Hard core but still reasonably responsible. Thats me.
You know me as someone who seems to live, eat, and breath fishing nonstop. Its not quite true.
First - I've been doing this Internet thing longer than most; since the early 80's and long since mastered telecommuting, telepresence, and the art of being connected and in contact with minimal effort. You might be surprised to find that despite my seeming constant presence on this forum; I'm usually playing on it while doing something else at the same time.
My home life: I'm married w./ 2 girls, 12 & 9, and learning about puberty all over again. Great. We live in Acton and rent a house in Falmouth for 6 months of the year; not surprisingly; the fishing 6 months of the year. We are weekend commuters; I spend days at the cape w/. the family, mornings and evenings are fishing time. 6 hr's to fish, 6 hr's to sleep, 12 hr's for the family. Balance. Usually.
Work: I herd cats for a living. Software management is a more formal title. I'm currently Vice president of Development at a small software startup in Waltham called Epicon, after an abortive 4 month stint at a hardware startup in North Andover. Prior to that I was *the man* at FTP Software; the guy who knew the technology, could get stuff done, get product out the door, talk to customers and salespeople; etc. I took part in some of the early work that led to the Internet as we know it today; I wrote a TCP/IP stack or two, implemented more than my share of protocols, took part in the design of Winsock. Blah, blah, blah.
My job expectancy is measured in 1/2 year increments at this point - in the volatile software industry - VP's are the 1st to go.
I empathize with Frank S. - for a good part of the 80's and early 90's I was too busy to fish; work, work, work came first. I aspire to Frank's lifesatyle - I'm 44 1/2 - I want to be done work by 50 with 2 houses; one on the water in Falmouth and one on the water somewhere in Fla. 3 boats. A 20 footer for each house and a bigger one to drive back and forth.
So there are the other two legs of my trilogy ; family; work, fishing. Everything else is noise. Sleep is an afterthought. I organize my life so that I pay my dues w. work; keep my family more or less happy, and fish, read about fishing, tie flies, talk about fishing with whatever free time I have left.
Fishing history. First - I'm jealous of all of you who fished the 60's and 70's; I was introduced to party boat and pier fishing by my father, but never surf or spin cast till I figured it out myself in the 80's. Fishing to me was an office cod boat expedition or a beach party with someone spiking a bait rod next to the beer.
However; as a kid I always gravitaed to water and a fishing rig whenever possible. Unfortunately; the times were few and far between.
Somewhere in the early 80's I got introduced to party boat bluefishing. When my first daughter was born in 86 vacations changed from travel to all corners of the world to easy trips to my parents house at Popponesset. Small house. My parents; my family. In 87 I bought my first surfcasting rod, a 10' Ugli-Stick/Shakespear combo and the rest is history.
I look back in amusement at how I figured it out and how many years it took before I figured it out. Years of casting the wrong thing at the wrong place at the wrong time. There was no Reel-Time to help me; it was trial and error, watch and learn, ask a question here and there and eventually figure it out.
I caught my first blues in 88 off the Poppy jetty at Wading Place Rd; - the spit - why walk there; the jetty is right here! I caught my first blues at Plum Island Labor day weekend of 90 down by Emerson Rock's. The Poppy blues must have been 4 pounders; these were migrating fat surf blues. What a rush. I can still see them cartwheeling in the September surf; I still can see the teethmarks they made in my wooden popper.
In 91 the world turned for me. Till then I thought fishing season was July and August and that you fished for bluefish or travelled to fish. I thought stripers were like salmon, effectively extinct in Mass.
July 20, 1991, only 7 years ago. Dawn, bright sun, hot air, flat sea. A cast off the Wading Place Jetty, a hit and a hard fight, more than I was used to. On my blue atom a striper, in retrospect, one that was probably a 26-30" 6-10 pound fish. I was moved in a way I cannot describe as I carefully unhooked it, marvelling in its heft; its stripes; its colors and its beauty. I dropped it in the rocks and to my surprise at the time; it burrowed its way out seawards; slapped the great tail, flashed that now familiar side at me and was gone. I admit it; I was crying I was so moved by it.
Somewhere I told someone I had caught a striper as if I had found the holy grail; whomever it was - I forget, they tolerated me and hinted that I ought to walk out to the end of the Poppy Spit at dawn. The rest my friends is history. One or two 5 striper mornings and I was hooked. My life started changing; I read Reading The water, I read Woolner & Lyman, I read Daignault; I started commuting to Plum Island before work and learning the boat dock, sand bar, and jetties there. Hanging in Surflands and listening to Kay. Hanging in eastmans and listening to Gene & Jim.
But still; fishing was an effort; Plum Island was an hour; the Cape was a two week in the summer affair. Summer of 93 -3 things happened - first - I bought my first boat, a Whaler 15. Ugh. I traded it in a month later for a new Scout. But the whaler, balky engine and all, led to my first hundred fish day, July 4, 1993, right smack in the middle of Poppy Bay. That led to the second - meeting Dave Churbuck.
I wrote of that episode on either rec.fishing.saltwater or the salt-l mailing list, both rather awkward and unfocused pre-cursor's to Reel Time. Dave, read it, and because I had mentioned Poppy, wrote to me, sharing a bit of his knowledge of the area. We got an exchange going; Dave and John Skinner, another re.fishing denizen gave me eeling advice and a bad habit was started :-)
On November 2/1193 I went fishing w. Dave for the first time; South Beach Chatham at dusk. In Nov. Grey, cloudy, rough. I was scared stiff. He appeared to thrive in the conditions. I watched and learned.
The third was a discussion with my wife about renting a summer house which led to a random drive down to the cape to look at various houses which led to a drive along the falmouth coast, past a house on Green Pond with a "For rent" sign on it. Once more; the rest is history.
Skip forward to 94. May; Cotuit flats. I'm in Dave's boat casting spinning gear at the monster blues. Dave's flyfishing - I don't get it - he's caught one or two fish; I've caught 10. He hooks one and hands me the rod.
I still recall a line in an article he wrote "a bluefish on a fly rod is like dipping your hand in electricity". I got it. The next winter I bought my first fly rod and practiced casting 30' flails at icebanks in the backyard.
Two more 94 events; JUly 28, 1994 - a cast at a school of breaking bluefish right in front of Green Pond and all hell broke loose. Whats this fish; its a tuna? Nope - try again silly Larry - it was my first bonito and I was hooked on that particular madness. Late August, 94, Eel Pond, Menahaunt yacht club; tossing eels. My first certifiable 36" true blue keeper. I released it.
This has gone on too long so some of the high points:
Biggest - I don't know - I've caught 2 certifiable cows; 1 48" and 1 45-47"; never weighed them; just released them. Biggest fish I've kept is probably 32"; anything larger goes back. My rule.
I have caught a 38"/18 pound bluefish which scared the heck out of me!
Best: Time on the water - not just fishing, but seeing, feeling, smelling, being alive. Like most of you; its hard to explain the joy of being alone, finding my own secret spot; my own corner where no one else ever goes.
Reel - Time: Its the best of the Internet - focused information; high signal, low noise. I'm on dozens of mailing lists; have been on hundreds over the past 15 years of Internet presence; R-T is the best thing I have ever seen. As Dave says - I am in awe of whats going on here.
Gratuitous name drop - I project managed InternetMCI, an amalgam of FTP Software, Ascend, Netscape and MCI. I got to know Vint Cerf pretty well during this period. he kept talking about the Internet as a means of enabling special interest groups; highly focused and directed information sources and flows.
Guess what - R-T is probably one of the best examples of this around. Why? Because we all put effort and care into it. We, not just Dave & Thorne, have developed a community so to speak which crosses some boundaries and barriers and allows us to communicate effectively about shared interests. I am proud to have been part of this and just as important, am thrilled at the opportunity R-T has given me to meet, both electronically and face to face, a variety of people I would never have intersected with otherwise.
Thanks to Dave & Thorne for starting it and putting in that startup labor of love - I know what it cost.
Thanks to all who write for the effort - believe me I know what that costs also.
Thanks to all who I've met face to face as a result of R-T. Good fishing, good people and good times.