It's almost become a cliché here in the U.S., but I caught my first fish at age 5 with a cane pole on a small lake at a city park.  I'll never forget that little bluegill, because it set in motion a way of life that has continued to this day.

I was born in Southern California in 1958.  Fishing was pretty much limited to a few trips a year with my dad to either a city park or to Lake Cachuma where we would actually get to rent a boat to fish from.  Sometimes we also went down to the ocean and fished from a bridge or pier.  Rarely were we successful though.

In 1971 at age 13 we moved to Vernal, Utah.  This was the impetus that moved me into the fishaholic realm.  

With numerous lakes, streams and rivers just minutes from my home, my fishing trips became went from a couple of times a year to a couple of times a week.

I also discovered all the outdoor magazines of the time and would spend hours perusing them.  When I ordered the book "Lunkers Love Nightcrawlers" the die was cast!  I was to be a dyed in the wool bait fisherman from then on.

I found that bait fishing was far more efficient than lure or fly fishing.  I've seen guys toss lures to a bass that ignored all their offerings.  I could toss a nightcrawler on ultralight line in front of the same bass and it would inhale the crawler without hesitation.  I've seen the same thing happen with trout and walleye.  Naturally Catfish always responded to bait better than lures.

I think though that for me it was the attraction of being able to relax while fishing.  At least while bank fishing.  That has kept me bait fishing.

American fishermen are so affected by the tournament fishing they see on television that they believe fishing must be work.  Guys, it's really not necessary to cast 500 or 1000 times to catch a one or two pound fish.

I had actually begun to get bored with trout and bass fishing.  In 2001, I decided to concentrate exclusively on Catfishing.

I did fairly well, but the only place I have to fish for Catfish is the Green River.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources are currently killing all the large Catfish in order to aid the recover of the endangered Colorado Pikeminnow, Bonytail Chub, Humpback and Razorback Suckers.  Just a side note: I vehemently disagree with this program that is wasting millions of dollars each year, but there's nothing can be done about it.  In the U.S. the endangered species act rules all, and anyone dissenting, will be labeled a troublemaker.  It's best to just accept it and go on to other waters.

This has limited the maximum Catfish size to about 5 pounds.  When I was searching Catfish sites on the web, I ran across and English carp fishing web page.  I suddenly realized that I had a totally untapped fishery all to myself.  No one in Utah intentionally fishes for Carp.

I took a trip up to Flaming Gorge armed with some tackle and tactics I had found on the web and at the end of my first trip was totally spoiled with a catch of 5 carp from 7 to 23 pounds.  A stringer averaging 14.8 pounds per fish!