Editorial
05
2018 Start of a New Year
2017 is about over, and 2018 is coming up fast bringing with it the chance to catch that once in
a lifetime carp, share the bank with friends, and four years publishing The Carp Anglers Mag-
azine CAM. Looking back over the years we have come a long, long way, with many bumps,
bruises, tears, and joy, from the humble beginnings of three guys fishing Pay Lake tourna-
ments together till now a monthly publication. Then in 2012, we decided to branch out into
what we thought was a new kind of carp fishing called wild water carping. Wild Carp Angling
had been here dating back to the early 2000’s thanks to David Moore, and others bring this
sport to the USA. We had heard about tournaments in NY, Texas, Connecticut and now one
was coming to South Carolina called the Carolina cup. A New Yorker by the name of Jason
Bernhardt was organizing and putting together, and they were excellent! I was overly excited
about fishing one of these tournaments.We were in! We got registered and plans were forming
about strategy, baiting, and rigs. T-shirts were embroidered with CarpOholic on them, a team
name we came up with just for this great event. The beginning of CarpOholics. We formed a
group on Facebook with the name for posting photos, communicating, and such. To my sur-
prise almost immediately the group members shot up to over 2000 members worldwide! After
a few more bumps in the road the group name had changed to Carpoholics Anonymous, and
in 2014 the decision was made to start and publish a magazine to bring all aspects of carp
angling to American Anglers. Adam Wilson took on this job as editor, illustration, and writer,
resulting in the first publication April 2014, Issue 1. There were some design problems with
the first online publishing company so the switch was made to Joomag to continue to publish
our magazine and the second issue published May 2014, Issue 2. Needless to say, the very
first issue is now lost forever in this changeover. More obstacles arose and this time shook
the very core of CAM. Some left, some stayed and the original crew pretty much lost interest
separated going on with their carping adventures apart from the group. So there I was with an
American Carp Magazine, monthly issues, to fund, edit, illustrate, and publish pretty much all
on my own. Not willing to give up the dream, I kept the name and focused on the magazine.
With Adam no longer able to run the magazine it was up to me to keep it going. I had to learn
everything from Adobe programs, illustrating techniques, to editing all at once and in less than
30 days to publish the next issue. Next was to build a group of writers all from scratch to en-
hance the content of each issue. The idea was to create the magazine and keep it free for all
carp anglers and get advertisers to pay for the cost of publishing. The magazine went to over
2000 subscribers by the middle of 2016 and was booming. In turn so were the publishing cost.
Overall cost now well over $2000 with monthly fees as well. I asked Rick Slinker to become
my partner in this business, and together we decided to monetize CAM to help take care of
the high cost of publishing. Sadly as free subscriptions began to run out so did the number of
subscribers. Now we have a little more than 200 subscribers, and to me, the magazine is better
than ever. With this small amount of subscribers help we upgraded the quality of the magazine
with joomag making it load and view much faster than before with enhanced features. Rick
recruited three companies all purchasing one-year of advertising basicly enabling you the carp
angler to receive monthly publications about carp angling here in the USA. Carp angling here
in the USA seems to be on the rise once again, and it is up to you the American Carp Angler
to keep it going. Share your passion with others, attend socials, tournaments, support carping
organizations here in the states, because it is up to you to keep the sport alive. Only together
can we have a voice large enough to get noticed to bring about much-needed regulations.
Bow fishing is destroying our sport by remarkably reducing the number of trophy carp. Even
the reports coming from bow fishing tournament organizers is showing that the average weight
of carp killed in tournaments has been drastically reduced from the twenties to low teens in
weight, with thirty plus sizes being rare. Case in point my local lake Greenwood with 212 miles
shoreline that I grew up on used to give up thirty-pound carp regularly. I know this because I
have fished this lake since the mid-1980’s for carp. After the last few years of 2 to 3 bow fish-
ing tournaments, you are lucky to get high teens in weight much less a thirty-pound carp. Now
more than ever American carp anglers need to unite. You’ve heard it before,”United we stand,
Divided we fall.” Make 2018 a great year for carp fishing by doing your part. Until next month
see you on the bank, tight lines and wet nets yall!
Jeff Skelton
CAM Founder