If you are the kind of guy who loves researching, buying and collecting gear (like me), carp fishing can be a great outlet for your materialistic tendencies. Carp fisherman rivals ice fisherman for the sheer amount of gear they buy and lug around the lake.
However, the amount of gear, baits, and nic-nacs that pro carp fisherman have is a bit daunting to the average fisherman who would like to catch a few carp before he decides to mortgage his house for a new hobby.
While I love my $170 Delkim Txi bite alarms and $250 Fox Eclipse rod pod, people who I introduce to carp fishing often get left with the mistaken impression that carp fishing is an expensive form of fishing. Carp fishing can be a very expensive hobby but it doesn’t have to be.
While good gear usually translates into more fish on the bank you don’t need to go full-bore to give carp fishing a try. One of my first carp was a 12 pounder caught on a $25 rod and reel a $1 high-low crappie rig and balls of white bread.
With the average American fisherman knowing nothing about carp fishing there needs to be more resources and media dedicated to showing American fisherman how to catch carp on a budget. American fisherman need to learn to walk before they can run.
The truth of the matter is that anyone who hooks into a 15 pound carp will have a blast. American fisherman are sitting one of the best and most underutilized carp fisheries in the world and the only reason why they aren’t going crazy for carp is that they don’t know how to catch a carp on a rod and reel.
Fisherman aren’t going to spend $1000 just to try carp fishing, so if we are going to introduce Americans to carp fishing we have to teach them how to do it on the cheap, preferably using gear they already have. Once they get carp fishing in their blood, then we can talk to them about $100 bite alarms.