Early Trout Opener Giveaway

I was cleaning out some old, broken and rusty flies and saving them in a baby food jar so I can reuse beads, hooks, or whatever else I can salvage.

THE CONTEST: 

Look at the picture below and guess how many hooks are in the jar.

Click to enlarge

I don't know how many are in there myself.  I say hooks because it would be hard to count the actual flies since there are likely pieces of hackle, chenille, and all other sorts of pieces flies in there.  

TO ENTER:

Leave your guess in the comments below before 11:59PM, (central time) on Friday, March 1st.  You only get one guess, so make sure you're happy with your number.  If more than one person guesses the right number, the person who guessed first will be the winner.  If nobody guesses the exact number, the winner will be the person with the closest guess without going over.  The winner will be selected and announced around noon on Saturday, March 2nd.  The winner will be notified by email and will be announced on the What The Karp!?! facebook page, you can click the Facebook badge in the right hand column.

THE PRIZE:

An assortment of 14 of my hand tied flies, including streamers, nymphs and dries.

The prize

One olive and two tan scuds, size 12

Two size 12 Flashy Pants nymphs.

Two size 16 and two size 18 Elk Hair Caddis.

Two size 10 bead head Woolly Buggers, one black, one black and grizzly.

One size 10 Force Choking Leech.

And two size 10 Black Barbers, the actual two pictured below.

I will ship them as soon as possible.  Good luck, and have a happy early trout season!

Where Do I Even Begin? (part I)

Never fished a day in your life? No big deal.  There is some essential gear you are going to need.  There are three very different paths you can go down to get your gear.  The path of least resistance is to buy new gear.  The mid-resistance, less money option is used gear. Then there is the most rewarding, most challenging path, the free path! Today, let’s talk about the free route to getting started.

Chances are that you have a dad or grandpa that was an avid fisherman at some point. This person has acquired and hoarded way too much gear, trust me!  Start talking to this person about how you’d love to go fishing with them sometime but you don’t have a rod and things will probably fall into place; unless you really don’t want to go fishing with that person, then it’s time for a different approach.  

My dad and his old Viking fishing boat.

You can go visit dad and casually bring up that you want to take up fishing (again), but you don’t know what happened to your gear.  You can say, (over a beer [or three {and shots of whiskey}]) “hey dad, did I leave my fishing gear over here last time we went out?  I haven’t seen it in like fifteen years!”  Or, “didn’t you give me a fishing rod for my thirteenth birthday? I don’t think I ever even used it!”  He’ll start digging around in the garage, or basement, or whatever area he considers his man cave, and eventually he’ll come up with a rod that he’s not sure where it came from.  When he says, “Is this yours?” You should respond with “Well, I’m not sure, I don’t think so.  Damnit, what happened to my stuff?”  Then ask if it would be okay if you “borrowed” a rod.  If this works, you just got yourself a free fishing rod!  You could also ask about some tackle, just sayin’! 

If you have a dad like mine, he’s just waiting to get out on the water with you, and if you don’t have any gear, he’s gonna hook you up.  I cannot recall how many rods, nets, tackle boxes, and lures my dad has given me over the years.  The man just wants to take you out, and show you up.  Dad, you can show me up any day... except that one day when I caught that 31” salmon on your birthday, and... you didn’t go... because it was raining (damn it).

Dad catches the biggest bass.