The Learning Curve - And The Happiness of Not Learning a ****!

Hi all. It's been a while since my last blog entry. Nonetheless, the season is over here and it's time for some reflection on my doings.

When I started carping, I got off to a flying start. I think in no less than 15 minutes I had hooked my first carp. It was more than easy, as were my following catches. I hardly knew the meaning of word "blanking". Luckily, years have taught me better.

In every form of fishing, you get better by doing it more and more. This is true no matter if we are talking about match angling, fly fishing, etc. I remember my first time tench angling. I was struggling just to get one, and this went on for a few trips. Two years spent entirely on tench fishing on the pole taught me a trick or two. If I remember correctly, one of my last trips was when I caught 25 tench in a five hour session. The catch in total was like 40 kg+. At that point I knew tench angling quite well (at least the pole techniques). I knew if I wanted to catch tench, I would. Some part of me just loves the effort of trying to catch and learn. The way of becoming an angler. At the same time, I love the things I don't know. They truly are the reason why I return to the bank every time. Casting for the mystery.

Luckily, carp fishing has still remained quite mysterious to me. And I think I want to keep it that way. Some things are clearer to me now, and some not. I am a biologist, so the nature around me hardly has any mystical or magical essence, as from my point of view, it's just genes and evolution. Spruce = genes (and it's fenotype), birch = genes (-..-), carp = genes (-..-).

So yes, carp fishing is an action where a monkey (Homo sapiens) uses a lot of time and absurdly expensive and elaborate tackle (made of carbon, plastic and metals) just to see a fish (Cyprinus carpio). So where's the magic then? The "magic" is just a product of our own imagination and our want to make things meaningful. Life itself, possibly has no bigger meaning, so fishing might be as important as anything. From this perspective, I find carp and fish in general, as magical creatures capable of possessing my mind. It's a way better story than the monkey-version!

Yes! It's a monkey (Homo sapiens) ALMOST kissing a member of the Cyprinidae-family (Barbus barbus).

1st Anniversary For "Carp Of The Thousand Lakes"

Dear readers,

My blog "Carp Of The Thousand Lakes" had its first anniversary. It's time for me for some celebration, as the reader number has exceeded my expectations. I even had some offers of getting money from writing this blog (!) I had to let these offers down, as I want to keep the commercial aspect as far away as I can. I think you, as well as I, are fed up with the UK-style buy this, buy that, don't buy that (it's the last years model, and because of that, it's crappy).

I really would love you to subscribe to my blog or leave comments. It's the fuel that keeps me writing this blog. Also, all the contacts I have received via email have been very interesting and I am very pleased receiving them.

Now some talk about carp fishing... I have learned about carp fishing a lot this year. The most interesting part was to have Enrico Parmeggiani (Italian carp angler) visiting Finland. We had some good debate about the behavior of carp. The conclusions were quite different, and there are some very big differences in Italian and Finnish carp. Like the biggest disturbance by the lake we fished was a woodpigeon cooeing 1 km away...  So at least the acceptable disturbance levels in carp fishing are quite different here and in more urban waters. Carp fishing is always a learning game for even the most experienced carp angler. And in my opinion that is the biggest reason I will keep on fishing for carp. It's not the record carp, it's not being famous, just the idea of something I will never master even how good I will be.

This Northern Beauty missed a scale.