How to Generate Money from Carp Fishing

12 pounder caught in the fall

I went to high school near the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. Bass fishing is very popular in that area. I recall sitting in history class one day and the teacher asked each student to explain their plans after high school. Most responded with college plans, some responded with plans to work in local businesses and one responded with, "I'm going to go on the professional bass fishing tour."

Intrigued by that response I later learned that his father had been a guide on the lake for 25 years and earned his living mainly by hunting, fishing and teaching others to do it too. A few months after graduation, that same student was in the local newspaper for winning an event on the Redman fishing series.

We can't all be professional fishermen and we certainly all can't count on earning enough money consistently from carp fishing competitions here in the U.S. to earn a realistic and consistent living from doing it. But I think there are options for supplementing our incomes and earning some part time money following our carp fishing passion.

It's a long shot to gain full-time or even part-time employment with a tackle or bait company; and even more remote that one of them would contact you at random and offer to sponsor your carp fishing efforts. I guess it can happen, but the odds of it happening are very long (maybe even 1 in a million).

Starting a bait company or tackle company catering to carp fishing is another possibility, but that requires a fairly high up front investment and ongoing working capital to sustain it for the long term.

That leaves eBay, Craigslist, garage sales, flea markets and trade shows buying and selling used fishing equipment. I have a very good friend and fishing partner who has taken this approach and does earn money doing it. Being successful requires some special knowledge about the more valuable antique tackle to make it lucrative. That is simply knowledge that most people don't possess and don't have time to learn.

That leaves us with creating our own website...

Besides this carp fishing blog I have others and some of them are monetized with advertising and affiliate links to Amazon. In my opinion, it's more realistic to earn some money from carp fishing efforts with a website. Here are some ideas for potential methods:

1. Affiliate programs like Click Bank
2. Adsense ads and other ads and banner programs
3. Building a list
4. Amazon.com products
5. Relevant fishing advertisers
6. Create your own fishing product
7. Teach fishing lessons
8. YouTube.com
9. Write a book about carp fishing
10. Do all of the above

I have been earning money from simple websites since 2001 using a mix of the items on the list above. If that sounds like something you would like to learn more about, let me know and I'll be happy to help if I can. Or you can read some of the free step-by-step training materials from this affiliate training website.

Carp on the Fly Blog

There are hundreds of thousands of blogs on the internet. Some of them are better than others. Many of their authors started with the best of intentions, but later lost interest in writing articles on a regular basis. Some contain a lot of pictures and others are exclusively text on a white background. Some are personal blogs about one family, a profession, or a hobby. Others are a simply diary of whatever happened that day.

Blogs about fishing are a smaller subset and again, some are better (or worse) than others. One of my favorites that falls into the better - and some might argue best - category is Carp on the Fly.

As the name suggests, it's a blog about fly fishing for carp. Until I started fishing for carp, I never dreamed that someone would target carp exclusively with a fly rod, but after spending time reading Carp on the Fly I fully understand the allure.

The blog dates back to 2006 and is loaded with fly fishing tips and tons and tons of carp pictures. The photography has improved dramatically in more recent years.

Readers that visit the blog with hopes that the author might divulge actual locations for pursuing the fish - don't say I didn't warn you. The actual locations are a closely guarded secret. (The author lives in Oregon, so the Columbia River is obvious. It's a long river, so put on your walking shoes, boots...and waders.)

I'd like to try fly fishing for carp on the Huron River some day, but I've had surgery on both knees and walking the river presents a problem. For now, I'll just live vicariously by reading Carp on the Fly.