Leveraging Fishing Information for Mutual Benefit

Short cuts. The easy way, not the hard way. Sure things. It's what we all want. Its human nature to want those things. We don't desire to spend time with trial and error methods, when a short cut will do the trick. And short cuts can potentially save us quite a bit of money that we won't need to spend on things that will not work.



 

It's what we secretly want from fantasy football picks. Girlfriends. Career advancement. And on and on and on. We want to know something that others haven't noticed. A tidbit of information that helps us get an edge or a leg up on our competition. But of course most of us would never lie, cheat, steal, or do anything illegal to gain the advantage...at least I wouldn't; because it's just not worth compromising my values and ethics. But I can't speak for everyone else.
It's no different with carp fishing. We want to know what rod, what reel, what bait, what hook, what flavor, what maize, what color, what lake, what river, what location, and on and on. It's a never ending quest.

Why spend years learning through trial and error when we can take a short cut and get results much faster?

I'm not going to twist this around and try to convince you that we should all want to learn on our own because its more rewarding or fulfilling. Others might disagree with me a little. I know some folks who disagree vehemently.

We learn from others and others are more willing to share their special knowledge more freely if we offer something in return. We leverage the experience of an older brother or sister. A father or mother can provide the benefit of their past experiences as well. Or we can pay for lessons to learn a new skill whether its guitar, piano, singing, cooking, performance driving, etc. But it doesn't always have to be money that is traded to gain this knowledge. We can trade knowledge for other knowledge. I'll teach you how to fish if you help me change the brakes on my car, as one example.

Another alternative is to share fishing information directly. Share results with others because they share them with you. Leverage each other's experience. But using these methods requires a lot of trust in the one(s) you are sharing with. It requires like-mindedness and respect.

I joined a carp fishing club online to leverage information via a membership. In return for $10 I gained access to member only information, social events, fish ins, discussion boards and local carp fishing contacts. It cut several years of trial and error off the learning curve. I'd recommend joining to anyone who wishes to learn how to catch large common carp or buffalo.

The club will only take you so far, however; because like many organizations I've belonged to it does have some limitations, but there is still a lot of value in belonging to those kinds of organizations.

And there is value in cultivating your own local friendships, contacts and alliances. I have friends I fish with who share information with me because I share it with them. We have an informal alliance and mutually benefit. Our alliance doesn't have a name, it's not a club, it doesn't require membership, it's not a competition, it's a common interest and friendship based on a hobby that we all enjoy.

I'd like to see more of that.