(CO) JohnFinney
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Posts posted by (CO) JohnFinney
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Over the past 4 years, I have worked hard to promote carp fishing here locally in Colorado. The most challenging vs. attitudes, yet positive and productive efforts, have been through the most popular local fishing forum, FishExplorer.COM. The Carp Anglers Group had a presence, though quiet voice, on FXR even before I became the State Chair.
I wanted to note my thanks to the owners and moderators of that forum for having the vision, wisdom and "balls" for their of support catch & release carp fishing in our state, especially given the initial hailstorm of negativism I received with my first carp posts. Wind the clock forwards some 4 years now, after hundreds of posts, articles, shared videos, we have a thriving and passionate group of anglers in Colorado that enjoy the sport. Hopefully in the future we will see a few more join CAG's ranks as members.
As a thanks to it's members each year, FXR hosts a Winter GiveAway, where popular/notable local anglers from the media, vendors and local outfitters, give back something back to the membership for FREE, be that tackle items or a free "guided" trip for a particular species. It's a VERY popular event and is run on the basis of all individual members having a "point" they can spend each day throughout December, to vote on a particular trip, or prize, they would love to receive. Each prize goes to the member whom submitted the most "points" for it during the month. It's a secret ballot/vote with the winners announced early in January.
I was asked back in 2013 if I would offer up a carp fishing trip with CarpQuest - I readily agreed, honestly not really expecting many people to "vote" for carp fishing as a prize. I was wrong, and a number of anglers submitted their "daily" votes in a feeding frenzy for a day out with CarpQuest. The 2013 GiveAway was won by Ron Altman, who I took out in 2014. He later joined CAG after succumbing to the carp fishing addiction - we have become very good friends and the dynamic duo of carping in Colorado throughout this year.
Again, towards the end of 2014, I was asked if I would host a day's fishing with CarpQuest, as a Winter GiveAway prize. Hell yes, I quickly agreed.
This time the winner was a popular, and very well known local walleye fisherman, James, nicknamed, "MileHighNightStalker". The challenge for me was that James usually only fished at night, thus he requested a "night session with CarpQuest" as his prize. Given the miserable and chaotic weather this year in Colorado, we finally got around to scheduling his trip in September.
It turned out to be a great evening spent with him, talking about carp, walleye and how we both got into the sport. It was a real honor to spend the night on the bank side with him. He eventually landed a couple of great carp, which also turned out to be his largest captures so far this year! He left, a VERY happy man with a new found understanding and respect for carp and carp fishing. Perhaps one day he may take up the Quest on his own and another carp angler is born.
Perhaps mine is an extreme version of promoting carp fishing locally, but it seems to work, especially the one-on-one approach. It get people out there and hopefully, a carp in their hands at the end of the day with a beaming smile upon their faces.
I highly recommend to everyone, try to take the time in 2016 to take someone new to carp fishing out with you on a session. I put together a short CarpQuest video of our adventure that evening, mainly for the winner James, which you can view here.
If I get asked again this year for my CarpQuest to be a "prize", I certainly hope to be able to get it done. Perhaps I could giving away a FREE years membership to CAG, along with the session and video production, as a prize to the winner - a real "package" for passionate future carper in Colorado ?
Tight-Lines,
John
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FINS-UP to Massachusetts Fish and Game for their adoption of a 'Catch and Release' section to their State Pin and biggest fish sections.
Certainly a huge step in the right direction and Great News !
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8 fish, i consider this, a great day !
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Great story, pictures and write up !
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Huge congrats !
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Excellent work Brian, well done !
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Excellent videos and what a day, loads of great looking commons and beautiful fall colors.
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CarpTastic story - what a great trip !
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Season 3 is filmed with a Sony HDX330 at 1080i 60fps film mode with auto white and contrast balance. Edited with Adobe Elements and rendered to full 1080p at 30 fps MP4.
Switched earlier this year to uploading to youtube at 1080p, can thank Brian Wingard for tormenting me to finally uploading at 1080.
Title sequence is also at 1080p though original was 25 fps in iMovie.
Just working now on improving soundtrack using decibel meter to balance audio. Also looking at options for voice audio in future.
Fair to say I enjoy almost as much the artistic and technical side of the video production as I do catching fish.
John
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Welcome to CAG and congrats on the PB
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Great work to everyone involved !
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Congrats on the new PB !
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Well deserved, congrats !
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In this weeks episode we fish a local venue, Kingfisher at Chatfield Reservoir, endure some strong storms, get soaking wet, have a friends drone buzz our swim and bank a lot of carp !
Hope you enjoy!
Ironically (not surprisingly), this episode has stir'd up at lot of comment on the local fishing forums, regarding drone use and personal privacy - an interesting topic for debate ! What's your thoughts on the drone topic ?
Tight-Lines,
John
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Excellent story and pictures as always ! Fins-UP !
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Colorado, as do many other states here in the USA, have a Master Angler Award program. The goal of these programs is promote fishing in the state, the catch and release of trophy sports species and to recognize anglers for their achievements. In Colorado, their are two MA categories. By length for catch and release and by weight for fish which are kept. Given I am only interested in the C&R category, carp need to be 30" or greater to qualify.Once an angler catches a MA trophy sized fish, they take a picture, fill out a form with information, witness verification and send these both off to Colorado Parks & Wildlife for confirmation. The whole process takes about 4 weeks after sending in the entry. Once verified the anglers name appears on the Colorado Master Angler Award program website and the angler receives a sew-on badge (only one badge per year) and certificate for their efforts.<link to Colorado's Master Angler Award Program website>
I highly recommend you check with your local Department of Wildlife to see what programs are available in your state. The more anglers that submit their C&R carp captures to these programs, the more awareness these local departments will receive that US anglers really do love catch & release carp fishing! It takes but a few minutes to submit an entry - lets ALL get involved - do your bit for the promotion of catch & release carp fishing in the USA.In this weeks episode Ron and I have a great session at Kingfisher, Chatfield Reservoir and land 6 MA carp between us !Hope you enjoy !Records are kept and currently the State Record, by length in Colorado stands at 42". Best I have caught, since my return to fishing is but 37". One day, perhaps ? By weight, the Colorado State record is 35 lb's 5 oz. Best I have caught is 37 lb 5 oz, however given the weight category requires the fish to perish in Colorado, not a record I think I will ever care to have my name in the books for. I do know of a stunning 38" common was caught just recently in Colorado and released - that fish topped the scales at over 30 lb's.Perhaps one day, the requirements for record by weight will change and allow for witness verification with certified scales, rather than having to take & hand over the fish to CPW for verification?Tight-Lines,John
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Congrats Horace !
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dang ! would need a bucket of victory coffee for those !
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Aye, James was on "fire", as was his reel !
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New CarpQuest Episode Released, Season 3, Episode 11.In this weeks episode James and I fish the Fairgrounds in Adams County. We did not anticipate the "big hit" carp madness that was to descend upon James. A great session, with almost 20 fish landed, carp and some catfish - WOW - almost ran us out of Victory Coffee !Hope you enjoy the video !Tight-Lines,JohnCarpQuest
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In this episode I returned again to Chatfield Reservoir, Kingfisher, following the previous session which was ended abruptly by bad weather.The afternoons fishing was dominated by the crayfish eating every bait I cast out. Finally I switched over to a harder bait, the creamed tiger nuts, hoping these would withstand the crayfish longer. Within a few minutes, it was carp on and a mirror, then a common, were soon landed.
Colorado's diverse wildlife never ceases to amaze. The session ended with me watching a black bear cub, swimming across the lake.Hope you enjoy!John -
Huge congrats!
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Great mirror, well done !
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For this episode, we get in a quick session at Chatfield Reservoir, Kingfisher. Wildlife in Colorado is always beautiful and this day a stunning Mountain garter snake visited the swim for a while. In the few short hours, before the incoming storms, Ron lands 3 nice commons.
The mountain garter snake, a member of the terrestrial garter snake family, is particularly adept at constriction for it's prey.
Tight-Lines & Happy Labor Day Weekend !
John
CarpQuest
Some of my work with local groups in Colorado to promote c&r carp
in Pictures, Stories & Video
Posted
Thanks Jerome ! I really hope to be able to do this again in 2016 ... hey, it' only takes time....... and for people that don't find communication or education via. forums the way forwards, that one-on-one interaction with them helps tremendously. You can share so much in but a few hours with a new angler. Helps if you can help them catch a fish as well, which is often NOT so easy. I *try* do host trips a year for new Colorado carp anglers, the FXR WinterGiveAway, the CAG/TAKC (the one I perhaps enjoy the most) and the CAG/CarpQuest Colorado Challenge Winner's trip. One of these days, if/when we can get more (>1) members locally, I hope to host a few official CAG fish-in's - though at present, could be said I have a 100% attendance rate of local CAG members for trips, e.g. myself +1 on multiple trips throughout during the year!
Tight-lines,
John