It's Not Just About The Carp...

Writing a blog about carp fishing in Finland is somewhat of a masochistic task. Most Finnish fishermen are not interested in carp or coarse fishing in general, so writing in Finnish wasn't what I wanted to do. The interested few ones are the reason for writing. Getting new anglers to adopt right fish handling techniques and ethos in carp fishing is something I am happy doing.

I have been asking myself once in a while, why should I encourage more people fishing for carp. Eventually I am just ruining my own happiness of fishing alone on these lakes. So why all the noise and hype of something that would be best kept as a secret? 

I started fishing exclusively for coarse fish because a lot of fish species are endangered and some close to extinction. For example, there WERE about 30 salmon rivers in Finnish coastline of The Baltic Sea, now the number is 2 or 3 (based on opinion). Only one of these rivers has a decent population of its genetically original salmon. The situation is really grim. The same goes with sea trout and our inland trout stocks. It is just horrible, so I decided not to take part in fishing these species until the stocks are healthy.

Why should I be a part of the horde of Finnish fishermen who think salmonids are the ultimate catch? Afterall, a lot of the salmon-related fish also end up in the fry pan after the fishing trips... My personal choice was to start fishing specimen-sized coarse fish, which ended up as a carp  madness. So when someone chuckles about my catches of "overgrown roach", I raise an eyebrow and know better. The best way of protecting salmon and trout can be diversifying the Finnish fishing culture and getting people to spend more time chasing carp rather than trout or salmon. 

And yes, now some trout-fanatic says that if no one fishes for trout, there will be no people fighting for the species survival. In my honest opinion, you can fish for coarse fish and still be a spokesman for trout and salmon. That is what I have been doing.

An unlucky salmon. I caught her with my excellent fly fishing skills (hooked from her tail). While unhooking her, we discovered she had a commercial fishing hook in her mouth... Of course we removed the commercial hook and released her.  Maybe, just maybe salmon are being fished a bit too much.