Wow !!!! I believe 50 years of experience of fishing and analyzing of what you are doing made you to understand psychology of the things you are after , and i do believe this is the only way to succeed no meter what you do .
I have been fishing all my life back in Russia and when i came to USA i was doing mostly ocean fishing in NY Striped bass , Black fish , flounder , fluke , sea bass were my favorite.
I moved to LA couple years ago and started to fish lakes . I know it's not so many people in America respect carp fishing but for me was a challenge to tie different kind of rigs
to cook different my own dough with a flavors for different lakes or time of seasons however if you really want to catch huge size of carp for a sport sake you have to chum .
after i get ticket for it $300 i switch to striped bass . Accidentely i caught crappie couple times did not know what kind of fish was that but look beautiful and happen to taste even batter . Most of the time i was after big sized fish as i sad for sport sake i caught sword fish in Miami 225 lb was the most exiting 2.5 hours of fight in my life .
After i get on line to learn about crappie fish i was surprise how interesting it might be , one one hand you can find fish in any lake just put a worm on a hook and any body can get lucky on another hand this is so exiting and sophisticated way to fish. Even lust year was not the best year of my life money wise, now i am looking to buy 12' aluminum used boat
just to learn and succeed in this sport , love the concept of using knowledge and every day experience and as YOU sad paying attention to the surrounding.
Thank you very much for your reply!!!!!!