Icon: Terry Hearn Interview Part 1

Terry Hearn is different. From his early twenties he led a life so singularly unlike any other carp angler that, whether he likes it or not, he’s now regarded as an icon (he’s also modest so, sorry Tel!). The guy’s not even on Instagram for God’s sake and he’s still the biggest name in the game. Forget the frenzied fishing for ‘Likes’ that dominates the modern scene; this man is out there (probably right now), in relentless pursuit of the best carp in the land, and he’d still be doing it even if the carp world had never heard the name Terry Hearn.

If you’ve followed his exploits, you’ll most likely know how Terry goes about his angling (if you don’t, you seriously need to read his Rotary Letter Extension pieces…), but ask yourself: what do you really know about the man himself? About how he got to where he did for instance? Or what he’s sacrificed to get there? Not much? Well, that’s exactly why we met him on the banks of a quiet lake (his latest obsession). We’re nosey you see; we wanted to ask a few questions that maybe he’d usually avoid, or perhaps he’s just never been asked before?

What follows is the ebb and flow of that conversation, so put a brew on (Yorkshire Tea’s his favourite – no sugar of course) and settle into this fascinating insight into the life and times of one of the very best there has ever been…

A younger me

Rich Stewart:______ Are you aware how different your life is to most people’s?
Terry Hearn:______ “Yeah. It’s very different. The way I look at it, lots of anglers have sponsorship and have attempted to make a living from fishing, but very few have been lucky enough to manage it. There are even fewer that have done it while maintaining a relationship, children and a house; all of the usual things that most people would expect from a normal life. I’ve got a little house, a lovely garden; I don’t want for anything, but I’ve only managed it because I’ve sacrificed in other areas.”

R.S.______ How conscious a decision was that?
T.H.______ “In my late twenties and early thirties? Not conscious at all, I was just riding a wave. It became more of a conscious thing once I got into my mid-thirties. You know, no one wants to be on their own, but I really, really love my fishing. That’s how I was able to do it. I was given an amazing opportunity and I’ve made the most of it, but it’s only worked out as it has because I could give it my all and only ever had myself to worry about and keep.”

R.S.______ Did that take a degree of being honest with yourself to realise?
T.H.______ “Yeah, but don’t get it twisted now; I had a life before Yateley! I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. I love my life and I’m happy – to earn a living from fishing? It’s a dream. The most valuable things to an angler are time and freedom. One of the last jobs I had before this I was a postman and I loved that too, because I had the afternoons to go fishing.”

R.S.______ Martin Bowler recently mentioned a ‘window’ that the two of you were lucky enough to exploit?
T.H.______ “Yes, yes. Myself and Martin are probably two of the only ones who “slipped through the net” in Martin’s words, and he’s dead right. I think that we were just at the right age where we were able to do it. Now, Martin has managed it with a wife and a little boy, but he has a very supportive missus; he’s done very well there, to balance it all out. Most of the time though, that’s not going to happen, because no woman likes to feel second place to fishing, even if it is your job. (Tel’s edit: I’ve seen enough carp anglers around me end up in a sorry state in that sense). Targeting individual big carp and being consistent about it is incredibly time-consuming. There’s the killer.”

R.S.______ Was there a moment when you thought, ‘This is my profession now, I’ve got to be professional’?
T.H.______ “Hmmm, not really “a moment”. To begin with it was all about being obsessed with fishing for big fish, and the early years of sponsorship were a means to pay for that; I never imagined that I’d end up being able to afford a house, or anything else through it, you know? I was still living at home until I was 35 and other sponsorships, like Dynamite, had come along, and then my second book. I’ve always been very conscious that this living might not be something that’s there forever, so I’ve been wise with my earnings. I bought my house, and I did that very early, when others might have been more frivolous, having holidays abroad and stuff. You know, when your fishing all the time it’s not so hard to save.

“Truth is, I love the fishing lifestyle that much that the thought of going back to doing a normal job is enough to give me nightmares. I’ve seen it all my life with my Dad, getting up to go to work on a building site whilst I might have been loading the car ready to go fishing. You don’t ever take this kind of job for granted, you’re constantly looking ahead. I’ve always been conscious that I might not be doing this when I’m 55…”

It’s not so easy to make out, but here’s my little house through the trees when I first bought it, well before it was habitable mind! Location, location, location, all I ever wanted

This one brings back some great memories. The old Burghfield lodge, gone but never forgotten. Myself, Alan Welch and Nigel Sharp were each given the keys, unreal when I look back! No joke, it was like our second home. Fridge, freezer, shower, cooker, the lot! My old Astra is in shot, still my favourite fishing car today

R.S.______ I’m sure you will be…
T.H.______ “…Yeah, maybe, but whether people will still be interested, I don’t know? So I’ve put everything into securing my future so I can keep fishing. In terms of professionalism, to be fair I was thinking that way from the moment I was with Drennan, when I started writing more regularly and doing talks and slideshows. Generally, I fish through the week and write any articles at the weekends, so back in the pre-digital days I’d write at the weekend, but still want to be at whichever lake I was fishing for dawn on the Monday. Of course, the Post Office is shut on a Sunday, so I used to have the slides and captions ready, put them in an envelope and I’d still be at the lake for dawn, then I’d reel in after bite time and find the local Post Office (“Special Delivery, please…”)!

“Nowadays, it’s so much easier, but that’s one thing which made it such a niche position, because there weren’t so many people who could actually do that back then: the slide shows, the writing and photography side, dealing with it all. That was when I was doing a regular diary piece with Angling Times, monthly then weekly.”

R.S.______ Take us to the moment when ESP was launched, with you as the face of the brand.
T.H.______ “Well it was like a dream come true, to get a little bit of money which enabled you to go fishing. At that time I was so skint that I actually got an advance on my money to buy a car that wasn’t going to break down…”

R.S.______ … Not the BMW, surely?
T.H.______ “…Noooo, an Astra estate! Not a new one, two or three grand’s worth. They’re still my number one fishing car today; I’ve had a couple more since then! Everyone thinks you’re getting paid loads of money but it wasn’t much, it didn’t need to be, not in those early days, it was a retainer. Like I say, it could only work through those early years because I was living with Dad. After a couple of years it went up a bit and it became a living, especially as I was earning more from magazines and talks.

“My arrangement with Dynamite also began whilst I was still living at home, and I went on to develop several bait ranges with them: The Source, Red Fish, Choc Malt, Savoury Spice, Banana Nut Crunch, Crave, and more recently The Complex. My early years at Dynamite went a big way towards helping me to afford the deposit on my house, so ultimately they’ve been a big part of it.”

The Thames has always featured in my fishing, well before Dad and I got the boat. Kingston again

R.S.______ Who were the key people in your early career?
T.H.______ “Kev Green at Angling Times. Without a doubt Kev helped out a lot. What he used to do with the slides was great. I’ve kept all my Angling Times columns, especially the old-style Times on old paper. Those early spreads that Kev put together were unreal. There might have been up to a dozen shots over two pages and because they were slides, there was a lot more effort involved than what they have to do nowadays with digital. Kev had incredible drive and enthusiasm, and he always pushed to get the best from me.

“Also, Richard Stangroom was similar in that sense, organising talks up and down the country. I must have done slideshows for just about every region of The Carp Society with Rich through the late nineties, some twice over. Sky TV’s Tight Lines show no doubt gave me a bit of a push too, and I enjoyed working with Andy Storey and the presenter Bruno Brookes there. One year I did a series of short films for the show with Andy, exciting times!

“There were other people I can’t miss out, like Len Gurd, who filmed the ‘Tel and Jacko’ tapes, and my old mate Jacko himself, who told me that he was a 100 back then, so by my reckoning he’s got to be coming up to his 120th by now! There was just so much going on, more shows too, like talks at the NEC in Birmingham ten years on the bounce. A lot of this was through a time when there was hardly such a thing as a ‘carp consultant’, so I was just kind of paving my own way as I went along.”

I travelled all over the place doing slideshows with Richard Stangroom, happy days

R.S.______ How did the ESP work come about? How were you approached to do that?
T.H.______ “It was after catching Mary at a British record weight. It was all over the papers and it pushed me into the limelight a bit. That fish was caught on a Drennan Continental Boilie Hook. Remember that there weren’t many hooks on the shelves in those days; you only had a few. Drennan had just taken Adam (Penning) on and it was Adam who suggested my name. I got a letter, not an e-mail, a letter…”

R.S.______… Do you still have it?
T.H.______ “… (Laughing) Probably somewhere! It invited me for lunch at Drennan HQ and I thought, ‘Ohhh, that’s interesting!’ I actually baited up the Mere that morning, before going up there. I was hemping it up out of the dinghy; I must have been stinking! I went in there in jogging bottoms straight from the Mere, ragged by the bushes. I don’t think Peter (Drennan) thought anything of it though, that’s the good thing you see, Peter’s an angler!

“Back then they had some carp rods, nothing like the carp rods that we use now mind, and some of the early Drennan stuff was in very basic packaging. Some of those old orange-handled crochet baiting needles are probably still kicking about today.”

I look like I can’t wait to get back to the bank here! The talks were a big part of it through the early years. Jamie Smith made the back drops

R.S.______ How quickly did it become clear that they wanted you to develop stuff with them?
T.H.______ “It was talked about in that meeting and I pretty much came away from there with a contract. I drove home thinking, ‘Wow, this is mega!’” (Tel’s edit: thinking about it, Adam might well have picked me up from the Mere layby and then dropped me off again, because my car wasn’t quite up to the full journey!)

R.S.______ Now, lots of people will have seen the film of you at the Drennan Estate Lake, early doors…
T.H.______ “Was I on a jetty? Yeah, well there was a funny story with that. The film was shot by a naturally attractive young lady. Anyway, we had the ancient punt in the swim (the one Chris Yates used on A Passion For Angling) and Adam took her out with the camera. Adam had taken quite a fancy to her and actually asked her out while they were in the punt, amongst the lily pads, old romantic that he is. Awkwardly, she had to tell him that she had a boyfriend! Not only that, but while they were out there, Adam felt something on his neck and splattered a big caterpillar of some kind – there were guts and everything all over him. The journey in must have been awkward! It’s always stuck in my mind and I’m sure that Adam would laugh about it these days!”

R.S.______ What did it feel like to be part of the industry at that time?
T.H.______ “Magic, absolutely magic. Imagine going from a job as a postman six days a week, having to get up at 4am each day, to then taking a few months out to go fishing… Well, it actually turned into 18-months… and then turning that into your living. I was absolutely skint right at the end of it; I remember scraping all my loose change together, then going up to the bank to exchange it for a £20 note. I used to go to Gateways, the supermarket at Yateley, and I can remember my shopping only costing me seven or eight quid back then, that being enough to last me two or three nights at Wraysbury.”

R.S.______ You probably shop at Waitrose now, eh?
T.H.______ (Laughing) “It’s all about Tescos!”

R.S.______ This is early carp-fishing commercialism that you’re into here, right? With very few carp-only brands around, it must have felt like a brave new world?
T.H.______ “Yeah. It was at a time when the big-carp scene was really taking off. I was 26, living at home, and I didn’t need a lot of money to do what I was doing, it was a dream come true. Dad had always encouraged me; he and Mum had separated a few years earlier, and I remember Mum wasn’t so happy when I finished at the Post Office and announced that I was going to be taking a few months out to fish full time. Dad would say, “Let the boy have a bit of time, let him do his fishing.” When I was skint he’d repair my car – he even rebuilt the engine head at one point (two or three times come to think about it!) and he would always bung me a tenner when I needed it. Even before Drennan I was writing, for Big Carp and stuff, and I think that Dad could see that I was making an effort.”

One caught whilst filming a series of short films for Tight Lines

Filming at the Estate Lake with Sky, exciting times

R.S.______ So, it’d be fair to say that you owe him an awful lot?
T.H.______ “Without a doubt. Not just in that sense but going right back to what got me into fishing in the first place, being in the countryside; everything has been with Dad, whether it be ferreting, fishing or shooting.”

R.S.______ Does it give him a sense of pride to see what you’ve achieved?
T.H.______ “I hope so. And the other way round too, because Dad now goes carp fishing and I quite like that. Talking of pride, he’s caught an English 50lber don’t you know!

“As great as the freedom was after leaving the Post Office, I was always conscious that it could never last, and being taken on by Drennan suddenly meant it could. It gave it purpose, legitimised it if you know what I mean. Mum was only ever concerned for my future, but anyway, turning it into a job meant I was no longer a ‘drop out’.”

R.S.______ A lot of the stuff that you were developing at Drennan stands up to this day, doesn’t it?
T.H.______ “Yeah. Some of the earliest products such as the Original Leadcore – it’s still the exact same leadcore that I use now. Obviously things like Bristle Filament and the original Stiff Riggers too.”

R.S.______ When you look back across your time, which period do you remember most vividly, and why?
T.H.______ “Oooohh, it’s hard to specify one period; there’s been lots of good times. I guess those earlier years, that’s when it was at its most exciting, when there were fewer big fish about and the industry was still young. The rarity of big fish was part of it, and I felt part of a smaller loop of anglers, whereas now it’s more diluted. Everyone seems to know everyone else’s business too!”

R.S.______ You’d keep things close to your chest then?
T.H.______ “Well, not really, if anything I was more open then, but it wasn’t going out to so many people; it was a much tighter loop. If anything I’ve just become a bit more wary nowadays, in the short-term I mean. In general everyone else seems to have become way more open… that’s my point!”

R.S.______ Is that a social media thing?
T.H.______ “Yeah. I worry because I’ve been bitten in the past. You tell someone something and it comes straight back to you from another source. You know, you say or describe something in a unique way, and then you hear or read it elsewhere. You have to be very careful about sending an image too, which is sad, because at the end of the day we all like showing off our pictures! The thing is, once it’s on-line, it’s there forever. Whenever I supplied pics for magazine articles it was always meant as a one-use-only thing, they still had future potential elsewhere, but now a lot of that has been taken away. The world’s gone mad! Do you know what, with certain ones these days I treat them much more like a print. I’ve always got my iPad and if I want to show someone a picture then I’ll show them on there, but I often think twice about texting or e-mailing a picture, as once it’s out there, it’s properly out there!”

R.S.______ Is that because you’re naturally cautious about such things?
T.H.______ “Partly; it’s more a sign of the times though isn’t it?”

R.S.______ Lots of people probably think, ‘It’s okay for him, he fishes for a living’, but the trade-off is that you have to be very careful about what you put into the public domain in the form of material that sponsors might want?
T.H.______ “The only struggle now is to keep the material coming, while at the same time protecting the fishing. Not just my fishing either, the fishing of the other lads at whichever venue I happen to be. If you’re to get along then it’s important to show a bit of respect for them too. Back when I was doing regular diary pieces for AT, I was able to throw caution to the wind and not worry about it, to write about where I was fishing, what I was doing, what I was thinking. Remember you’re writing about captures that might be stepping-stones to the one you’re targeting. So you’re writing exactly how you’re going about trying to catch that particular carp, and you’re telling everyone along the way.

“I was able to do that and get away with it back then, things weren’t so instant, but now it’s harder. I could gamble that my writing wouldn’t attract too many anglers to the lake, but now the pool of good anglers who might be interested is much bigger. It’s something that only a long time big fish angler will understand, the full impact it has, as in an, ‘Oh well, there’s always next year!’ kind of a way. These fish only do so many captures.

“It’s not something that all anglers will notice, for example, the way Nick (Helleur) fishes, he’s not affected so much, because he’s flitting around all over the place. An hour here, half a night there, rarely focused on one particular fish and venue. But hey, I don’t want to come over as negative ‘n all, I’m sure you know what I mean.”

One last Estate Lake shot. Proper!

Dad’s caught a 50 don’t you know… Starry’s from Kingsmead

R.S.______ Do you follow trends in modern media, or do you try to opt out of it?
T.H.______ “I try to opt out of it as much as I can… the whole social media thing you mean?”

R.S.______ It’s a big source of information now though…
T.H.______ “It’s going that way, yeah. Your sponsors get much bigger coverage on-line. It does sadden me, the way that the magazine industry has struggled in recent times, because I love to see a good image in print. I loved the old Angling Times; AT’s slide reproduction was always mega. Some friends would liken the poor paper quality to bog roll but I liked it because it was ‘oldie worldie’, and I was proud to write for the same paper that helped inspire me as a youngster – I’d much rather look at a picture in print, as in a well reproduced shot, than I would on my iPad. Obviously it’s all about on-line content now, so that’s the direction I have to move in.”

PART 2
In Part 2, Tel discusses targets, inspirational jumpers, what he’s most proud of and his friend group. Read all of that and more in the October issue of CARPology. Buy your copy here.

It was Dad who got me out in the countryside in the first place, whether that was fishing, ferreting or shooting