Symptoms of the disease - Lets here them.

[bud8fan]

You decide to sell a few reels because you could use the $$ and you tell yourself you dont need them all, only to find out that six months later you have bought the same reels again because you need them?

You have had two major surgeries on your arm to repair problems caused by fishing!

Your not supposed to use your arm while recovering from the surgeries and are actually contemplating going fishing with your partners and telling them that they have to cast for you and if you hook a big fish they will have to reel it in for you?

Your trying to decide on what you want to do for a new career and are crossing out the ideas that would prevent you from fishing during the week!

You spend hours in your shed after the wife and kids are asleep re-arranging your plugs on the wall! You especially like it when she puts the kids to bed early and is asleep by 9:00... that gives you even more time.

You fill a cooler with beer and take it into the shed so that you dont have to keep going back to the house!

You spend at least an hour a day surfing the fishing section of ebay.......

[Rob Rockcrawler]

You look at lobsters in a tank and first think yum, then think.... I bet that would catch me a cow.

[Chris in Mass]

Satisfaction of.... Getting home after sunrise, drinking one more beer with your buds before taking a fat nap, setting up shop in the driveway afterward to clean and prep your gear, carefully packing it like a fireman in case of an emergency, being showered and in the chair by 1:00 to catch the Pats or the Sox!


Also another sign.... getting yelled at by wife for taking a fat nap on the couch in the clothes on that you fished in ("I had waders and a dri-top on!")

[ThrowingTimber]

Having your body shut down..(doesnt count as sleeping)

sleeping with all your gear on

waking up on a rock

[Swimmer]

read on THE LETTERMAN SHOW, their great.

I had a buddy of mine use the excuse with his wife he was fishing but he was seeing his girlfriend, and he had to go buy a striper before he came home. He doesn't fish anymore cause he married his girlfriend after he was divorced.


My wife said if I quit smoking I could spend the money on fishing tackle. When I quit smoking I was doing four packs a day at $1.68 a pack. I have proportionally raised what I spend to correspond with inflation and the industry price rises of butts. So 4 packs a day of Winstons would cost about $22.00 a day now, which comes to $154.00 buckos a week. I can't afford that certainly but when my sweetie moans about the gear I buy I remind her about her promise.

Patrick I have to see a picture of you standing in waders in the tub. Gotta see that one.

[Rob Rockcrawler]

Going fishing for 9 hours not getting a fish and thinking about this thread as you bust your tail on the rocks.

[Breezy]

Youve thought of a way to sneek into the local aquarium at night to fish the striper tank :-}

[wader-dad]

You have fished with a shirt and tie and suit pants on under your waders.

You have plugs sent to your office so your wife doesn't find out.

You get expense checks, cash them, open a passbook savings account, order plugs, get a money order, have plugs sent to office so wife doesn't find out.

You go into back seat of car, pull down arm rest, get a knife, cut out all the stuff, open trunk, put in rods through trunk, into car with tips up against dashboard. Wife found out.

You by accident left garage door open so mice got in and you trap one and tell wife it was living in the side of the basement that serves as your fishing command central, so she is too affraid to go in there and see what you got.

You ask her if she would rather that you chase after other women and she finally says yes- its more normal.

[JohnR]

When the stripers were in the seal tank at the NE Aquarium in 2000 (the seals were removed) you devised several plans to sneak live eels in so you could truly see how Mrs 40 pounder REALLY sucks down the eel... No Chit

Follow up - the grossest display of idiocy that year was when they reintroduced the seals into the tank without removing the Bass. The biologists didn't think captivity raised seals would attack and eat the stripers....

[CANAL RAT]

im 16 so

girls think your wierd beacause all you talk about is fishing and they say you smell like fish.

teacher gives you hell beacause you read OTW in class.

all you do during class is draw fish on your binder.

dont have a girlfrend beacause it would take up fishing time.

fall asleep during class beacause you were out fishing the night before

when your going home on the bus and you look at buttermilk bay and scan the water for boils and birds working

[Rock Hopper]

When you agree to your wedding day (mid-October) based on the honeymoon being in January.

Buying a house in proximity to prime fishing grounds.

Working for companies that pay less than if you travelled to the city....but you can always go scout the water.

Not eating lunch but instead going to see the same old stuff at the local tackle shops.

Having more back up gear, brand new in storage than gear you actually use.

Having more line in different Lbs. and makes than you will use in a lifetime...because you might need them.

Researching carry tubs and customizing them for your 15 mi. ride to the nearest beach with 300 plugs in it.....not to mention the 3 bags, 3 pouches which are full and loose plugs hanging off the customized plastic around the tub.

Dedicating a whole garage to your fishing equipment and buying a large storage shack for the stuff "that just doesn't fit in the garage"

Losing your space in bed to your 4 year old because "you are fishing daddy".

Not knowing what you have and getting very happy when you find it.

Explaining to the wife, she needs to drive her old car but you need to buy a 35K vehicle (4X4) because you need to be able to get back & forth from work in all conditions.

Buying 5 new rods and 7 new reels, new $1,000 kayak (not to mention everything else that I can't now remember) this year alone but not having the time to use them...and knowing it when you buy them.

No...no, no, no....I am okay, I don't need any help, thank you....but like a lot of us....I don't spend my money on booze & other women.....the wife appreciates that

Mike, you have brought everyones non-problems to the forefront with this thread.

Kadir

[blue oyster]

if you have next years vacations planned around the tides

[Rob Rockcrawler]

you have to work in 4 hours, it takes an hour and 15 to get to SoCo, and your leaving to go fishing even though most of the reports are quite slow, because you know that the plug ya got last week wont be able to be happy over the winter if it doesnt catch something before ya put it up for the year. Plugs have feelings right, if they didnt we wouldnt talk to them.

[reelecstasy]

One of my favorite threads..
You have a fly vise on your desk at work for tying teasers,
20+ mags all fishing related on your desk.
Tail hooks and bucktail everywhere.
Floor of your cube is covered in deer hair and flashaboo and not one sign of real Work stuff anywhere. .
Every t-shirt you wear is fishing related..
She thinks I am crazy because I seriously think about fishing 24-7

[ThrowingTimber]

Your boss brings in field n stream for you...
Your boss tells you to take an extended lunch to go buy your eels....
Your boss will offer to ice your eels down for you because they know how bad it sucks to keep them alive while youre at work....
Your co workers know you collect old tackle and keep an eye out for stuff for you while they go on vacation... They all know your life will not be complete until you have a soco chief...
The folks you work with know that youre on the beach most weekends and offer to take your on call rotation..
Your boss offers to get wireless for the laptop for any instances where you are on call and cant get to a pc...
Your bosses boss, comes to visit and asks for the crazy fisherman dood(yea she said dood) and offers you an 8hr charter with her hubby who knows every nook and cranny from baja to alaska.... and hes been a charter captn for 35 yrs... yeah I'll be out there next month lord willing...
You dont recall the last time you saw someone fishing's face...
You dont recall the last time you got fit shaced....
You go on "dates" when the tides are horrible....
Your co-workers all know you have a problem..they cover for you...
you boss covers for you... encourages you....
you've got more than 8 hook sizes under your passengers side of your vehicle "just in case"
You've successfully mouted 20 bait patterns on your visor...
You sit in the parking area debating 9wt or all star spinner
You fly fish at night...
You walk around ppl you know on purpose...its dark.. youre not sure...
You havent had a full nights sleep since mid april....
if you call into work your boss asks you how much it weighed...
Your boss helps you look up airfare so you can fly to the other side of the country to catch stripers..
You can tie knots with your eyes closed....
You've fished while sleeping, Im just going to close my eyes during this retreive... The hit and the set wake u up... the ziiiiiiiiiinnng relaxes you..
Broad, beer or bass the answer is obvious....
sunlight makes your eyes hurt...
folks you know call you dracula...
You cant remember you went to the beach to "swim"
You constantly blow off loose women to catch bass... you call them between dec and april....
Your curtain rods are for plugs not curtains...
You've got 3 dozen frozen eels in your freezer.. just in case...
You post online because you cant fish while youre at work... but you're working on a way to...
You work in an office and your hands are torn to chit.. Left thumb convench, right index casting braid... calloused.....
Your amazed that there are other fish besides stripers... youre amused for a short period of time..
You wont hangout with the folks from work.. they've all been deemed nerds.... they dont fish..
people who dont fish are just ok...
you only know the names of the ppl. who are immediate to any tasks you do at work.. everyone else gets a seinfeld name... IE Lady who shouldnt wear bright colors, guy whos clearly on meds.., lady with the ghetto ring tone, there are others... You dont care what their names are they dont fish...

[The Dad Fisherman]

The VP of sales comes up to you because he called and you didn't answer your Cell.....and you look at him all serious and say "Hey, I was fishing"

Your car constantly smells of either dead herring or rancid wading boots.....that have baked in the sun @ 100 degrees.....And you don't have a problem w/ that.

You can't give anyone a ride anywhere because your backseat is permanent home for a 150 quart cooler and your afraid of what size hooks will impale their a$$ if they sit in the front seat.

The envelope that Your daughter's Father's Day Card came in reads "For information on The Dad Fisherman, Please log onto www.striped-bass.com" (yeah, this one IS real)

Your wife now knows when you say You're "Sporting Wood" that you mean you have a Full Plug Bag.

[Squibby17]

Hilarious thread by the way,

You go on a date to Newport with an attactive girl only she gets mad at you during the mansion walk because "your down at the water checking out the spots"

your more excited when "on the water" comes to you house, than your roomates play boy.

You go to the beach and contemplate stealing a little kids kite, to try and make a make shift eel out rigger for late nights on the beach.

[thefishingfreak]

your wedding photos include fishing rods.

you cut the guides off of the 20 or so broken rods you have laying arround and put the blanks out for the trash. only to run back out in the middle of the night to get them before someone else does.

you know how to milk a fish.

you can find your best fishing holes bye triangulation, quicker than gps.

you swap the hooks out on plugs, and keep the old rusty ones.

baby poo is nasty but fish crap splattered all over your shirt is kool.

when you get a fish, your happier that you got your eel back, rather than the fish you just caught.

you can type faster than your secretary.

you got bass thumb so bad you don't need a rag to handle eels.

you bought a suburban so you could get a bigger herring tank.

you start you own herring run. {three more years and i'll be stylin }

[j35]

your wife aks you if you are ready for your fathers day gift and you say " umm welll, ummm, i really need to go pick up eels for tonight before the shop closes.....but i'll be really quick"

[afterhours]

you take five fishing rods, three plug bags, and your waders on your honeymoon

[Notaro]

you keep going to b&t shops for no reasons, but just to shop and purchase items that you dont really need.


you just keep comparing relationships with fishing.


you keep buying AH spooksters because you are losing it everytime and fireline doesnt hold out much.

you forgot to take care of your reels and send them to maddog2020, the reel doctor.

you got a spending habit.

you choose fishing voer friendships and women. that's a nirvana.

[McSpooled]

o Proud of the 'sand box' you could fill with all the sand around the area you
hose off your waders!

o Quelling your wifes suspicions you're leaving her by justifying the necessity of
having half your wardrobe in your truck at all times.

o Finding you're using 'fishing' words in too many work related situations, i.e.
structure, fishy, etc etc.

[Swimmer]

I had a blue 77 chevy van that I used that stunk so bad from old squid my wife and everyone else refused to ride in it until I replaced the plywood on the floor of the van. Even Ray Metcalf walked by it once on the dock going to his car and commented on the strong odor. He chuckled about it as he was walking away.

[Swimmer]

Your wife, after you fishing the bass derby every year (the year she was getting chemo) but one since you married her, starts getting a lit put out with the annual trip. Saw this coming and started saving a number of years ago and bought her a new diamond getting myself another 20 years of fishing the vineyard derby. Talk about forethought.

[Swimmer]

Not that I think about dying, but my headstone is going to have my name below a fisherman walking toward the beach and setting sun at sunset with bait bucket in hand. I don't know what going on my wifes. I havent' chatted with her about that.

[Swimmer]

You tell the UPS, Fedex, and every other delivery company drivers only to stopped if the corrollas not in the driveway.

[Swimmer]

I don't now how it happened but A POST ON PAGE 6 AND ONE ON PAGE SEVEN i DID NOT WRITE BUT ARE ATTRIBUTED TO ME.

[thefishingfreak]

Originally Posted by Swimmer

I don't now how it happened but A POST ON PAGE 6 AND ONE ON PAGE SEVEN i DID NOT WRITE BUT ARE ATTRIBUTED TO ME.

swimmer look at the dates.
this is an OLD thread someone dug up

[missing link]

Mrs. Link here,
You know your husband is hooked, when you tell him " when I drove passed Ellis Haven in Plymouth, I almost killed a peacock crossing the road," and he says "you should have hit it, the feathers would have made some nice jigs." sick huh!
Later,
Mrs. Link

[ThrowingTimber]

hhahahahha good one Mrs Link!