Carp anglers?

[noknot]

What is it that sets them apart from most other anglers? By this I mean the serious Carp angler, who can spend months looking for one run on a low stock water, or fishing for very pressured clued up Carp on the circuit waters! So what do you think makes them tick?

 

[The Scarlet Maggot]

the serious Carp angler, who can spend months looking for one run on a low stock water, or fishing for very pressured clued up Carp on the circuit waters! So what do you think makes them tick?

Some degree of bad mental health perhaps? No family? Closet camping enthusiasts? God knows maybe one will answer? But seriously though the militant or border line militant carpers I know, or from what I gather, it’s a kind of culture thing, a way of life, more than just a hobby or pastime.

 

[gator1215]

i think that most carpers come from a course fishing background, and I for one find it a bit of a challenge if and when you catch the little blighters...

and what sets us apart from the course/match/bungee fishermen is we dont cry if we blank

 

[Graham Marsden]

So what do you think makes them tick?

Drive and enthusiasm, it's what makes all specialist anglers tick. There just happens to be more carp specialists than specialists in other species.

 

[The Scarlet Maggot]

Carp aside, what drives any militant angler to go to extreme limits, what fuels there drive, enthusiasm and compulsion? Why are bigger fish better?

Maybe, just a stab in the dark here, that must win over the big fish thing, possibly increased testosterone from lack of a decent sex life, a different sort of rod hours if you like? A sign of high testosterone build up is as it happens beards and baldness which would collate well with some rather famous anglers, this is only a theory and not based on any hard evidence, and I’m most certainly not calling anyone a w******ker!

 

[noknot]

Drive and enthusiasm, it's what makes all specialist anglers tick. There just happens to be more carp specialists than specialists in other species.

That may be true today Graham, but I would be sat on a 90 acre pool trying to catch Leviathan 25 years ago, and are there that many "specialists" I know that many people fish for Carp today, but that does not make them carp anglers!

---------- Post added at 18:56 ---------- Previous post was at 18:51 ----------

Carp aside, what drives any militant angler to go to extreme limits, what fuels there drive, enthusiasm and compulsion? Why are bigger fish better?

Maybe, just a stab in the dark here, that must win over the big fish thing, possibly increased testosterone from lack of a decent sex life, a different sort of rod hours if you like? A sign of high testosterone build up is as it happens beards and baldness which would collate well with some rather famous anglers, this is only a theory and not based on any hard evidence, and I’m most certainly not calling anyone a w******ker!

From your reply TRM I can see that you are not or will ever be a carp angler, If you were, then you would know the answer, as I do

 

[The Scarlet Maggot]

Your right I’ve far to much hair! Never fished exclusively for carp as a "carp angler", though the times I have targeted them it’s been both exciting and excruciatingly frustrating, if it wasn’t for my present location id probably fish for carp whenever I got the chance. Mind you I don’t play the numbers game, and the size of fish is of no real significance. But I have leaned towards pursuing huge crucian carp, but the fish’s size is recorded only for a friend who has a crucian carp study group, not for my own benefit. Theres a dedicated crucian carp book coming out this spring as it happens, will be an interesting read.. With some interesting contributions.

 

[geoffmaynard]

Obsession. Carp fever. Single minded dedication. It's not exactly healthy but try telling that to someone who is suffering from it. Been there, done that.

 

[Philip]

Drive, determination and mental strength is what sets the ultimately successful anglers out from the rest of the very good anglers also fishing for the same fish. Sometimes it can boil down to the person who is prepared to sit there long enough.

The big change I think happens when anglers stop assessing their results on an individual session by session basis and start assessing their results over a campaign based on a much longer period of time.

Once you can do that a blank session is no longer looked at as an unsuccessful fishing trip, it just becomes one more step towards achieving your overall objective.

 

[bill2]

As a boy, i fished for whatever i could get. And was happy with that. I stopped fishing for a long time and have only just taken up the battle again, and can tell you, from my own perspective, why i have returned to the sport again, and found myself a carp angler! I stopped angling because i had a series of nasty foul hooks, and at the time there were no such things as unhooking mats or klinik! Perhaps more than anything else these at least ease my conscience. Beyond that however, I have found the attitude towards both fish and environmental wellfare rather more pronounced in the carp anglers than in most other branches of the sport i both remember and have since witnessed. I have also found that carp fishermen seem to spend a lot more time thinking about both the behaviour and habitat of their quarry! On a personal note, agonising over lead systems, hooklength materials, which rig's to use, which bait!, bag's?, stringers?, particles?, chops?.. it's agony! I just love it! Add to that the methodology of spodding and in particular the allmost arcane use of the marker float to 'see' what can't actually be seen and I was sold! Yes, i'm looking for ever bigger fish, but they are the icing on the cake. They are not easy to catch, but when you do.. you feel like you earned it.....

 

[Eric Edwards]

What claptrap. The only thing that separates carp anglers from other anglers is that they fish for carp.

 

[noknot]

What claptrap. The only thing that separates carp anglers from other anglers is that they fish for carp.

Interesting observation Eric,

But you don't many other anglers bivied up for a week in the winter on a lake containing only 5 Carp, do you?

 

[Eric Edwards]

Err, am I missing something there? Why would a non-carper want to bivvy up on a water with only carp in it?

 

[geoffmaynard]

I've missed you Eric

This is the man who once answered the question :

"What is the best way to hold an eel?"

With the answer:

"Two sections in the left hand and two sections in the right!"

 

[noknot]

Err, am I missing something there? Why would a non-carper want to bivvy up on a water with only carp in it?

That was only an example of a carp angler, What other anglers go to that level of endurence and dedication or madness, that was my point.

 

[Eric Edwards]

We all go out in bad weather but some of us don't need a week to catch fish.

If you think carp anglers are in some way special then you've got your head in the clouds.

 

[noknot]

We all go out in bad weather but some of us don't need a week to catch fish.

If you think carp anglers are in some way special then you've got your head in the clouds.

Eric, In no way did I say that Carp anglers are special, but for some carp to be caught, can take a little longer that a week, and more so in the winter! As for head in the clouds, you may be right............

 

[peter crabtree]

On a local ressie to me there are bivvies up for a week at a time, but they are mainly bream anglers.

 

[noknot]

On a local ressie to me there are bivvies up for a week at a time, but they are mainly bream anglers.

I guess they go to a good size then Peter, and do the Bream anglers catch Carp by accident, as the Carp anglers catch Bream?

 

[peter crabtree]

The biggest is about 17lb so far, and yes I guess they must catch nuisance carp now and again.