13 Habits of Highly Effective Anglers

Zach,

Agree. And I’ll bet most of us have been “that guy” one or more times. Maybe that’d be an interesting thread: everyone share his/her “that guy/gal” stories.

But I’ll let somebody else go first . . .

Buzz

Grant Wright wrote:

Miles Noltes stories from the Alaska Chronicles,

Is that same AK Chronicles that was on the drake board a while back?

I picked up the book after your interview and it is now one of my absolute favorites. Beware, it’s tough to put down once you pick it up! Nolte’s articles in Gray’s are usually the best read in every issue.

I’ve made it a habit to ask guides about some of their craziest experiences while guiding and have heard some outrageously hilarious stories. As you would imagine, many have the common thread of “that guy” somewhere along the way. The very best involved “that girl” crapping in the live well of a tarpon guide’s boat down in Islamorada…it still makes me laugh just thinking about it.

According to the guide, he had this gal and her husband out during Tarpon season…to put it nicely, the lady was not happy to be on the boat and unpleasant to be around to say the least. They were staked out on the edge of a flat on a falling tide with tarpon cruising by regularly. She announced that she needed to use the restroom and the guide and husband agreed that the fishing was too good to leave, plus they would lose the spot to another guide if they had to run to shore. They struck a deal and the guide and husband agreed that they would stand at the front of the boat and not turn around and she would grab the poling platform and hang off of the back of the boat to do her business. The guide thought she only needed to pee. She crawls to the rear of the boat does her thing, and they get back to fishing.

The guide takes them in at the end of the day and heads back to the house and garages his boat since he is leaving the next day for a family wedding event that would have him out of town for 4 days. The guide returns home and is prepping his rig for the next day of guiding. He opens the garage and is hit with a god-awful odor. He can’t figure out what the stench is until he opens the live well and realizes the lady had not pissed off of the back of the boat but rather had crapped in his live well! The turd sat inside the live well that had just enough moisture inside to keep it extra moist, and the heat of the garage in the Florida summer compounded the odor! I can only imagine the smell when he finally opened the live well and was hit with the odor of a four day old moist turd sealed in a live well inside of a hot garage!

Rolling on the floor at work right now. This is an awesome story.

My wife and I were fishing with a guide in Montana a while back and he told a story about a couple he had on his boat once. The woman, all geared up with waders, net, etc. had gone into the woods to take care of business. When she got back to the boat one whiff made it obvious to guide and husband both that something was very, very wrong. Turns out she had somehow pooped in her net that was hanging on her back! Wow. Hard to recover from that and have a relaxing day of fishing, huh.