Real life characters past and present

[DarkSkies]

R-P's thread about the glory daze got me thinking of people we know who really ramp up our fishin experience. They are the people we think of when we remember all the good times, we had. They are sometimes a little crazy, a little twisted, but 110% into fishin and the love of the outdoors.

Let's hear about the characters who have made your fishin life memorable.

R-P and others, if ya want to go into detail about all those crazy characters that you fished with, feel free.

[DarkSkies]

I was thinkin about this as we sat at a place last night where you gotta wait to get the fish. You wait maybe 5, 7 hours, and maybe you get lucky.

If you're lucky, the fish could be the fish of your dreams. Most often, it isn't. But the guys sit there and wait anyway. The fish could be a slow pick, so at least you won't get bored, or it could be a mad rush where 5 people are hooked up at once, so everyone needs to cooperate.

(Except for the new guy coming in for the night or day who doesn't listen and hooks 4 guy's lines, twice....)

Different nationalities, different languages, cultures, and personalities, yet all try their best to get along so each one has a chance at a fish, which will be eaten by these guys who fish to put meat on the table for their families.

The guy who comes into my mind today as a character is Lou.

He's a normal guy, fell on hard times recently, has been out of work, and still lookin.

Meanwhile he comes down every day to fish. 5 minutes talkin with him and you can tell he loves all kinds of fishin.

I have been bored out of my mind waitin for a bite when I go there, so I got to talkin with him. He told me he lives in a small room, no TV, only a radio, nothing else to entertain himself with.

He feels trapped at his apartment, and depressed that he can't find work, so every day he comes fishin. It's his way to deal with the unfortunate turn life has taken for him at this point.

Yet, you will never hear this guy complain. Just the opposite, he's the biggest cheerleader for all the guys fishin there.

"Cmon, who's gonna catch the big one!
Cmon guys let's get those lines out, let's see some action!"

It dawned on me today that going to that place makes the wait more bearable, because Lou is there.


He'll never read this, he doesn't own a computer. But I wanted to put it out there anyway, that I really enjoy hangin there because of him. Thanks Lou!

[dogfish]

Billy bluefish, we called him this because he would be the one guy to catch bluefish while we were catching bass. It was unreal. This was many years ago. He was a good fisherman, and caught his share of big girls. It's just that if there was only one blue around, it would gravitate to his plug. He was the type of guy who would give you the shirt off his back. If you were fishing with him and ran out of something, he would tell you to go in his truck and get what you needed. He died of throat cancer a long time ago, he was like an older brother to me. I still miss him.

[DarkSkies]

Nanny from Belford

I've known this guy for years, and think it's finally time to tell the world about him. He's a retired fisherman, lives in a broken down travel trailer on the Co-op property. I don't know where he got his name from, that's the only one I know him by.

As a fisherman, he had a wealth of experiences. He worked on the commercial boats, back when there were few regulations. If anyone wanted to see what fishing used to be like before the government agencies got involved, you would be well served to speak with this guy, you could learn a lot.

He fished as long as he could, but that kind of life takes it's toll on your body. Now his fingers are bent up a bit, and he has moles on a lot of his skin, gets checked every so often for cancer.

He stopped workin a few years ago, and they let him live there. I think he's in his 70's and stop by to see him every chance I get when I'm in that area.

He lived his life hard, and time off fishin just as hard. I was there a few weeks ago, and he and his friend were tellin me stories of the wild women they used to know, back in the day (we're talkin about back in the 1950's when women were supposed to be prim and proper. Well some of them weren't so prim.

The reason I'm putting this up here is because I've enjoyed listening to his stories, and now that he's older, he could use some more company, if anyone wants to learn a bit of how things were. He has a daughter that comes to see him regularly, but she doesn't live close, and can't see him all the time.

The best time to see him is now, when he'll show you how he feeds the gophers in his yard. Some of them come up to him and take food out of his hand, it's amazing to see.

I know some of the members here know him. We've had conversations about him, I know some of ya's check in on him every now and then.

But this winter will be a cold one. Last winter he was without heat for 4 weeks, and his life is gettin tough. I don't want anyone to feel sorry for him. He's a tough old bird, survives just fine on his own, and I would like to see him spend his last remaining days in that trailer.

However it does get lonely from time to time, and he's always happy to have respectful company knock on his door.
I'm glad I know him. His stories have enriched my life. I would rather talk about him now, and maybe get a few people down to see him, than have us talk about what a shame it is when he's gone. He won't be able to hear us then.

He's also a funny guy, stop by for some laughs sometime,the next time you're near Belford, or the Co-op. He's a good guy to know, if ya love fishin.


That's him on the left, his buddy on the right. You wouldn't believe the stories they got to tell, between the both of em. :

[DarkSkies]

The gophers that he feeds by hand. He has names for every one of em.

[surfwalker]

dogfish- I'm sorry for your loss, Billy sounded like a great personality. Even though he is gone I'm sure he didn't fade away, always on your mind when stick is in hand.

My partner, who I called Mr. Bacigalup and I've known since I was a teen, is still around, but now only casts to trout at the edge of a lake, took me all over the place to plug the salt. The Vineyard, all points in Jersey, Montauk, and some other crazy places. His humor, knowledge and just plain good times made the shutouts more enjoyable.
On those hitless nights he had the ability to sneak up on me and tap the butt end of the stick and then watch me go into my act like it was a Bass, laughing the whole time.
Or the time we were going to the Vineyard for 5 days and he told me to bring my own food and drink, got mad at me because all I brought were 4 cases of Bud and 8 bags of Butterfingers for myself (long time ago).
Or the time we were on a club boat trip and he dropped his pole in the water, never even got excited about it. I said to him, "Did you just drop your pole in the water?" And he casually responed "Yeah, why?" I told him you're supposed to hold onto to it." He says,"Big Deal, I'll just make another". I proceeded to drop my line down and I snagged it for him and brought it up. We were both shocked. This happened twice in two different years.

I could go on, but I'll save them. Time passes, he no longer makes the walk with me, just in memory. We voted to dissolve the club this year after 30 something years. Our contact is not as often as it once was. As I stated before, I may walk alone, but I"m never lonely, the memories are my company. Thanks

[DarkSkies]

I put this vid up today in the NJ forum. I first knew of Mikey last year, when Big John and Mikey made this classic piece of Tackle shop history, Just checked the comments section of that video and found out Mikey died last week.

I never met the guy, but I wanted to put it out there to his family, and whoever reads this, that he made my day, more than once. .

So I enjoyed Mikey and those videos more than most people. He made me laugh on some of my toughest days. I would be bummed out, and specifically go lookin for the Mikey videos.

Watching those videos never gets old for me. I wish I could have met Mikey. He's the kind of guy you know you would like, just by lookin at him. He ain't the guy to put on airs or play that political crap of being nice to people who you don't like. He appeared to be real and genuine.

Not sure how he died, but I will miss him and those crazy videos he helped Big John to make.

I don't know about you guys out there, but he made me laugh so hard he brought tears of joy to my eyes. Sometimes I literally fell out of my chair I was laughin so much. :

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. I would say if you knew him personally, you were lucky, because he had a gift for making others laugh. You can't buy that quality or earn a degree in it, some people just have it.

Thanks for the laughs, Mikey, RIP. See ya on the other side one day.

Mikey eating worms:



Mikey eating eels:

[bababooey]

My partner, who I called Mr. Bacigalup and I've known since I was a teen, is still around, but now only casts to trout at the edge of a lake, took me all over the place to plug the salt. The Vineyard, all points in Jersey, Montauk, and some other crazy places. His humor, knowledge and just plain good times made the shutouts more enjoyable.
On those hitless nights he had the ability to sneak up on me and tap the butt end of the stick and then watch me go into my act like it was a Bass, laughing the whole time.
Or the time we were going to the Vineyard for 5 days and he told me to bring my own food and drink, got mad at me because all I brought were 4 cases of Bud and 8 bags of Butterfingers for myself (long time ago).
Or the time we were on a club boat trip and he dropped his pole in the water, never even got excited about it. I said to him, "Did you just drop your pole in the water?" And he casually responed "Yeah, why?" I told him you're supposed to hold onto to it." He says,"Big Deal, I'll just make another". I proceeded to drop my line down and I snagged it for him and brought it up. We were both shocked. This happened twice in two different years.

I could go on, but I'll save them. Time passes, he no longer makes the walk with me, just in memory. We voted to dissolve the club this year after 30 something years. Our contact is not as often as it once was.




As I stated before, I may walk alone, but I"m never lonely, the memories are my company. Thanks

....memories are my company... a fitting tribute to a good friend. What I want to know is... you named him Bacigalup after the Abbott and Costello serries or did you get that name somewhere else?

[surfwalker]

c4- after Abbott and Costello

[bababooey]

Surfwalker did he look like this?

[surfwalker]

bababooey-great find, thanks. No he didn't look like that, but I always got a kick outta Mr. Bacigalup.

[nitestrikes]

Dark, Mikey was great in those videos, I had no idea he died. Thoughts and prayers to the family.

[storminsteve]

Bacigalup and Billybluefish sound like great characters, you guys were lucky to have known them. Dark I didn't know Mikey died either, that's a shame, he was funny as ****. Rip, Mikey.

[DarkSkies]

I got 2 characters for you guys. Frankie Trebles and Stainless Steel Louie from Brooklyn. Brooklyn in da house!!!


Was talking to a friend the other day and he was reminiscing how he used to know these guys 20 years ago. They hung out at the Marine Parkway Bridge and other Brooklyn haunts.

Frankie Trebles was known as that because he used trebles to snag bunker, I think. Stainless Steel Louie used to take all sorts of stainless steel stuff, forks, knives, spoons, and make metal jigs with them. Great stuff, sounds like great guys.

Hope I get a chance to meet them someday, I heard they're still around.

[dogfish]

dogfish- I'm sorry for your loss, Billy sounded like a great personality. Even though he is gone I'm sure he didn't fade away, always on your mind when stick is in hand.

I could go on, but I'll save them. Time passes, he no longer makes the walk with me, just in memory. We voted to dissolve the club this year after 30 something years. Our contact is not as often as it once was. As I stated before, I may walk alone, but I"m never lonely, the memories are my company. Thanks

Thanks SW, you write some good stuff, the memories are all we have sometimes.

[voyager35]

Sammy schmutz, from a marina long ago when I was a kid. They called him that because he could fix any boat with "schmutz", a gooey combination of fiberglass and resin. To me it looked like jelly with fiber, what did I know back then? He was a great storyteller, the tales of fishing at Cape Cod, and I think he fished out of Virginia somewhere too. I didn't remember places too well back then. What I do remember were the stories. Us kids loved to hear him spin those tales about huge swordfish and sharks. We didn't care if they were true or not, they were all colorful, and real to us.

I think part of my love for the sea, I got from listening to his stories. He's been dead at least 30 years now, but the tall tales were great.

[surfwalker]

Thanks to all who share the characters in their lives that made some sort of impression. I for one enjoy reading about them, thanks.

[mick2360]

I do believe that our own 'Dark Skies' qualifies as a major character. Finest kind of guy but a character!

[surfwalker]

Yes, Dark is memorable character. His post on the Shorelady brought to mind a lady that I think about a lot.

We were coming to the final days of a plugging trip on Martha’s Vineyard in October of ’88. It was pretty uneventful, although the effort was put in night and day. We were staying out at Gayhead and one late afternoon I was casting and picked up a few downtown blues and a 10lb Bonita, all on a 8 ½ Steelhead Special rod (just fun). As I landed the Bonita I noticed an elderly lady walking down from the parking area. She carried a few metals, which she put down on the inlet rocks. She had an old conventional reel attached to an old stick, like what my father used to use in the ‘50s.

She was on a mission and could handle that stick with no problem. I didn’t want to stare at her, so I just made like I was tending to my catch on the sand. After about 10 casts, I saw the stick bend and line sing. She played the fish as if routine and in a few moments landed a nice Bonita. She proceeded to lay it on flat rock and carve it up, I guessed it was for dinner in a few minutes. She started to walk off and she noticed a smile on my face, she wrinkled a smile back and I nodded and gave a wink.

I think of that lady often. Maybe her husband passed, maybe he’s a bum, having a beer at home. Maybe she was never married, who knows, who cares. I do know she was influenced by someone and had seen a lot by the sun drenched wrinkles on her face. I don’t see many women walking the dead beaches I walk, but this lady has stayed in my head. Some small event in life that leaves a lasting impression, a memorable character.

Happy Trails

[plugginpete]

She was on a mission and could handle that stick with no problem. I didn’t want to stare at her, so I just made like I was tending to my catch on the sand. After about 10 casts, I saw the stick bend and line sing. She played the fish as if routine and in a few moments landed a nice Bonita. She proceeded to lay it on flat rock and carve it up, I guessed it was for dinner in a few minutes. She started to walk off and she noticed a smile on my face, she wrinkled a smile back and I nodded and gave a wink.

Happy Trails

I think it was cool that she knew you were aware of her, an you two communicated without words. Sometimes a nod or a wink is good enough. Awesome story surfwalker, thanks for sharing.