobs in the car as a ‘just in case’.”

Your preferred hookbait colour…
“If it’s fishmeals, then my pop-ups are likely to be of the same colour, brown, or more of a reddish-brown if it’s one with a dash of Robin Red in. I’ve also done well with the Source corkdust pop-ups which are fairly pale and more washed out in appearance. Mind you, flavour-wise, they’re anything but washed out, as I like to give them a boost with my own flavours, which means they’re generally pretty potent. Come winter, more often than not I tend to go for something a bit more visual, yellow, orange and pink all being favourites, but probably because I do more with singles through the colder months. The same goes for the Thames, where again I like a visual hookbait.”

Your preferred bait size is…
“More often than not, 15-16mm, sometimes 18mm when I’m catapulting baits further out, and also when I’m air-drying my freebies to make them last longer, especially if there’s a problem with small silver fish. I used to love using 10mm baits, but sadly, Dynamite stopped producing them in freezer form some years ago. Saying that, using the shelf-life ones doesn’t seem to have done any harm to my barbel fishing in recent years. I’d still rather have freezer baits though, if nothing else they’re softer and better textured. I’ve just asked for a batch to be rolled as it happens, more with barbel in mind, but with the freezer variety I know I’ll be much more likely to use them whilst carp fishing again, too.”

Terry Hearn’s best bait edge is…
“There’s been a few that I would have described as my best edge at the time of using, including the change from boilies to peanuts on the Heron Pond all those years ago. Casters would have to figure in the top few, but the venue and the circumstances have to be right for those to be an edge. If there’s eels, or too many small fish, then using maggots or casters is just as likely to cost you fish.

“Other baits that have made the difference over the years include various nuts, as already mentioned, along with off-the-shelf supermarket specials, such as sweetcorn and pepperami. Then there’s attractors: I’ve a fair few which I wouldn’t part with for the world, proper old faithfuls which include the Mixed Herbs flavour mentioned in my last book, along with other Hutchy wonders like the Secret Agent and Chocolate Malt, all well proven classics, but ones that are difficult to get your hands on today.”