i think we all have a tiny bit of googanism in us from time to time. But, I don't think this thread is about bashing people as googans, It's just funny to look at our selves from time to time and have a chuckle. I mean if you can't laugh at your self who can you laugh at ?

BINGO! Right on the mark Johnny!

I apologize for taking this thread somewhere else....it wasn't pointed at anyone, just a general view I sometimes see.....


I have done many a googan things...and still probably do.....

My 1st saltwater set-up....a white Mitchell Rod and reel from Wallymart.....headed down the Canal to do some bait fishin'.....with my Sneakers on.....walked right down the rocks....next thing I know....I'm sprawled out on my back.....bait everywhere....my pole in 2......I never even took a cast that day....

Used to fish off a jetty at night...same jetty....all the time......after about a year and a half of that....and 1 fish later.....I realized it was about 2 feet deep there.....WHOOPS.

Well since we're being honest and laughing at ourselves....The first time I hit this pier to try it out. There were a few people there. One guy I recognized and I go over and exchange fisherman war stories with him, when my reel starts screeming. I go over adjust my drag and start reeling, well almost everyone on the pier comes over and starts coaching me on how to reel him in. I'm ashamed to admit that I got so caught up, that I didn't realize that they instigated me into brutally fighting this fish against everything I was taught. I was High-stickin, running, and dodging, d#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g , and jumping. I got the fish on deck and then it dawned on me, I'm worn out, you'd think I just hauled in a blue fin the way I was sweating, all of that and the fish was just barely a keeper. I did everything that's considered a "googan's m/o", all on the ASSumption that I thought those gentlemen were seasoned veterans and knew all there is to fishing this spot. These guys were high fiving me and congratulating me on a 29" fish. Reality hit and I realized the error of my ways when I watched one guy snap his rod trying to yank the fish up onto the pier, and another guy leave a blue flopping around on the deck with the line and hook still in it's mouth because he was scared to unhook it.:blush::blush:

Bigfish...I can laugh at myself because I know I do stupid things. The problem is most of those that NEED to understand the point of your thread....wont

Left Falmouth after work & dinner one late Oct night, got to the Vineyard, got to the Head, fished a perfect tide, got nothing, got home exhausted for 8am, got two small kids ready for the day, walked them to the local swimming beach for something to do, dead low,low tide, found two guys from Ohio trying saltwater fishing with 6 ft spinning rods, using poppers in 18" of water as far as they could cast. While I explained to one the futility of their effort, the other got a huge hit (right at his feet), screaming run, and managed to land a 14 lb bluefish. So who was the "googan"?

Jenn...I agree!;)

6oz. pyramids and bait the first time at the Ditch. Kept getting hung up and peezed. My son was with me and only about 8yo at the time. dispite this idiocy his father was leading him into, he caught a 40+ inch bass. That fish must have lept on that mack chunk before it hit bottom. This was when a bass had to be 36" to keep. Of course we (I) didn't bring a tape to prove it..The beauty of all this was we were fishing right next to a group of guys who were all decked out in the "proper" attire and gear. We could tell because they looked all the same and were all snooty. Snooty until Noah hooked up.

I try never to be critical of others methods of fishing . I too started out with a white bucket chuncking bait and drinking lots of beer . We fished well , caught many large fish and never made a spectical of ourselves (like some do) . The local waters for me the bucket brigade cathes more fish than any other type of fishing . That being said I dont fish that way any longer but I dont fish my local waters often . Like link said who the hell are we . We are fisherman not rocket scientists . and either way we will end up the same . dust to dust .

When I first started out in the early 70s . I thought you had to run up to the surf and cast hard . My grandfather used to laugh at me " go for it kid LI isnt that far away " . we chuncked often and caught large fish . I learned that with time I found the strength in me to just stand and cast like I did in the freshwater . Today I still do stupid things in others minds but thats Ok . for most of us its not our method of survival so have FUN fishing . its only fishing and dont take it too seriously .

How about all of us freshwater converts that found out the hard way how important the drag on a reel is.

Or us freshwater converts that were not used to rinsing the salt off our gear???:hs:

Trolled a tube at 7 kts. in the middle of Vineyard sound at 2 PM on 30 lb mono. All 100 yards that would fit on the undersized reel was skimming across the top of the water.

Now I know so much, everything stays the same but I add a worm. Man, those night crawlers are expensive.

Anchored in 10' of crystal clear water (with not a fish in sight) in cape cod bay with an ugly stick, a giant chunk of bait, 2oz lead sinker, 67 beers in the cooler, a flat of sea worms, a pound or two of clams, 6 guys in the boat, and not a fish within 2 miles of us. We figured, hey just drop the bait in and they will come! It's funny how they never came...:rotflmao: The boat's gone now, and we've all since had the opportunity to do a bunch of dumb stuff from shore too! Live and learn...

My first time fishing with eels no one told me how to handle them. Me and a buddy went to the end of Tashmoo jetty with a bucket'o'eels and proceeded to try and grab the slimy eels with our hands on the rocks with no rag, then put a hook thru their faces.
It turned into an all out laugh fest, after mucho numerous 4 handed grabbing attempts we laughed ourselves silly til we nearly pee'd our pants. After regaining our composure we figured out to take them off the jetty and put some dry beach sand on them for grip...Duuuhhhh! Till this day I still chuckle a little every time I reach for one of those slimy little suckers.

My worst googan moment came about 5 years ago when I went on my first get-together outing with members of the CT Surfcasters Assoc. I, at the time, had been surf fishing for 25 years and liked to think I knew what I was doing.
so here comes the newbie (me) up to about six guys from the club fishing side by side, I say hello to all thinking "this is what it's all about, a bunch of guys just like me". the guys actually made some space for me in a very crowded spot and then on my first cast with my new buddies I proceeded to cast the drag knob and spool of my 4500ss into Long Island Sound. I had loosened the drag for some reason and it was right at the edge and off it went, I had no spare spool or rod and had walked 1/2 mile to the spot, so I just watched them fish for a few minutes and went home. Going to the same spot tonight to meet the guys if the weather cooperates.

When I was a young teen I had this bizarre overhead as hard as you can cast casting style.

Hooked myself in the back of the head.Twice.

Whats wrong with 5 gallon buckets!! Anyone who would cast stones at the guy who likes them might as well beat up on duct tape ( thats DUCK tape to you googans ) and zip ties.

I sometimes have the honor of fishing with an 80 YO Googan who wears plaid pants and old dress shoes as he putts around in his dory.
He makes plugs out of broomsticks and the things work great and he fishes with bulk cheap Shakespere line.
The guy thinks keepers of any species are meant to be kept and eaten and he eats fish all winter long.

Birth of a Plug Hoe
 

Did I ever tell you guys about the time I stripped down to my skivvies and swam out to the huge rock on the SE corner of Watch Hill to salvage a Gibbs bottle plug someone had left hanging on the top of it?

:doh:

Woody

I had a Goog moment just last night.

Where I was fishing there is about a three foot wall with sand on one side and on the other you can jump down and cast from in front of it. I jumped down and decided to take my bag off my shoulder and lay it on the other side of the wall. It is now three feet up behind me above a nice moving current and of course laying open. I swing the rod back to cast my bucktail and before I even realize what was happening I hear the sound of the bag being flipped. :eek: It turns out that my bucktail had hooked the back and bottom of the bag. All of my plugs decided to make a run for it. I was able to grab most of them but the lightning fast goalie like reflexes of this kid I just met saved the rest. All of my bucks and tins stayed in the pouches and I did not lose a single thing. Going through the inventory made me realize how pissed my wife would be once she saw the receipt from the replacements. :af:
My bag will now stay on my shoulder or if alone way the hell out of the way and closed.

I'm thinking the 14 ft walmart rod for tossing 2oz and a small chunk in the bay was overkill.I was using my white bucket as a seat while holding the big bastard.No surf,no current,shallow water,low tide,full moon,light shining in the drink looking for bait.
The thing is I still fish alone.I don't get much help from others.So every lesson in this game is learned the hard way . I have picked some stuff up here and there on this site but, thats like saying you can rebuild an engine because you've read about a guy that built the same one.I read the reports ,watch the tides and fish under optimal conditions when possible .Still just a goog who wanders on the beach alone ,talking to myself ,yelling at wind knots,making stupid mistakes and learning from them.So yeah I'm pretty googanish most of the time.

BigFish,

Here is my googan moment:

Slinging an eel by its tail through a onshore wind into the Merrimack with a 12' Ugly Stick.

I have learned a lot since then by talking with the surfmasters working the counters at our New England bait and tackle shops, The Fisherman, On The Water, the Plum Island Surfcasters, the various books that have been published in recent years, and GREAT online communities such as this one.

I follow a woodworking site called www.woodnet.net and www.bt3central.com. Sites like this one and the woodworking sites are the reason that the internet is so powerful a tool. It's people helping people. Sharing information so that evryone benefits.

They share information and help people just to help them. We were all newbies once. Once another newbie asks you a question and you can help them in some manner,(you can skin a cat in more than one way) you are getting them from a point where you once were. A rookie.

We were all rookies once. I remember once when I couldnt get a 1/2 blind dovetail to work while I was working with stock that was 7/16 inch thick?

Took me a while but I smiled and laughed at myself after I figured it out.

You can either learn from your mistakes or from you mentors. I would rather learn from a mentor, but I also learn the hard way from my mistakes more than I would like to admit.

Mike

"aka" rookie, newbie, or googan.

My early googism was chunking with treble hooks because the meat stays on better .. Caught a 24" striper the hook buried in its throat .. I cut the line and released it knowing it wasn't able to feed like that . That was the end of trebles and rod holders .

How about buying a 6' boat rod with some god awful Penn conventional reel for my skiff and then going ahead and using it at the Powder Point Bridge! Brilliant! Oh yea and then I went ahead and tried to cast it out! Can you say Birds Nest?!:fishslap:

A F@$N MEN...we should all remember that one!!!

If I can give back to others 50% of what this sport/hobby/way of life has given me I would die a happy man.

That being said...I have dozens of Googan stories both surfcasting and boat fishing and the number goes up to the thousands when I think about flyfishing.

Latest laughable moment was this summer when I was telling some friends about how well I have been doing in club casting contests and how much I have been learning about distance casting during my trips to the outer banks...can you see this one coming...back to back to back monster backlashes...two rods, three reels and within ten minutes I was all done for that tide...replacing the line was inor compared to how stupid I felt. It's funny now!!!!!

Ya know what's really weird? I don't ever remember having a "googan" moment?

(Well there was that one time wading out to fly fish in Barnstable harbor on a bright sunny Sunday morning and after making the 3/4's of a mile trek out to the edge of the channel at low water and just starting to cast to rolling fish I got stomach cramps and had to immediatly head back for the truck, which was a speck on the shore and getting halfway back suddenly realizing I wasn't going to make it and had to make the decision to either drop trou then and there on the spot or wear the consequences. I wonder if the husband and wife team that were clamming 50 feet from me ever got over that sight?)

hmmmm????:doh:

I know I am not alone in this next one...

Two of us are in the right spot and the fish are there...my friend is hooking up every few casts...I keep missing hits and dropping hooked fish while he is putting the hurt on the school of fish that seemed suicidal...I get more and more frustrated as I am using the same plug and retrieve as he is.

Finally we both stop for a smoke break and while I am bitching about how i can't get a fish landed my friend proceeds to take my plug off the rod and remove the hook protectors and tells me I should be all set now.

Damn it...I have done this on more than one occasion

I tried explaining to this woman, I am fishing a conventional that is why the reel is on top. She refused to listen and told me how it just felt "right" to have the spinning reel on top because that is what her husband taught her...........( I think she was getting weirded out when I started snapping off pictures) lol

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...is/googan2.jpg

I got my first striper on a clam and 3oz of weight, which was not enough weight to hold bottom in Moriches inlet here on Long Island. I was using a 7' Penn Captiva rod and reel combo.

Well, from there I decided to step it up a bit so I went to Modell's Sporting Goods and purchased my new set up, a 10' 2 piece ugly stick and stepped it up to the 8000 Captiva reel. I spooled that bad boy up with 40lb stren braid and was addicted.

3 months later I caught my biggest bass on that combo.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My friend quit fishing and I raided his garage and got myself a 10' Lami conventional. I also got a Penn 9500SS and put it on the conventional rod. I couldn't understand why I kept getting birds nests and wind knots, until some guy saw me fishing and said "I think a conventional reel belongs on that rod, that rod doesn't have surf guides on it."

HAHA NOW THATS FUNNY