How Terry Hearn catches big carp

"Crikey, to be fair, in some cases my approach hasn’t changed at all and in other cases it has… that varies between the different waters fished I guess. I think you just get a feel for where you should be fishing in order to put yourself in with the best chance of catching the big one, and that’s something that can only get better with time.

“Rigs-wise things haven’t changed a great deal in a long while now. My first big carp on the Hinged Stiff Link was Yateley’s Heather back in 95 and so not a lot has changed in that department. Saying that, around 98/99, while Adam Penning was working at ESP, I was able to help design and then test out one or two new products, like the Stiff Rigger hooks and the Bristle Filament, which undoubtedly improved the Hinge Rig’s efficiency. These changes definitely helped my fishing.

“Also, with my bottom bait presentation I started trapping the Hair at the bend and using the weight of the bait to help turn the hook. I think all of these little tweaks helped to put more fish on the bank and so I guess that these have all been big improvements.

“As the years have gone by I’ve often looked back to the early Hinge Rig years and I now realise just how much of an edge it was. Nowadays both Hinge and Chod Rigs are used much more and so I don’t think they are the edge that they once were, not unless you’re lucky enough to be fishing somewhere that they’ve not been used. Even so, when it comes to fishing pop-ups I honestly think that those presentations are already about as good as it’s going to get and so I carry on using them where possible.

“As far as the big carp fishing goes, the longer you do it, the more of a feel you get for it. It’s a bit like Leon’s question two months ago when he was talking about the sixth sense thing. You just get a feel for it and the more in-tune that you are with your water the stronger and more frequent those feelings become.

“I’ve already used an example from Pit 4 two months previous, but I’ll go over it again to try and illustrate what I’m talking about. There was one particular corner of the lake that wasn’t being fished much. Early on in the spring it was very rare to see large groups of carp in this corner, but when I did see carp there they were quite often the bigger ones. I remember climbing one of the trees and seeing the same big common in there on a couple of occasions and so naturally I soon got a feeling that this was a good area to concentrate on if I wanted to get amongst the big ones. The thing is, Pit 4 hasn’t been about that to me, it’s been more about dropping in for a quick night or a short day trip here and there and then setting up on the bulk of the fish in the hope of getting a bite or two.

“Still, once a big carp angler always a big carp angler, and back in the spring I often looked towards that quiet corner thinking that it deserved a little campaign. It was rarely fished, but then one night one of the lads dropped in there and caught a common of 40lbs plus, to date the biggest from the pit this season. I’m quite sure it was the big common that I’d seen in that corner myself.

“Anyway, the point is this: you often get a feel for the areas that put you in with the best shout of catching a big one, the key is to act upon it.”