Tobacco and Fly Fishing
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I smoke thirty or so cigarettes a day. I smoke when I fish and when I don’t. i smoke everywhere anywhere I am allowed to. I don’t smoke with others in the car etc, I’m not impolite about it. I used to even smoke on stage until they outlawed smoking in bars. I am about as addicted as it gets. The only time I made a serious attempt to kick it, two days into the program my next customer turned out to be the recently retired Vice president and General Council for Phillip Morris tobacco. He gave me carton of Marlboro and off we went again.
I reckon it’s time… but I really hope I get the wake up feeling you guys talk about.
It’s an insidious thing. I have seen my Granddad die from lung cancer and my father and auntie from emphayema…
I’m not worried that it’ll kill me, tobacco or not we’re all going to die…
How I’m going to die concerns me though. :-/You can judge a man by the size of things which annoy him.
I do it because Chicks Dig It :-*
I honestly only do it while fishing also, tried to quit and can but something about fishing I have to have a Cope Can in my waders pocket..
I could recount stories like everyone else has, grandparents dying, friends trying to quit, etc…, but I will not.
I have never smoked because I hated being around family that did it.I will just say best of luck with your attempt to quit, and when you really want to quit you will.
Best of luck! 🙂I smoke the occasional cigar while fishing – usually when the bugs get really bad- but that’s it for me.
tobacco and fishing don’t mix for me just for the fact of its a distraction
1. i can/could only smoke a cig when i’ve had enough drinks to not let the smell bother me and there is one thing i love and its smokes. i don’t drink when i fish so that cancels out smoking while fishing. i’ve had a smoke or two during a break on a rock and thats about it.
2. i don’t smoke cigars when fishing because i need to concentrate on fishing and my hands, i’ll have one during a break. weakness of mine and the fact that i work next to a stogie shop. i mostly smoke at dc united games (we are allowed to smoke in our section) and our tailgate.
3. i did snus for a while after getting lots of free tins from the sweeden embassy, once those ran out i was done. it was a nice buz that you didn’t have to spit. fit in my vest, but then again if i’m buzzed i’m not paying attention.
my fishing buddy once fell in a hole in january. i only saw his hat floating, he came out with mayflies all over him and inside his waders. he was more upset that his smokes were wet than having to be cold all day and wearing his moms puppy sweatshirt that was in his car.
had a teacher in hs who had an anti smoking ad ‘ if smoking did to the outside of your body what it did to the inside, would you still smoke? and there was a pic of a crusty chick.
then i’m reminded of human anatomy cadaver lab.
smoker lung felt like burnt toast
non smoker lung felt like ocello sponge right out of the packetJoel… Same bad habit here. My wife knows but I have never dipped around her. She quit smoking 1 month before she got pregnant. I have the same issues when going to a stream but long car rides are probably my worst enemy. I had quit when I first started my new career because I was at home and didnt have to drive. With the current 3 books that I am working on, It has all been about windshield time going to locations to shoot photos. I probably dip more now than ever. I know better and will quit now.
This post got me to thinking so I am quitting today. Cold Turkey. I have to much to cherish and have to think about those things now.
Think about all these post the next time you think about putting the worm dirt between your cheek and gum. Leave that for the bait casters. A good support community helps. There is no need.
Here is my reason to quit.
Yeah Kevin that’s the way you do it. Remember in a few days things will get better.
Keep telling yourself starting again is for who stop fishing at the first raindrops.
Good luck
Not only is fly fishing made for the consumption of a good cigar, but you have to accompany it with a swig of Jack Daniels, too!
And yes, I was with Zach when he was working on a big honkin’ green machine and we had a slight mishap with a kerplunk, but Zach is much too gracious. He was multi-tasking and trying to enjoy the cigar, juggle thousands of dollars of photography equipment, walk on a midstream fallen tree, all while retrieving the fly hooked on a branch for his casting “student”. The combination of those things led to a near death experience for one very fine camera. In the end, all was well.
On fishing trips, I usually bring a handful of cigars with the goal of corrupting my friends…getting them to come to the dark side brings me great joy…cigars and JD…
People that don’t drink, don’t smoke, and don’t cuss don’t live longer. They just feel like they do.
Kevin Miquelon
then i’m reminded of human anatomy cadaver lab.
smoker lung felt like burnt toast
non smoker lung felt like ocello sponge right out of the packetBut the owners were both dead right???
;D 😀 ;DYou can judge a man by the size of things which annoy him.
then i’m reminded of human anatomy cadaver lab.
smoker lung felt like burnt toast
non smoker lung felt like ocello sponge right out of the packetBut the owners were both dead right???
;D 😀 ;Deither that, or seriously pissed off afterwards…
I think it affects your mental health more than the physical…
Exactly, what I hated most about the addiction was knowing that something was controlling me and changing how I went my day.
I wish I could smoke a pipe or a nice cigar once in a while. I quit all tobacco about 6 years ago. Gave my pipes to a friend who cleaned them and smokes a couple of them regularly. I miss it at times. Having smoked cigs, cigars and a pipe, I think there is a drastic difference in how the habits form. With cigarettes, most people in my experience, use them to relax, especially when dealing with something stressfull. Cigars and pipes on the other hand tend to be smoked when one has leisure time available. After all a good stick can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to smoke. A pipe might take 20-45 minutes. They get smoked while relaxing, not in order to relax. Mental difference. One supports relaxing like a crutch, the other is more an enhancement. I had trouble quitting cigs – took me several years. Cigars and pipes took my deciding to stop. Like snapping my fingers. Most others I know who have gone through both have had similar experiences. Chemicals have an effect, but I think the actual physical/mental habit is by far the greater part of having trouble quitting.
I do have a couple of friends who always smoke or chew while fishing.
I quit because of other respiratory issues – asthma and I am prone to upper respiratory infections. That’s ultimately why I stopped doing backyard astronomy as well. The cold night air ruined me.
Funny, cold days on the water are OK though. 😕
Funny, cold days on the water are OK though. 😕
Darrin – everything is better on the water cold or not.
I guess that is one of the tobacco issues of WHY… Any food taste better. Your back doesnt hurt from yardwork the day before. So on and so forth.
I smoked for a number of years. Then I took this medicine called chantix. I highly endorse this medicine. If any of you are thinking about quitting it is the way to go. I looked down on it for a number of years. I thought using a medicine was weak. I could, after all, just quit right? Well I started to change my mind. I looked at the medicine as the Cadillac of quitting, instead of another crutch. I would never turn down anesthesia, which makes surgery easier…why turn down a pill that makes quitting easier (not to mention less painful).
A couple of good things about quitting:
You do get your taste buds back. Its unreal, and almost worth quitting entirely.Cigarettes are crazy expensive anymore. I had so much extra money that I was able to pick up at least two new and improved vices.
Before my Dad died (not directly related to smoking, but it was on the list) he always used to cite fishing as his no. 1 reason for not quitting. I used to think that way to, but I realized that I’m letting other things glorify my fishing experience, or letting cigarettes glorify meaningless experiences. (morning cup of coffee, after dinner, etc)
That being said I do enjoy a cigar or two on the water, but no longer marry tobacco and fishing cause that kept me going for far too long. I still have cigarette cravings all the time. I just finished my master’s thesis. I don’t think I wrote one paper in my undergrad without at least two packs of Marlborough’s getting me through it. Damn did that come close. I could probably have one here and there, but I enjoy being able to say its been two years without any. I don’t really consider myself, or anyone for that matter, to have actually quit. You are just one more smoke away from being an addict again. I’ll have truly quit when I’m on my deathbed. That’s why you can finally confirm you’ve given it up for good.
Not sure if chantix works for chew, but if you are smoking you should really look into the stuff. It really helped me.
The problem with cessation aides aides I’ve tried them allat one point is that they work (or dont in some cases) on the “physical addiction”.
Which quite frankly is easy to get over.
All the stuff being said are classic responses as to why people partake. So when you get down to the brass tacks it boils down to one thing in each and every example.
I “enjoy”
I enjoy that smoke with that steaming cup of java
I enjoy that cigar, sitting on the bank
I enjoy that……………………..For people who have been smokin/chewing a hell of a long time (ten years to me isnt a long) thats the battle that needs to be won internally and until you wake up one day ready to say….you know what I dont enjoy it anymore…and be honest with yourself about it.
They wont help ultimately. They take the edge off those first few days and thats good but beyond that it ‘s still you.
The only thing I can offer to anyone struggling with it is don’t beat yourself to death over it and don’t let othes beat you deat oer it. If your not ready…partake and enjoy it…think about why you want to quit…I think about it daily…its been a few months since I fell off the wagon…
When your again, you’ll be ready and you’ll know it but dont let others pressure you..it does no good if it comes from peers, wives, children because if your not ready, try and fail…
As for the cadaver comment:
I think we all know the risk and health issues but like Ive said.Ive buried way too many young friends and family who didnt smoke to let that worry me too much. When my freind who was a health nut died of brain cancer at 42…Never smoked, didnt drink, exercised like a fiend, ate like a saint and I had to watch his young kids……
When my Docs told me I was high risk at 36 and would have to have colonoscopies every two years, years before most men start worrying about polyps.
dead is dead and tomorrow is not guaranteed for anyone
2 days no “cope” and it is hard to “cope”…. BUT I am done with it. Stopping a twenty-five year relationship with something that is really nothing.
I chewed for years and then a buddy I worked with that smoked had a massive heart attack and died at 47! Me a nd my wife were having our first child that year and I decided I didnt want to miss out on her growing up. I had tried to quit multiple times but I dont think I really wanted it you know what I mean. When I tried to quit after my friends death I just laid it down. I didnt use gum or any of that stuff, I just was finished. I wont lie and say it was easy but its been over four years now and I have not touched the stuff. I wish you the best of luck.
Interesting thread — I smoke cigarettes (down to about 1/2 a pack a day) — and just started smoking pipe again — the pipe was a Christmas gift from a fly fishing buddy who is new to the sport and has really got into it — funny thing is he got a pipe to go along with his newfound interest in fly fishing because he thought it was part of the image of a fly fisher/outdoorsman; not a very good reason to smoke I suppose — but turns out he really likes having a smoke on the pipe during the odd break on the water (never smokes while he’s actually fishing) — I told him how I used to smoke a pipe years ago — in fact I didn’t start smoking until into my late 20s or early 30s — I was doing a lot of canoe trips as part of my work as an outdoor educator — hate to use bug repellent and so started to smoke a pipe while on portages to keep the bugs away — also thought that it might make me look a bit older (I had that babyface thing; even tried growing a beard — always got asked for my ID back then — where have those days gone?!?!? LOL LOL) — any way I guess it seemed like a natural thing for me to take up smoking a pipe (if I was going to smoke) since my grandfather who taught me how to fly fish and most other outdoor acivities always smoked a pipe — eventually I started smoking cigarettes as harder and harder to find good pipe tobacco in regular variety stores — I know all the reasons not to smoke — certainly is addictive (harder to kick than drugs like heroin) — and I have quit a couple of times (or rather tried) — I find I’m smoking fewer cigarettes since I started smoking the pipe again — and good or bad it does bring back memories of my Grandfather (just the smell of the pipe smoke — I’ve found a blend much like what he smoked) — and I do enjoy good briar and good tobacco while out fishing — so for now at least (until I fully quit — if indeed that happens) I’ll have to say that a pipeful of tobacco and fly fishing for me does go hand in hand — part because of the memories it invokes but mainly because I actually love to smoke my pipe
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