National Pro Staff Rant

[BillM]

There is all kinds of water to fish at the 'Geen where you won't be shoulder to shoulder. Unless you like parking yourself at the dam with the rest of them, lol

[Headhunter]

Come on guys, quit showing off spots or us trollers won't have any fish to catch on the big lake all summer!

HH

[MJL]

Eastern ditches..... What a crappy little term. I have never understood why steelheaders speak of these creeks with such derision, yet they will all flock to them as soon as a run is in. It's like sucking all the enjoyment out of something that you can, and then running it into the ground!

 

 

I can look at a few pics posted on NPS and say, "when I was his age, I was drifting right where he is standing now." Plus where else in Ontario can you drift for chrome steelhead, catch a new PB condom, snag a bottle of vodka floating down river and look next to you and think, is this Deliverance part 2? (seriously though, you meet some strange people on the rivers there). 15yrs ago, there was 2.5 times more water flowing through those creeks before development took hold.

 

For me, I'd rather spend my time and gas money fishing where I'd want to be the most, even if it means fishing far less often. I have missed out on amazing spring runs in my local creek because I didn't want to deal with the crowds. I do far less fishing now in spring because the rivers I enjoy fishing the most are blown. If I'm miserable while I'm fishing, what's the point of going there in the first place?

 

I grew up fishing the eastern ditches. I still go for walks along the rivers with my camera. Perhaps when my nephew who's 18 months gets older I might break out the rod again and fish.

 

I too fished South Hampton over 40 years ago ,The gentleman described it to a T. I never went back.

This same stuff is starting to pop up in the carp angling scene here. If you can believe it. The most under exploited fish we have in Ontario . found virtually every where in Southern Ontario and guys are getting into it for the same reasons that are talked about in this post. Monster egos, greed, selfishness, jealousy and even violence are starting to creep into the sport. We also have the added incentive of the sport being relatively new to a lot of anglers. So we get the guys who think they are writing them selves into the history books. Even though the book has been written and they are not in it.

These guys are relatively few in numbers but they can cause a lot of problems because carp angling here is a very social recreation. Half a dozen guys fishing together is fairly common here.

Pro Staff are mainly used by bait manufacturers in carp angling. You can actually get one man band operations that make carp baits and use pro-staff.

The term "swim jumping" is being bandied about. We call a spot that we fish for carp a swim. So the words are a take off from the old gold rush days " claim jumpers" .

Different pot but same old stuff in it.

 

 

 

It’s the same yearly cycle Lorne

 

1. Newbie gets into carp fishing
2. Newbie watches the DVD’s and reads the forums
3. Newbie starts getting into numbers of pre-spawn fish when fish are at their easiest to catch
4. Newbie starts pimping the bait that he caught tons of fish on hoping to become part of the pro-staff team to get freebies (in reality any bait would’ve worked anyway)
5. Newbie starts spamming message forums and facebook with ads for the company
6. Newbie thinks people flaming him are idiots when forum rules explicitly say no spamming
7. Company who Newbie pro-staffs for drops him
8. Newbie loses close friends who he used to fish with before he became a pro-staffer
9. Newbie exits carp fishing 1yr later and moves on to another hobby

Edited October 3, 2013 by MJL

[kemper]

It's the show-off factor - nothing else.

 

I haven't read the whole thread, but I can guess that all the bases were covered.

 

I understand to a point, in that I used to like showing off shiny silver steelhead as much as the next guy. That said, I always tried to hide locations out of simple logic - if I tell everyone where I was, I won't be alone tomorrow.

 

Some of the gbay tribs have seen an absolute explosion of traffic over the past 3 years, and it is directly attributable to sites like NPS and Facebook heros.

 

Public shaming has worked well with the kids (yikes, did I say kids? It seems like only a few days ago I was a 16 year old steelhead hero...) around here.

 

It's unfortunate that some tackle companies (one in particular) feel the need to string along a whole whack of young anglers with promises of free gear and "prostaff" titles if they blast hero reports every which way.

[davey buoy]

When I first joined ofc,I made the mistake of to much information.Gave a general area,but not a exact spot.Knowing what I know now,every picture I show you would have to be a genius to figure out where that was. If you do ,your welcome lol.Never ever a location from me unless a big lake,and then so little info .lol.The mystery of where, keeps us looking.

[Terry]

Wow, go fishing for a day and look at all I miss ....

 

 

 

It's not just in rivers though Lew, it's a behavour problem that goes farher than that. Anyone who has ever owned a cottage will know what I mean. It's a summer Saturday morning, you're sitting on your dock with a coffee, and you watch a parade of idiots in bass boats pulling up to your dock one after the other, some of them even give you the death stare because you're out there interrupting their fishing.

 

I mean, dude, it's my dock. Buzz off.

 

There are countless stories of tournament guys (some of them probably PRO STAFF ... LOL) who blatantly cast around swimmers. The complete lack of courtesy and sense of entitlement isn't restricted to people in waders. Sorry to say.

 

 

 

this I do not understand

 

the cottager has no more rights to the water then the boater

 

if I tried to stop people from parking their cars in front of my house or if I tried to kick skateboarders off the sidewalk near my house people would think I was crazy

 

well it is no different with cottagers, how dare they think they have rights to the land or water around them that they do not own

[craigdritchie]

this I do not understand

 

the cottager has no more rights to the water then the boater

 

if I tried to stop people from parking their cars in front of my house or if I tried to kick skateboarders off the sidewalk near my house people would think I was crazy

 

well it is no different with cottagers, how dare they think they have rights to the land or water around them that they do not own

 

 

That's not what I meant Terry. I don't care if someone wants to fish the dock. I fish docks too. But I do find it unacceptable when some guy comes roaring up to the dock, cuts the 225 hp about two boat lengths away, then proceeds to give me a dirty look for simply being there at all - as if my mere presence had somehow ruined his day.

 

It isn't about who has rights to this or that or whatever. It's about common courtesy and consideration for others. Too many fishermen have neither. And often, the worst ones are plastered from head to toe with various tackle company logos.

 

As I said, I like to fish docks too. But I won't fish one if the people are around. There are many other docks to fish, so I back off and respect their privacy.

 

Am I wrong to expect the same in return?

[DRIFTER_016]

I live 5500 kms away.

I post backgrounds all the time.

I have no problem with anyone coming and fishing my water.

Hop in your car and you can be here by Monday night!!!

Of course at this time of year everything could be frozen by the time you get here!!! :rofl2:

[misfish]

 

Thats WORD.

 

Nice pic.

 

Edited October 3, 2013 by Misfish

[SirCranksalot]

Yeah, that's the bend that I fish!!LOL

[Terry]

well i don't fly up to docks there are laws about speeds close to shore

however I have had people come out of there cottages just to jump up and down on their docks and curse at me

 

the moron husband and wife who walked down to the dock the husband turned towards us and swam over to the next dock area where we were fishing and the man and women yelling at us we had to move so he could swim where we were fishing

 

then there was the OV pro bass tourney were the cottage owner hopped in his boat and rammed the bass boat pushing the bass boat out of the bay side ways dumping the female angler into the water....cottage owner was charged

 

my point is there are as many true stories about stupid cottage owners as there are stories about stupid boat owners

Edited October 3, 2013 by Terry

[fishindevil]

Come on guys, quit showing off spots or us trollers won't have any fish to catch on the big lake all summer!

HH

. Good one joe !!!! Ya after all it's always the trollers fault !!!!! Hahaha !!! Lol

[irishfield]

 

 

the cottager has no more rights to the water then the boater

 

 

I just ask them, politely, to let me know when they hook the 2400 Volt submersible cable in front of my dock... they don't usually come back.

[porkpie]

I too fished South Hampton over 40 years ago ,The gentleman described it to a T. I never went back.

This same stuff is starting to pop up in the carp angling scene here. If you can believe it. The most under exploited fish we have in Ontario . found virtually every where in Southern Ontario and guys are getting into it for the same reasons that are talked about in this post. Monster egos, greed, selfishness, jealousy and even violence are starting to creep into the sport. We also have the added incentive of the sport being relatively new to a lot of anglers. So we get the guys who think they are writing them selves into the history books. Even though the book has been written and they are not in it.

These guys are relatively few in numbers but they can cause a lot of problems because carp angling here is a very social recreation. Half a dozen guys fishing together is fairly common here.

Pro Staff are mainly used by bait manufacturers in carp angling. You can actually get one man band operations that make carp baits and use pro-staff.

The term "swim jumping" is being bandied about. We call a spot that we fish for carp a swim. So the words are a take off from the old gold rush days " claim jumpers" .

Different pot but same old stuff in it.

 

 

My mind is now blown!!!! Wow, carp! In all seriousness, steelheaders have always had an element that thought they where the greatest and latest, and the second coming of Jesus himself. At one time, a very long time ago, I was probably that guy, I will admit. There where no websites to pimp yourself on, or sponsorships per say, so you remained a legend in your own mind... LOL! Fortunately people grow up! I do enjoy watching the steelhead commandos these days though. It's always fun! I recently had a 20'year old try to school me on the art of catching fish. At one time I would have tried to outdo him with my adventures, now I just listen and enjoy! A least he's passionate about something that doesn't involve an Xbox!

[hammercarp]

 

 

 

I can look at a few pics posted on NPS and say, "when I was his age, I was drifting right where he is standing now." Plus where else in Ontario can you drift for chrome steelhead, catch a new PB condom, snag a bottle of vodka floating down river and look next to you and think, is this Deliverance part 2? (seriously though, you meet some strange people on the rivers there). 15yrs ago, there was 2.5 times more water flowing through those creeks before development took hold.

 

For me, I'd rather spend my time and gas money fishing where I'd want to be the most, even if it means fishing far less often. I have missed out on amazing spring runs in my local creek because I didn't want to deal with the crowds. I do far less fishing now in spring because the rivers I enjoy fishing the most are blown. If I'm miserable while I'm fishing, what's the point of going there in the first place?

 

I grew up fishing the eastern ditches. I still go for walks along the rivers with my camera. Perhaps when my nephew who's 18 months gets older I might break out the rod again and fish.

 

 

It’s the same yearly cycle Lorne

 

1. Newbie gets into carp fishing
2. Newbie watches the DVD’s and reads the forums
3. Newbie starts getting into numbers of pre-spawn fish when fish are at their easiest to catch
4. Newbie starts pimping the bait that he caught tons of fish on hoping to become part of the pro-staff team to get freebies (in reality any bait would’ve worked anyway)
5. Newbie starts spamming message forums and facebook with ads for the company
6. Newbie thinks people flaming him are idiots when forum rules explicitly say no spamming
7. Company who Newbie pro-staffs for drops him
8. Newbie loses close friends who he used to fish with before he became a pro-staffer
9. Newbie exits carp fishing 1yr later and moves on to another hobby

 

How true Mike. Another routine I have observed is close to #8. Upon reaching the lofty heights of Pro Staff the newbie hacks and slashes their FB friends like they had the plague and the very next day bemoans the "fact" that many friends abandoned him because they were jealous of his appointment.

[hammercarp]

My mind is now blown!!!! Wow, carp! In all seriousness, steelheaders have always had an element that thought they where the greatest and latest, and the second coming of Jesus himself. At one time, a very long time ago, I was probably that guy, I will admit. There where no websites to pimp yourself on, or sponsorships per say, so you remained a legend in your own mind... LOL! Fortunately people grow up! I do enjoy watching the steelhead commandos these days though. It's always fun! I recently had a 20'year old try to school me on the art of catching fish. At one time I would have tried to outdo him with my adventures, now I just listen and enjoy! A least he's passionate about something that doesn't involve an Xbox!

Seriously. I kid you not.

[msp]

you canadians are already "hip" to that area anyhow , and besides that.........the parking there sucks now lol

Because a certain " someone " filmed an episode there with Izumi

I wonder who that was ?

[FloatnFly]

 

It's not about exact spots though, it never is.. It's about providing thousands of your new best friends with up to date river conditions.

 

 

so keep the name of the river out of the post

[BillM]

 

 

so keep the name of the river out of the post

 

Like it matters.. You're telling me if you can't figure out which river it is by looking at the pics?

[Renegade67]

I use to get into the game at Erindale park 25+ years ago. There is something to be said for the fight a 25+ can do in a river! Well the last time I was there I landed and released a fish when a shore person, they did not have a rod, dove in and grabbed the fish I just released?! I did convince the person to release it under no uncertain terms. I don't think they understood what I said but they got the point! That was it for me. Did not want to take an asault charge just to c & r a couple of salmon... Sorry, a bit off topic. Can't imagine what that place would be like today.

[Squid]

Freaking fishermen have BIG EGOS!!

[craigdritchie]

Because a certain " someone " filmed an episode there with Izumi

I wonder who that was ?

 

Ted Takasaki?

[hammercarp]

I do worry that fishing websites and their forums are going to suffer from the constant barrage of complaints about pictures of fish caught being posted. Heck that's great part of the fun of being on these sites. Someones posts up a catch and you say "Hey nice one" you post up your latest capture and they respond in kind. It adds a spirit of comradeship and friendship amongst a group with a common passion. I think people will just wonder over to other forms of social media where they don't have to put up with that.

[Garnet]

I think it's funny that only Bob, Wayne and Craig and Ang should be aloud to make money at fishing. In this list are great angler, great business man and a great salesman.

 

Some of the best anglers are on Pro Staff's and really have no interest in making a living at fishing. They are mixed in with great salesman, great business men and ones that are just their.

 

Some of the biggest company's are demanding you be on NPS, facebook and Tweeter. With this type of social media the execs can say my pro staff is 75 (just a #) and they are directly effecting 2500 people plus they worked 1000 hr in various trade shows.

 

As far as posting background pic.

 

You are a day late and many dollars short.

[FloatnFly]

 

Like it matters.. You're telling me if you can't figure out which river it is by looking at the pics?

 

 

exactly, if you can look at a pic and know which one of the thousands of rivers it is, you've been there and know about it already