In a bass fishing world where it seems like there is some type of hot button topic every week, I thought maybe it was the right time to go visit my friend Rob Ciarapica and get away from that bass fishing negativity.

It had been almost four years since Rob and I shared the boat (far too long) and I thought there is no better time than now. I also get caught up in the hot button topics and what not so I decided I needed some positivity and there is not a more positive person to fish with than Ciarapica.

For those that don’t do (which I don’t imagine too many people in West Virginia don’t know who Ciarapica is) Ciarapica has become quite the popular angler in the state through his detailed fishing reports, very entertaining YouTube videos and really just being himself.

I can remember vaguely back in 2019 or 2020 when I really started seeing a lot of Ciarapica on social media and I kind of wonder who this was. He was doing something no one else was doing, he was going fishing essentially every day of the weekend, filming it all, coming home and posting a detailed report of his day and then a few days later you would see clips and videos of his day. We didn’t really have that in West Virginia before him.

He caught my attention and since then I have honestly kind of rooted him in his adventure.

But anyways on to our little half day trip.

I took the trip honestly to get to know Rob a little more and share it with people who visit the site. Ciarapica has had a goal since 2018 when he started back on social media and he is knocking on the door of accomplishing his goals. He wants to turn this social media and bass fishing thing into a career and I truly believe myself he can do it and he might be closer to that goal than he thinks. I understand social media and digital media and if I didn’t think he was close I wouldn’t say that.

Our fishing trip didn’t result in much success, matter of fact zero fish. But we shared good stories, goals for ourselves and advice we can both use later on. We fished roughly three hours on little 40 acre Rollin Lakes chucking an A-Rig with no success in 40 degree water temps but we enjoyed the 40 degree weather on the final day of 2023. And while we didn’t score any fish we did achieve something which I feel like is more important than fishing.

We collected a few gallon buckets worth of trash around the lake. Something that Ciarapica does every time he goes fishing even on days where he has spent 10 or 11 hours on the water. He makes it a goal of his to pick up a bucket of trash before he goes home.

Why you might ask?

“I have got a lot out of bass fishing since I have been doing it,” said Ciarapica, “And I figured a few years ago I should give back to it in some way and picking up a bucket of trash before I go home is the least I could do. Lot of the time if there isn’t a dumpster at the lake, I throw it in the truck and put it in my own garbage cans.”

I think a lot of time we should take a step back ourselves and maybe do the same. Give back to the sport and the lakes that have given so much to us over the year. And it is a great lesson to teach the generation of anglers coming up.

But what was even more impressive to me that I learned after our fishing adventure was that Rob sits at the lake a lot of time before he goes home. Even after picking up a bucket of trash which takes 10 to 20 minutes, he sits in his Chevy Tahoe that has over 300,000 miles on it, makes all of his fishing reports on social media, then edits his videos, makes a thumbnail and uploads it before he even puts his Tahoe in drive to go home.

Let me tell y’all who don’t edit video. Just for a 10 minute quality video which he edits all on his phone, would roughly take anyone an hour to an hour and half, figure up 10 to 20 minutes to make a thumbnail and 30 minutes to upload. You’re looking at a roughly over a two hour process to just make a video. And then factor in probably 15 to 20 minutes to make his detailed fishing report.

It’s honestly remarkable he does it every single trip.

There is very very few people more dedicated.

So I hope the best for Rob and I truly hope he achieves his goal to make fishing his full time job through social media.

And while he is stepping closer to his goal, I am sure he is going to help clean up bass fishing one five gallon bucket at a time.