(GA) needmotime2fish

Back in the mid-1970's, we were members of a very small church that hired a seminary student to fill our pulpit while we searched for a full time pastor. The young man loved to fish, so I took him crappie fishing one night in my small boat. When we got to the lake, we discovered a problem with my outboard motor. Luckily, we ran into another guy there who had been a co-worker of mine at a previous job, and he offered to tow us to a nearby spot where we could fish, and still be within paddling distance of a second boat ramp that was within a short walk from where I had parked the truck. Despite our motor trouble, we'd still get in our night of fishing. So far, so good, right? Well.... While he was giving us a tow, he volunteered that he had been "let go" by our former employer. From his point of view, his termination wasn't justified and was unfair. (I suspect it was unfair, and probably would end up in court today. He had extremely bad eyesight, and the company was probably trying to avoid paying for his likely future medical expenses. But I digress.) As we moved across the water, he became more and more agitated about the way the company had treated him. And to put it mildly, from there on, "his language deteriorated significantly". His side of the conversation was all about those "#%@%& SOBs" at that "!*$^#!@# Company" -- and worse. Earlier, he had already asked me how I had been doing and where I was working. But I guess he also felt obliged to ask my friend where he worked. After all the cussing and "blue language", my friend tried to minimize the guy's embarrassment. He replied (evasively, but truthfully) -- and not just once, but twice -- that he was "in school" and was "working at a temporary summer job". But the guy was persistent and just wouldn't drop the subject. So he asked again, more specifically, "What kind of work do you do?". His jaw dropped and his face turned almost purple when my friend responded, "I'm Barry's pastor".

Since I'm older than a lot of you, I've been fishing long enough to have a number of (somewhat) humorous stories. Please bear with me, and let me know if I'm posting too many. This one isn't exactly hilarious, but it certainly had its funny moments while it was playing out. It was the summer of 1966 (I remember, because I turned 21 that year, and I was able to buy beer - legally). A friend and occasional fishing buddy had heard about another friend and I catching some big carp in the Potomac, and wanted to go with me. The opportunity came up one Friday evening. But we lived in PA, and the fishing venue was across the line in MD. I had a non-res license, but he didn't -- and being late Friday, there was no way he could get one on short notice (in those days, non-res licenses had to be bought from the county office), so he borrowed one from another friend. No, we shouldn't have done that, but we did cut some corners in the interest of time and convenience. Luckily we didn't get checked that trip. Back then I owned several rods and reels that worked ok for carp fishing (nothing like the 12 foot rods and fancy reels we use today). But my friend had only one baitcaster and an old beat-up Zebco 202 reel, spooled with 6 pound test he used for occasional trout fishing. I grabbed an old 6-foot solid glass spinning rod for him to use with his Zebco, and off we went. As fate would have it, our only run that night came on my rod with my buddy's little Zebco. He hooked the carp, and promptly discovered two things: (1) the fish was big, and (2) the drag didn't work on the Zebco 202. The only way he could play the fish was to press the release button and feed the fish line through his fingers (OUCH!!!), and then reel if and when the fish gave him a chance to recover some line. Fortunately, he was a pretty tough guy, and was able to tolerate quite a bit of pain. (Naturally, during the fight there were more than a few howls of pain -- and some language used that I won't repeat here in case any of our junior members read this.) The battle went back and forth for quite some time -- remember, the reel only had 6 pound line, and he was fighting a large fish without the benefit of a drag. And not once, but twice, the carp spooled him. But both times the fish decided to turn back toward shore instead of giving one more kick in the opposite direction -- which certainly would have broken the line. Eventually, even though his hands had become a bloody mess, he managed to lead the carp into the net. We had no scale, but we did measure the fish -- a very nice 36" common. You may have heard the expression, "Death by a thousand paper cuts"... This was "Carp by (at least) 50 line cuts". After we released the carp, we poured some beer over his hands to clean them. The beer -- or maybe the carp slime -- must have done the trick, because his hands healed in just a few days with no infection.

Zatesta's story reminded me of an incident from nearly 50 years ago, when I was fishing at a paylake in southern PA. We were enjoying catching a few carp one Saturday afternoon. Being the weekend, the lake had a number of "occasional" fishermen who had no clue about carp fishing, so they were using worms and not catching much. We were chatting with the group fishing next to us, and offered to share our bait (doughballs) and a few suggestions. One young guy tried some of my home made dough, cast out, and just laid his rod down at the edge of the water. I warned him to anchor the rod to prevent a biting carp from pulling it in the water, and also suggested loosening his drag. Next thing I knew, his lightweight webbed lawn chair was skidding across the ground, with a rod handle stuck in the webbing of the seat and the rod bent sharply across the chair's back. The chair -- and the rod and reel -- all went flying into the lake. Fortunately, it was only about 3 feet deep at that point, so the guy ran into the water chasing his chair and rod. He was lucky enough to reach them before the carp got too far from shore and into deeper water. I seem to recall that he even managed to land the fish, but that was a looonngg time ago, and I can't remember that detail for sure. Anyway, we got a real charge out of watching that carp pull his chair and rod across about 10 or 15 feet of bank and into the water, and then watching him chase them into the lake.

Funny story, and a nice Buff, too. Actually, I'm not too surprised that a duck ate your bait -- I don't know why it doesn't happen more often. I've had them try to eat maize while it's sinking when I'm spodding, but I've never had one take it off the bottom -- at least not with my hook in it.

Maybe the little mink heard of "Max, the Ultimate Carp Hound", and his famous "Lick and Release", but got confused and was performing "Lick After Release" instead.

I'm not sure what's considered a "funny" fishing story -- something "funny/embarassing", or maybe something a bit strange or unusual ("funny/peculiar") -- but here's one of each (both true), from many years ago. First, the "embarassing" story. My first, and all-time best fishing buddy (we began fishing together nearly 60 years ago when we were just 9 years old) missed several days of school early one spring. It seems he had been fishing with his dad on opening day of trout season, when suddenly "nature called". Despite the fairly large crowds of other fishermen, he found that he just couldn't put it off, so he made his way deep into some thick bushes to take care of the situation. Unfortunately for him -- as he discovered the next day -- the leaves he used for cleaning up were from the poison ivy vines that covered the bushes of the only secluded spot he could find. OOPS!!! Needless to say, he put up with quite a bit of good-natured ribbing for some time afterwards. And now for the "unusual" story -- one that seems to defy all the odds. It might not be "ha-ha funny", but it's certainly "peculiar funny". I was in my mid teens and was sucker fishing with my dad. We were fishing a large tributary of the Potomac River that is several undred feet across at the spot we selected. We used a rig with a 1-ounce bank sinker tied to the end, with a #8 snelled "dropper" hook tied about 8 or 10 inches above the sinker, and a second dropper about the same distance above the first one. I was using a medium-light spinning rod with just 6 or 8 pound test line. Since we were fishing a tight line, we would prop our rods on a forked stick, and wait for the rod tip to move slightly, indicating that a sucker was biting. At that point, we would sharply lift the rod to set the hook. Well, I hooked a good-sized sucker and fought it to the bank -- which was about 3 feet high. That meant that I had to raise the fish up the bank, since we had no long-handled net. When I attempted to lift the fish, it flopped, and broke my line just above the top dropper hook. Oh, well -- time to re-rig and try again, right? So I tied on a new rig identical to the first one, and cast to the same spot. After a few minutes, I had another "bite", set the hook, and again fought the fish to the bank. This time, I successfully got the fish up the steep bank, which is when I discovered that I hadn't actually caught the fish on my new rig. Instead, the fish that broke off a few minutes earlier was still hooked, and had dragged the trailing bank sinker across my line, and one of the little #8 hooks on my new rig had caught the sinker of the first rig -- right in the line-tie hole. Just what are the odds of a #8 hook catching in a 1/8 inch hole in a piece of lead being dragged across the bottom of a 200-foot-wide stream?

Thanks, Willem That seems like a good explanation. I overlooked the weather issues, since we've only had rain here -- no ice or snow.

Last evening I replied to a recent thread under the Beginning Carping section, titled "All Guests Non CAG Member Please Read". However, when I tried to post my reply, after a while it appeared to time out, so I clicked the "post" button again -- with the same result. I copied my response and saved it, intending to try again later. But when I logged on again today, I found that BOTH of my posts had appeared twice, so both of my attempts to post had actually succeeded. Normally I would just chalk this up to a local problem with my own computer or wireless connection. But I noticed that "So Cal Carper" also had a post that appeared multiple times on that same thread -- and his posts appeared immediately ahead of mine (they all appeared within about 10-15 minutes of each other). Putting both his and my "incidents" together, I thought that perhaps the CAG website might have experienced a glitch around the time that we were posting. This hasn't been a problem before, and might have been a one-time thing. Or it could have just been a coincidence that we both experienced similar (but local) problems. Anyway, I was curious to see if these were just isolated cases, or if the web site -- or maybe even the web host -- had a problem.

Interesting idea! Offering a significant cash prize for a new state record carp would, at the very least, bring the organization to the forefront and get it some much-needed publicity. On the other hand, for a fish to be recognized as a state record, many (most ?) states require the angler to bring the fish to some location for formal identification and weighing. Usually, since most anglers don't have the necessary equipment to transport such a large fish while keeping it alive, that means that the fish is killed in the process. That goes against one of the primary goals of our group, to "promote the catch and release of trophy fish". That presents a dilemma -- is it ever appropriate to go against the group's own C&R goal in order to further promote the group?

Those new BFS alarms I got yesterday stayed silent. Nothing wrong with the alarms -- it helps if the fish bite. Blanked today.

I phoned Bank Fishing Systems on Friday to place an order for some alarms and banksticks, and my order arrived today (Monday). Thanks, John, for the quick turnaround!

I just successfully accessed the BFS website. It appears that everything is OK -- their home page now displays this message: "Recently the BFS Website has been giving out warnings that the site might not be a protected site. This has been corrected and the site Certificate is up to date. Users can be assured that the site is safe and always has been....THANKS "

I just delayed a pre-baiting session I had planned for today because my wife's identity information just got compromised, and I had to help her get the problem resolved. This is the 2nd incident since last fall and we were very fortunate both times. Last fall someone tried to use her Visa for a $3000 purchase at walmart.com, but the CC company flagged it and contacted her before they approved the purchase. Whoever tried to use her card was also trying to change her address (I assume that was so it would agree with the shipping address for whatever they tried to order). She immediately cancelled that card, and they reissued her a new one. Last night she got a call from another CC company to tell her that they were processing an application for a new Visa in her name. Whoever was trying to open the account had her name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number. I'm not sure how or why the CC company flagged it, but we immediately placed a fraud alert on her credit report (so that any time someone tries to get credit in her name she will be contacted). We also tried to file a police report for fraud, but could not do so because there was no activity on the new card (thus, no one had actually tried to 'steal' from her so far, so there was no actual 'fraud' committed). The CC company confirmed that the new card has already been cancelled, based on our phone call, so we're "ok" for now. I mentioned this because my wife has NEVER dealt with either CAG or with any of our bait or tackle vendors. This is a very widespread problem, It's quite possible that there is absolutely no "common thread" associated with carp anglers. Further, it might not even be an internet security issue. We discussed this with a police officer (who happened to be their chief IT guy), and he mentioned that this is an international problem. He recently caught one person who had a large portfolio of personal and credit information that she had purchased from a web site in Russia for $10 per name. I'm reasonably certain that most of the names on that list were not carp anglers. The recent flurry of fraudulent activity reported by our members in the previous dozen pages quite possibly could be nothing more than a symptom of a general increase in fraud worldwide, and "probably" does not relate in any way to our organization or our vendors. Nevertheless, all the suggestions regarding personal responsibility and computer security are certainly valid. As a retired computer professional myself, I would certainly recommend taking any and all appropriate steps to ensure that your computers are free from viruses and Trojans -- regardless of the source of these credit card problems. That's just good common sense. -- Barry Shildneck

Mario, In reply to my post saying that I'm not familiar with building or maintaining a web site, you asked: "Would you like to learn?"... A few years ago, I might have said yes. But these last couple years on my job, I really got burned out, and don't have all that much interest right now. Maybe if (or when) I really get bored with retirement, my enthusiasm might return, but for now... no. But thanks. -- Barry

Willem -- We definitely appreciate all you do to keep the Forum up & running for us. As a retired computer 'geek', myself, I completely appreciate the problems of dealing with an outside vendor to do the web hosting. I wasn't a "webbie" myself, but for about 35 years, I did support a number of Unix-based systems that supported both databases and web instances. So even though I'm not familiar with the details of building and maintaining a web site, I fully understand the nature of the problems that you must deal with in your role as webmaster. Thanks again for sharing your skills and giving us your time.

If the "ol' Captain" can second it, then I'll THIRD it!