Sunflower Hearts as Bait Part Two: Techniques and Success Stories

Back in May this year I mentioned that I had been experimenting with a new (to me) mini particle, namely sunflower hearts.

These are whole sunflower seeds that have been de-husked and as far as I am aware there are two kinds available, those derived from the Black Sunflower Seed known as Bakery Grade and those derived from the Striped Sunflower Seed known as Confectionary Grade. The former have a higher oil content, but both are rich sources of dietary protein….and they taste pretty nice too, a bit like pine nuts if you've ever tasted them.

In my last blog about them I wrote that in theory they would be an excellent carp and tench bait but at the time I did not have enough to do a proper test with them. However, recently I fished a small river for carp and this time took three kilos of prepared sunflower seeds to try out.

These are Haith's Sunflower seeds and as you can see, they are small pale coloured seeds rather similar to oat groats in colour, shape and size.

Now we need to think about adding attraction. to be honest & I don’t  really think they need any added attraction as to my taste buds they were just fine au naturel, however, I thought it best to try both flavoured and unflavoured hearts, as shown in this photo.

I used these attractors to flavour the bait, really think they need any added attraction as to my taste buds they were just fine au naturel, however, I thought it best to try both flavoured and unflavoured hearts.

Written by Ken Townley