Mixing Politics and Carp Fishing

I'll be glad when the election season is over. It's a necessary evil, but discussing politics is difficult because someone always leaves the conversation disappointed.

I commented on a Facebook thread discussing trickle down economics vs. tax increases a day or so ago. I thought I'd inject some actual facts into the conversation regarding Gross Domestic Product (GDP). My goal was to discuss economics. In no way at all did I plan to get pulled into a discussion of politics, but that is what happened.

Then the conversation turned back toward carp fishing as another response attempted to create an analogy between carp fishing and economic/political theory in response to an observation about current economic policy seemingly having a nice handle on modulating the up's and down's of the economy.

The analogy:

"I'd rather catch 30's on a regular basis, maybe a 40 or even a 50 along with blanking. Than set and catch 5 lbers all day long with no night fishing, and being told what to use as bait."

It's actually a very good analogy, regardless of what your personal political perspective is.

That analogy ties into carp fishing perfectly to illustrate the dilemma many carp fishermen are confronted with regularly: 

The goal to catch lots of carp  on a regular basis vs. the goal to catch a fish that increases your personal best weight.

It's kind of an elitist view compared to the viewpoint of the carp fishing novice toward fishing for trophy sized carp.

• The elitist has probably been fishing for carp for many years.
• The novice has probably been fishing for carp for less than 5 years.

• The elitist is likely to plan family vacations around carp fishing.
• The novice is likely to try to fit some carp fishing into a regular vacation.

• The elitist is willing to spare no expense in the search of big fish. Elitists might drive 3+ hours on Friday night after work, fish all day and night on Saturday and Sunday morning; and then drive back Sunday afternoon to prepare for work on Monday. And they do that week-in and week-out. They are willing to change their lifestyle for fishing, but forgoing family time for fishing time. Anything less than 20 pounds is an extreme disappointment.
• The novice must prioritize 6 or 8 hours on a Saturday and adjust their lifestyle just enough to fit some time in for fishing among the other responsibilities for work, family, church, civic group, children's activities, etc. A 3 hour drive is definitely out of the question (on a weekly basis) and fishing venues are usually within an hour's drive or less. The novice is willing to catch whatever is biting; whether 5 pounds, 15 pounds, or 25 pounds.

• The elitist carp fisherman has all the best equipment and spares no expense to pursue their fishing passion.
• The novice carp fisherman gets started on a budget and buys the minimum equipment to get started and adds to it as experience and budget allows.

True - a novice might one day become an elite carp angler, but a novice is much more likely to remain a novice indefinitely.

The point I am trying to make is that promoting carp fishing to the extent that there are millions of anglers actively and purposely fishing for carp on a weekly or semi-weekly basis requires a whole heck of a lot of novices. You don't go from not fishing for carp to elite carp angler landing 30+ pound fish week in and week out by accident. It takes time.

The carp fishing vendors, contest promoters, and clubs promoting carp fishing would do well to keep this in mind.

As J. Paul Getty once said:

"I'd rather have 1% of the efforts of 100 men, than 100% of my own efforts."

When promoting carp fishing, we can do more in large numbers than we can alone.