Taking fishing more seriously

[igquick]

I'll try to keep this post as small as possible since a lot of things have been happening with my life.

First off I got a new job so I've been fishing a lot less lately but that's still not an excuse for the excessive SKUNK days. I've also been fishing with my girlfriend and the dogs just for fun, and not trying to catch anything at all; just enjoying the moment with her.

A lesson I learned about one of the skunk days is that I will never EVER use one of those dinky ice fishing rods filled with 6 lb test line for CARP FISHING. Long story short, I was fishing 2am at a spot that has produced MONSTROUS Carp. A big one took the bait and ran from the small two foot ice fishing rod, I picked up the rod, felt as if the Carp got tangled in the weeds, and broke the mainline. So my lesson is that I will never use any mainline less than 12 lb test as a rule of thumb.

Another thing that has happened to me is that I have been receiving free stuff from other fishermen. I think of it as a nice gesture from one fisherman to another, but my girlfriend calls it "fan mail".

One of these instances is this Carp Fisherman Guru sent me loads of stuff one day also, but I'll keep his name anonymous; so thanks Mr. Anonymous if you are reading this!!







I sometimes wonder if something great can come out of this like joining some Carp fishing tournaments, or even become some kind of Carp fishing guide and/or start charging people to fish with me; basically make fishing a way to earn some money.

You may think I'm crazy, but I honestly know a guy who has spent 1000 dollars on fishing licenses, and paying other fishing guides to help him catch fish. I'm going to let you guys/girls guess how many fish he has caught with all that money being spent, and I hope he doesn't end up reading this because it is pretty embarrassing.

Anyways here are some beasts from a more successful trip:

 

[halibuthitman]

I think there is room on the Columbia and sauvies for a new carp guide... you should go for it, think about Columbia smallmouths as well, an untapped resource for warmwater guides-

 

[john montana]

There are some carp on the fly guides out in Yakima and by banks lake in WA. Brian martz might be guiding for carp out of pdx, but I am not sure. Guiding on the fly would be tough, success is far from a given even if you can find the fish. I think there is a pretty strong euro carping contingent around as well. Good luck man, I hope you can make it work!

 

[HereFishy]

I think there is room on the Columbia and sauvies for a new carp guide... you should go for it, think about Columbia smallmouths as well, an untapped resource for warmwater guides-

What do you have to lose? Do what you love and the money will follow. If you're unquestionably passionate about something, it's easy to get others enthusiastic about it. I've never put any thought in to it, but I can honestly say I wouldn't turn up my nose if one of my buddies suggested a reasonably priced Carp charter..

 

[igquick]

I definitely wouldn't charge much, but I don't have a boat.

A lot of my friends say if I ever did some sort of guiding for Carp, I would just be giving away my secret fishing spots. It's true for me that Carp fishing is more location oriented, but I've told about 5 people exactly where I fish and what I use but they still haven't been able to catch a decent sized Carp; but at the same time I know a few of my places I fished that definitely got "new" fishing pressure because the Carp were more spookier, were harder to catch, and I found a few empty cans of corn. Something I've never seen in the past.

As of now I'm still learning more about fishing in general whenever I have time to spare.