Once Upon A Googan!

[numbskull]

About 15 years ago there was a run of incredible nocturnal fly fishing along Lobsterville beach on MV in early June. Night after night thousands of 30"-36+" bass would wallow on sandeel soup at your feet. They were VERY hard to fool, however. After a lot of tortured nights of frustrated fishing and hours of obsessed fly tying, I finally learned how to catch them and greedily guarded that knowledge.

A night, soon thereafter, a young guy in shorts approached me while I was unhooking a nice fish and asked advice. He was visiting from the west coast, had an 8 wt fly rod and a Loop reel (the earliest wide spool reel that had no drag except your hand pressure on the spool), and little else for tackle. I covered my fly with my hand, gave him some useless pleasant brush off and smiled smugly as he walked off.

A short distance away he met an older man walking off the beach. The older guy I think was named Souza and worked in a lumber yard on the Vineyard. He had been flyfishing there as his primary mode of fishing for 30+ years. The young guy asked him for advice and I listened while he freely explained how to time the tide, what retrieve to use, and then cut the fly off his line and gave it to the young guy.

The young guy set up shop nearby and began catching fish as efficiently as I. Eventually he hooked a freight train of a fish that took him up and down Dogfish bar several times until he landed a 46" fork length striped bass that must have weighed 35-40 pounds.
Fought and caught in 3 feet of water with a 3oz rod, and a reel with no drag. An incredibly skilled angling feat. All possible because of the kindness and generosity of experienced fisherman. I, in comparison, felt ashamed, petty, and small.

I learned something that night. I learned that freely helping someone less experienced than you is the real measure of your worth as a fisherman, and as a person. Ultimately, that is what we are fishing for. If you are out there still, Mr Souza, thank you, you helped me too.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by numbskull

I learned something that night. I learned that freely helping someone less experienced than you is the real measure of your worth as a fisherman, and as a person.

Whoa - you've exceeded my expectations....

[Joe]

Jenn: Sometimes, early in a game with two outs or late in a game that was not competitive, Willie Mays would purposely strike out and look bad at pitch he could have hit easily. He'd give up an out when it did not matter so the pitcher would try the same thing at another time when it did. Predictabilty is a weakness few people realize they have.

[BasicPatrick]

Originally Posted by numbskull

I learned something that night. I learned that freely helping someone less experienced than you is the real measure of your worth as a fisherman, and as a person. Ultimately, that is what we are fishing for. If you are out there still, Mr Souza, thank you, you helped me too.

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!!!!!

[Flaptail]

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????