Nate O Taylor

Food, Fishing, and Outdoor Adventures

My Training Begins

July 18, 2011 by n.taylor 5 Comments

Not long ago I signed up for the Carp Slam here in Denver under the advice of one particular Michael Gracie. As a casual carp fisherman I figured it was worth the price of admission and that I could learn from someone of Mr. Gracie’s stature, a slam veteran for several years.

What should not have come as a surprise was Mr. Gracie’s new found reluctance to assist me in my endeavors. You see, this all makes sense considering;

1. We are competing against each other.
2. Up for grabs are some serious prizes
3. If I can beat him I will own his soul until 2012.

I have now taken his strategy and turned it against him. I have enlisted the help of Tyler Kendrick, carp slam veteran, carp slam champion, and carp slam pro in this years competition.

Take that Gracie, under Mr. Kendrick’s tutelage I have nearly doubled my lifetime carp catch in just a few short weeks. It is every man for himself, but one thing is for certain, after the competition is over I think I’ll buy them both a beer at the after party.

I now leave you with some recent footage of my “unconventional” training methods. Think the best, be the best.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fWvub_WBho[/youtube]

Filed Under: Summer Tagged With: Carp Slam, Gracie, Training, Tyler Kendrick

Summer Carpin’

June 3, 2011 by n.taylor 9 Comments

Cruising Carp

Cruising Carp

Life has a way of pulling you in different directions. For me the responsibilities of trying to be an adult have kept me from being able to commit to hundreds of miles of traveling in the name of trout fishing. Not being one to let adversity get the best of me, I have refocused my efforts towards other warm water species that reside closer to home.

That being said I enlisted the help of one Michael Gracie to help shake the rust off my carp equipment and get after a few. This afternoon we both had some time to check The Stink and indeed with the water low and clear Carp were up in the flats looking for some food. Being a courteous host Gracie spotted a mudding carp and pointed me in the right direction saying, “Get em’ young buck”. An ugly cast and a few twitches later I had my first of what I hope will be many Carp this summer. At the end of our three hour excursion we happily traveled home with four missed hook sets and one carp to hand. The warm weather and the absence of rain gave me my first great Carp afternoon, now all that is left is to figure out what to do next week…

Gracie Guided Carp

Gracie Guided Carp

Filed Under: Summer Tagged With: Carp, Gracie, The Stank

Saving The Trout

October 11, 2010 by n.taylor Leave a Comment

My good friend Michael Gracie brought up an interesting discussion this past week regarding managing our fisheries today, and into the future. He brought up some fantastic points in regards to how the world would look if the state required permits to fish some of our “spawning” waters.

Let me start by saying that I completely agree that a program of that nature would do nothing but help improve the fisheries. I also think that there are some other aspects of that idea that would be worth exploring, if for nothing else to just be the devil’s advocate. Let’s imagine for a moment that we did mandate that permits are required to fish some of our tail-waters like The Dream, Frying Pan, or Taylor.

I think the first obstacle would be to convince the stores, hotels, and restaurants that this was a good idea. I would venture to say that if you were limiting access then you would limiting yourr customer base. I would also venture to say that many of those shops would have a hard time staying afloat. Most of the fisheries are situated in small towns that rely on outdoorsmen (and a lot of them) to keep their businesses open. Implementing a program that could endanger local business that employ and provide for real people for the sake of fish might be a tough pill to swallow. If you owned the fly-shop in Almont near the Taylor, I wonder how many flies you would sell if you saw a substantial reduction in fisherman?

Secondly, requiring permits for a public stretch of water whose roads are funded by tax dollars would probably do nothing less than incite a riot…at least initially. Convincing not only fisherman but the general public that this is a responsible management policy would require substantial effort to accomplish. Many I’m sure would feel that public water should be open to the public, and that additional funds to harvest its resources would be an infringement of their liberties. I’m not sure that there are many examples of this being done before in our sport, and being the first (or one of them) would be a major change to the status quo.

Overall, despite the possible drawbacks, responsibly managing fisheries is in the best interest of everyone. Will having a limit on the number of fisherman increase the productivity of the fishery? Absolutely. Will it also provide intangible environmental benefits, of course. While many fish may die if mishandled, I would feel much more confident having guided trips and “serious” fisherman on our waters. While paying money does not make you good at handling fish, I would like to think that it would have a positive impact. Allowing fish to complete their spawning rituals undisturbed would provide tremendous benefits almost immediately. Our population continues to grow and the more pressure we put on our fisheries, the worse they will be for our children. Hunters have paid to access our wilderness areas for years, and have had stringent rules on harvesting. These rules that were put in place have helped hunters enjoy a sustainable recreational hobby, regardless of the amount of people that want to do it. While today we may sit and discuss this thinking it might never happen, I assure you that sometime in the future it will. Unfortunately, I fear that by the time we realize the damage we do to our rivers that we will face a long road of recovery before our streams return to their former grandeur.

Filed Under: Fall Tagged With: Dream Stream, Environment, Gracie

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