All through my twenties bass fishing and the bottle went hand in hand. I remember one night years ago, my friend and I hiked all the way out to Napatree with a bucket of pogies, plugs, waders and rods--and, a bottle whiskey. Halloween night. We did well, two fish in the thirty pound range; but we barely made it back to the car.

Whiskey is the life of man.
Whiskey Johnny.
Whiskey is the life of man,
And it's whiskey for me, Johnny-O.
whaler's song.

When i hit the fresh year of twenty nine, i found myself in rehab.
I've been riding the wagon every since. Coming up on my fourth year. The past two fishing years have been my best: a clear head, better planning, more nights fished (maybe too many nights fished. A swap of one addiction with another), and a much better relationship with the women that i love.


Sobriety sucks!
Ozzy Osborne.

Ozzy your wrong on this.

Bill W:D

congrats on being free :D

everything is better without the monkey hangin out on your back

Roger Roger
Another drinking story. This is about a great friend of mine, who is also sober. I'II call him Travis.

Early June, the Vineyard, Travis is fishing the Oyster Pond opening. He's using his 'go to' plug, the red headed bomber. On his fouth cast he hooks a good fish, beaches it. The fish is on the sand and his hands are shaking as he unhooks it. He figures he's got his dream fish, so he loses focus and heads back to his house where he measures it: 53" He doesn't have a scale so he puts the fish in his bath tub and gets all the ice that he can which isn't enough. He's good and buzzed at his point, but decides to run to a bar, where he knows the staff, to get a bunch of ice. On the way to the bar, still drinking, up behind him he sees the lights a' flashing. The cop pulls him over. Travis spens the night in the clink. In the morning he goes home gets his bass heads to Coopers. Up on the scale it goes, forty-nine pounds.
And to this day he keeps saying "what if?...................that was a fifty. weight loss due to...............................
Sorry Travis that's a forty-nine.

Good for you goosefish.:kewl:
Not to get preachy or anything.........but even those without a problem with it; if you're serious about catching fish, lay off the booze. It just slows your reaction time and you're going to loose many more than you'll be catching. Save it for the celebration after you land that "50"!:D

Congrats dude.

Good for you !

one day at a time ! leads to many more years ahead .

on the wagon off the wagon on the wagon off the wagon
I never thought of it like that, look in the mirror get help and quit.:)

Well done goosefish. Be proud of yourself, it is a difficult task to stay sober.

Chris

Good work Dude :btu:

Congrats....stay grateful:D

GF... as a summertime bartender, I say...
Bravo! :tm:
Keep at it! :tm:
Congrats! :D :tm:
I've seen people at their worst, and been there.. (URI.. what else do I have to say:D ) like to think I've learned to be social and thats it....

Cant imagine how hard it is, my gf works with rehab patients, cant imagine the stuff she deals with, thats why I dont work on people, beaches and mapping are much more fun to study anyways

Stay at it!

Bryan

It's been almost four years since my last drink. I've got good distance now. The first year was hard, the second was hard too, but then things got better.
When it snows I want red wine.
In the summer as the sun goes down and the earth begins to cool off--I want a good gin and tonic.
Everyday after work the boys pull out their Sammies, they each only have one. And I ain't going to lie to you: these beers start looking like cotten candy.
I miss a good drink. The stuff is everywhere, everywhere I look there it is. But I don't miss my drinking days. The weight loss, the mind getting really really confused, where all i could do was what I did best, have another one. Oh that monkey I fed him good, made him happy. But in recovery we never say the monkey is dead, the day I say yeap I did it, is the day I've got to put a call into a friend and tell him what's up. I make many such calls. Because we tend to forget how bad it was, and with more time going by the foggier things can get. There is a saying: the further you get away from your last drink, the closer you get to the next one. Don't forget: I tell myself this when times get tough. I don't go out much anymore, don't like parties, had a bad time at my brothers wedding, where i was best man, and the first one to leave the party; my old drink friends, most i never see anymore, and the ones that i do can't understand what I've done.

The power of the mind to justify something is tremendous.

Anyway I like to talk about abuse, addiction. The mighty nicotine, which I haven't yet got a good handle on--many failed attempts--is another topic I enjoy. The monkey is off my back and it feels real good; but there are times i can feel him checking me out around the corner of the window sill.
Thanks for all the good things said on this post, and pardon my ramble: I'm new to this web chatting, and, I must say enjoy it.