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.

I put together a short CarpQuest video of our adventure that evening, mainly for the winner James, which you can view here.

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.

If I get asked again this year for my CarpQuest to be a “prize”, I certainly hope to be able to get it done. I also plan to GiveAway a FREE years membership to The Carp Anglers Group, along with the session and video production, as a prize to the winner – a real “package” for passionate future carper in Colorado ?

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Tight-Lines,
John
CarpQuest

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10th September, 2015