Randon thoughts on the passing of Tim Coleman

[piemma]

I know most of the younger guys didn't personally know Tim. Every striperman knew his books, articles and his passion for this thing we do.

It seems he probably had a heart attack or some other health issue that took his life. I will miss him as I fished with him and learned much from him even though we were the same age.

Tim forgot more about catching stripers than most of us know. He was a great fisherman but humble beyond belief about what he knew.

He's the one who gave "he who cannot be mentioned" his nickname. He knew our waters like the back of his hand.
So now we count him with Silent George, John Habs, Al Peline, Flaptail, Bob Samualson and the legends like Charlie Murat, Frank Woolner, Stan Gibbs and others I cannot remember.

[JohnR]

He was a genuinely great natured guy that loved to fish, often alone, and was not only exceptional on so many aspects of angling but in how to convey that to us mere mortals. Truly a great Surfman

[HESH2]

rip tim once fished next to him on watch hill and while i did zip he managed a nice striper.all in all sad to see him go but he went doing something he loved to do.he's in the lord's landing net after making his final cast.

[Fisherwoman]

Thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family, he was a great guy in all aspects of fishing and is a legend all on his own!!!!

[patabate]

The news was a shock and I don't know if it's just part of aging as you see your friends pass on, but it's been a bad year for loosing some great fishermen. Tim was a very private person and even those who knew him a very long time didn't know very much about him.
I first met Tim at Wetmores Tackle in Westbrook, he was distributing issue number 1 of the Connecticut Rhode Island Fisherman. He invited my friend Frank and I to join him in Narragansett in a couple of nights for a tour of the his RI. And what a tour it was. Tim was a displaced jetty jockey from NJ with what seemed to be some odd tackle. He pulled out his light stick, which mounted a Penn Jigmaster with 40# mono, his"go to" rod had 50. Even with such stout stuff, his drag was zinging that night.
He was still a journalism student at URI, recently returning from a combat tour in Vietnam when he landed a gig that defined his career. Earnings at the paper were meager. He lived in a shack on the salt pond that was stacked with Fisherman magazines and Dinty Moore Beef Stew cans. Tim was editor, writer, reporter and circulation manager.
Tim was quiet and reserved. The most excited I ever seen him was him throwing a fit at his rusty neck light and its 4 batteries one night on the short wall and flinging it into the channel. He was passionate and outspoken about fisheries conservation whether it was cod, scup or stripers. Though he sold bass in his days at URI, he became an advocate for catch and release long before it was fashionable. He certainly wasn't well off but he released thousands of dollars worth of bass each season back in the '80s.
Tim was a man of simple means, for years he used a bungee as a surf belt. When he switched to needlefish from Rebels, you saw an ad in the Fisherman for 4 Rebels, $2each pick up at the office. He never held onto anything that didn't have a spot in his military surplus plug bag.
This past year I saw a new enthusiasm in Tim, he was as excited as a teenager about tarpon fishing from the Keys bridges and he had a new book project on fishing Block Island.
He wrote from an experienced hand and researched his articles well, always giving credit to his sources. Tim rarely referred to himself in a story and some of his best writing was parodies of his friends.
The fishing community lost a good friend.

[JohnR]

Very well said Pat - thank you.

[Nebe]

I never met him, but when I had a question about fishing a couple specific areas that I knew he used to fish, I would ask #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& to give Tim a call and ask for some tips. I took those tips and did very very well and couldn't believe what I had because of both Tim's generosity and also #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&'s willingness to ask him for me. The next time I'm at that place at the tide Tim suggested and using the gear Tim reccomended, I will think of him with great admiration an gratitude. I really wish that I could have met him.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[JohnR]

Dennis - thank you for sharing. Good to hear he was having a ball (again) in Florida.

You could run into him anywhere but it was sometimes Naps and sometimes the Short Wall. Almost always alone, but always pleasant and a true gentleman.

[agsurfr]

To Pat and Dennis--

We appreciate your sharing, painful though it may be. It is nice to hear from those that knew him and shared the beaches with him.

[JDK]

I met Tim Coleman once in either the late 1970s or early 1980s.

I grew up in Stonington and the Fisherman Magazine was head quartered in Mystic. My brother hung around with Tim's Office Manager's son. We were over Dave's house and Tim was visiting. I mentioned to him that I spent a fair bit of time striper fishing the railroad bridges between Mystic and Stonington and having OK luck with rebels. He went out to his car and came back with a Smilin Bill bucktail and bottle of pork rinds and handed them to me. Showed me how to cut the pork rind and described how to fish them on the outgoing. I thought, and still do, that it was pretty cool to give a young kid who only owned a bike, fishing rod, and 2-3 rebels, a killer striper lure and technique.

[stripermaineiac]

A long time way back I was fishin Rhody in my old Vega. Some may remember the pumpkin. Orange with green rod racks.It was the early 70's. i'd run into Tim at the Top of the Dock that morning an he's told me of some nice fish at The Light.That was what the Galalee light was called back then. i had some new P-40's Bob had given me to try so I went down that eve. I was sleepin in my car when Tim knocked on my window. He laughed an said come on kid your gonna miss the tide.He saw the new 40's an showed me the one he had on his rod. bob had given him a couple the week before an he was usin them along with some rebels.He told me to work from the right of the light an cast the 40 to the left an let it drift around. He gave me the ist drift with him right behind me. i lost my ist fish he got his. A nice fat one that he put back looked in the 20s.We had fish till the tide slacked an were there alone as a front was coming with lots of rain an wind.I lost 4 P-40s with fish in the rocks to the left but landed one of my ist fish over 45 lb which he helped me land.We got some sweet fish that night an the next one too. a couple of his Block friends were there the next night. i still remember him lettin me have the ist drift. It was a lesson I've repeated for others many times since.
Thanks Tim Tight lines an hope the fishing is good where you are. the kid----Ron