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Golfing and Fishing
"Golf was invented to make fishing more interesting."
My father went to sea as a young man. He was an officer in the Navy during World War one, and retired after I was born as a Captain in the Merchant Marine. As I was growing up, fishing was our bond. We lived on the coast of Long Island Sound in Connecticut, and my father had a twelve foot row boat. He would row out about two miles and we would anchor and fish for hours. We would wait until the tide was coming in and I would row back with the tide, and my father would clean all of the fish, and by the time we reached home the fish were ready. My father would throw the scraps out of the boat and the sea gulls would gobble them up.
When I was about fifteen, my father bought me my own boat. It was an eight foot row boat which I named "Arrow." I used to go out on my own now and would row way out and fish by myself. My father was a great man, and a big man, so I never gave him any trouble, but there were two things that he told me that I really could not buy. I liked to be on top of the water, but not in the water and had never learned how to swim. Mother used to have a fit when I went out alone, but it did not bother him. He told my mother that if I fell overboard I would learn to swim. I asked him how he learned, and he told me that he father threw him off of the dock, and I'm here. The other thing I could not buy was if I had cut myself and would go to him for help and advice, he would always say, "Go pee on it." I thought that this was some tough sailor talk, but a couple of years ago on the TV show Survivors, one person had a bad cut, and that is what they did. I still have no plans to do either of the suggestions he made.
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Salt water fishing was a breeze compared to fresh water. We knew where the fish were, and the weather and the tide dictated where and what was biting. I would use a drop line with two hooks and sometimes would bring in two at a time. Eel and Flatfish were sometime in the same area, and you would bring in a lot of eels. They were pretty slippery, and you had to know what you were doing in order to unhook them.
In the late 50's and early 60's I used to do my golf show back to back with a fishing show. We had a lot of fun picking on one another while on the air.
For several years in fairly recent times I had a weekly golf column, and at the same time there was a fishing column. I had no idea that fish were not color blind, and you had to find out what color they liked that day, and you had to use all different types and designed lures. You also had to see if the cows in the field were standing up, or lying down. It is supposed to have something to do with atmospheric pressure... You could spend the whole day without catching anything, only then to find another fisherman who had caught a bunch. It would be then that you found out you were using the wrong shade of pink.
When I was a kid living in the country, we used to go after a fish called a "Sucker." It was a bottom feeder and would not go for bait. We would burn the insulation off of some "blasting� wire, and make a noose on one end and tie the other end to our pole. (which we had just cut down.) We would then slip the noose over the head of the fish, which was just lolling around on the bottom, and jerk him up. You had to be careful not to jerk up too fast, or you could behead him. Other times we would just shoot a twenty-two into the water, and the concussion would stun them, and we would just scoop them up. Nothing complicated about that.
At one time Johnny Carson had an old man on his show that created the greatest laughter his show had ever had. The man told a story about two fishermen fishing through holes cut in the ice. The one man had all of the latest fishing equipment on the market, while the other just had an ordinary pole. The man with all of the equipment was not catching anything, while the other man was pulling them in right and left. Finally he gave up in disgust and walked over to the man who was catching all of the fish. He asked him why he was catching all of the fish, while he was not catching any. The man reached into his mouth and pulled out a handful of worms, and said, "You have to keep the worms warm."
Fortunately I was able to move my parents to Florida in their late years, and my father had a boat, and motor, and spent the remainder of his life doing what he loved the most, fishing.
My main regret in life is that economics have made me live away from salt water for so many years. In the year 2000, I visited Connecticut for the last time, and spent a good deal of my time there down on the docks inhaling the familiar smells of my youth.
My final thought on the matter is, Golf is more beneficial physically, but can destroy you mentally, while fishing can be more beneficial mentally, but destroy you physically.