Don't be THAT Guy

Steve K · Jun-28-2009, 12:18 PM

OK, so I read the reports of the latest Red Rooster III adventure with the Derelict Crew and smiled at the numerous references to "that guy."

This can be frustrating, but on just about any length trip, you'll find anglers losing fish to bonehead maneuvers by "that guy." I'm sure I've been accused of being that guy once or twice, deserved or not. I always try to be aware of what's happening around me and try to avoid being "that guy." The better angler will rise above it and when he gets cut off, will simply say to himself and others, "That's OK, I'll go catch another one." This attitude helps a lot, but sometimes, like when you're on a short trip, ya just get pissed off!

What I want to hear from all of you, is some personal accounts of "that guy."

We had one on the June Heat trip this year. He's a regular and drives the crew nuts in addition to being a pain in the ass at times to other anglers. One stop, as we're sliding back on the anchor, trying to get on a spot to get some tuna fish going at the Hurricane Bank, and as the captain is running the bow into the wind to get set to drop the hook, he's sliding a Wahoo bomb. Now, mind you, the skinnies are as think as fleas on a hound dog, and you can catch one just about any time you want. Well, he hooks up and the fish takes him up to the bow. Imagine that, what a surprise, the boat was sliding back on the anchor! So here he comes, and his fish is going over the top of the anchor line so he asks for some help. Crew is busy with around $2000 or more worth of anchor, chain, and line and here comes this knuckle head. Sure thing, no problem, just let us drop what we're doing here to get you out of trouble and keep you and your Wahoo from slicing off the anchor!

Another of his antics was to be fishing a dropper loop or two hook rockfish type rig while everybody else is fishing for Yellowfin and Wahoo. What the Fuck, are we at Colnett in January? I was hooked up to a pretty good one, kite fish over 100 lbs and amazingly enough, his line was wrapped around mine. It was wrapped on it two or three times and we had to stop fighting the tuna to spend time fighting the errant line of "that guy."

No need to name the angler. Let's just hear the stories. Amusing stories and horror stories, all are welcome.

moto110 · Jun-28-2009, 12:32 PM

Ok well my best "that guy" story happened on the Sport King. It was last summer and there were rumors of patties holding dorado on the 14 mile bank. So we fished for some sandbass in the morning then made the run to the 14. When we got there there was a huge patty full of nice dorado.
Well there was one guy "that guy" that wouldn't fallow his bait he would just stay in his spot in the stern. So when my grandpa hooked up on the first dodo on the boat the guy wouldn't get out of the way. He kept saying go around when my gramps needed to go under. There was no way I was gunna have my gramps loose this dodo (He hadn't gotten a chance to get on a two day that year for health reasons and he kept talking about how he wanted a dodo.) So long story short I pulled out my dykes and cut the guys line and slightly checked him out of the way so my grandpa could get by.
We got the fish and it was a great trip besides "that guy"

FishStalker · Jun-28-2009, 01:24 PM

Plenty of stories...

Last year, after we'd been on the water a week, I'm in the corner trying to get a troll fish on board with my favorite tuna feather in it's mouth. "That guy" proceeds to drop his bait right on top of my fish at color and his bait promptly wraps my line. "That guy" then proceeds to start pulling on his bait rather then just waiting for the gaffed fish to come over the rail and start over. End result? $15 tuna feather swam off with a fish attached to it after "that guy" burned me off. All for some dink albacore that he HAD to catch after we'd been nailing 30# yellows at Jam Rock for 2 days.

I didn't even care about the fish, I just wanted the jig back.

Holi-e-Mackeral · Jun-28-2009, 02:03 PM

Be aware...

There is always at least one of "those guys" on any trip....

They usually end up with a colorfull nickname... ie: Sawzall....

Here is one... Fishing at Socorro prior to the closure...

The trip had been extremely slow.. it was our last morning fishing.. We had not hooked a single cow for the entire trip... Finally one angler hooks a heavy fish...

He is fighting the fish.. Frank decides to get the angler away from the big boat and puts him in the skiff. The angler is 150 yards away fighting the fish... He fights it for 30 minutes, then somthing happens and the skiff returns.. We see that several hundred yards of spectra has wrapped around his line leading to the fish breaking off.. They follow the loose spectra to our knucklehead anlger.. He is standing in the corner, still blindly stripping spectra off his reel.

He does not even realize he has tangled with the only cow hooup of the trip.. even when the skiff returns.. Clueless... he said he could still feel his bait...

Need I say more ?????

Jeff

cmlandscaping · Jun-28-2009, 02:06 PM

Bottom fishing on a local winter trip, with my buddy next to me. “that guy“ walks up drops his jig right on top of me, jerks up 2-3 times, snags my line and says, “ OH you got me”

. I looked over at my buddy and he is looking at me dying laughing. WTF!

**sdangler** · Jun-28-2009, 02:09 PM

This is a touchy subject...

Don't get me wrong about this as this is not about an inexperienced angler or someone that makes a mistake as we all do that. This is about consistently not listening to the deckhands (or ignoring them), and not caring about what goes on around you. This seems to happen more often on the longer trips and the bigger boats since the local fleet deckhands are much more vocal when you screw up or don't listen.

I like to say I learned or experienced something on every trip that will help me on my next trip. I did on the recent trip and I hope that others did as well.

THAT guy is the dude that rolls on the boat with his 300# tuna jacket prominently displayed on his back and makes little to no effort to meet anyone new on the trip.

Four years ago, that guy had a few over 200# jacket on and had his buddy with him. We leave SD and we watch him rigging up and no one says anything when he seems to have some basic issues with his gear and stuff. The crew knew him and they did what they could.

We start to fish offshore for tuna and our fearless angler gets hooked up and can't get out of the corner with a 30# Albacore. Worse yet, he won't duck or raise his rod to let other anglers by. One deckhand babysitting this guy in the corner passing rods over and under his.

4-5 days into the trip we're trolling and this don't has his chair out on deck. Every troll stop he gets up and starts fishing. After multiple requests from Captain, deckhands, crew, others to please pick up his chair he still refuses to pickup chair. Next day chair was gone.

Can you fish around this guy? Sure but he was a pain in the ass in more ways than one. Doesn't like the movie, the meal, going to Cedros to fish Yellowtail, etc...

This year a semi-renowned angler was on the trip and made little effort to talk to anyone except one young kid 16/17, and Arvin. Dude brought 16+ sticks on an 8 day and left them mostly bundled by the galley entrance.

This guy would always throw in next to the kite and usually across other anglers lines. This guy could pull on fish but couldn't help sort fish. Totally intolerant of other anglers fishing anywhere near him and wouldn't duck or let you under unless you made an issue about it.

As for THAT guy this year; the guy was always throwing over other anglers. Attempting to fish bait before the anchor was down, etc... He wasn't a major pain in the ass but just someone that you had to watch out for. Once he realized that some of us did know what we were doing he would avoid us for one reason or another. I personally only made comments to him twice but I know others had issues with tangles, etc...

My personal favorite from this dude; when he went to cast his sardine (90 degrees from where he was aiming it turns out) he would put his rod over his shoulder without looking and say, "look out." He would then throw in a random direction and pick out his backlash for 5 minutes. Too cool to watch.

I think somehow some people lost any sense of remorse or any sense of fault if they were the cause of someone else losing a fish (not a tangle but a genuine fuckup). Shit even Bill would come up and apologize if he caused you to lose a fish

...

One could imagine if you put a guy with a bunch of long rods on a trip with a group of cow hunters then they might think of him as "that guy". Not what I'm talking about at all here though. You have to earn THAT guy status in my eyes.

fatbass · Jun-28-2009, 03:11 PM

Mark, that was really a great post. Having a lower skill set than some is one thing, but ignorance and lacking the ability to listen is inexcusable. I know when I get on the Rooster in 6 days my eyes and ears will be open and my mouth shut except to say hello to old friends and introduce myself to new ones. Can't wait to learn and have a F--ken Blast! Chad

Holi-e-Mackeral · Jun-28-2009, 03:24 PM

You hit it on the nose...

Its not about being the most experienced guy on a trip.. .it is about listening to the crew and learning from the other anglers. Paying attention to what is going on around you.

That guy, loses sight of the fact that he has to get along with the other passengers and become a team player.. Its that simple..

A newbie who listens and leans is never "that guy"

Jeff

Mono Malo · Jun-28-2009, 03:30 PM

On the Indy two seasons ago, El Capitan and I fished with this group out of Long Beach. They had the trip booked for years, lots of drinking and such. Anyway, I end up with a shirt from this guy's son as his dad is 'Tangle Man'. He was older, ~70, and had no idea where his bait was. He would be fishing about mid ship and be in a tangle on the other side, line down to the stern, across, and back up. Saw that tangle happen at least a dozen times. If there was a tangle, 90 % of the time 'Tangle Man' was in on it. On the slide, next to you, over your fish, fish at gaff he would set his bait down right next to you, name it he had some skilz. I love wearing that shirt. Here's to your dad Jack, Tangle Man!

wifitunaguy · Jun-28-2009, 03:33 PM

That guy was me on this last one.... Wow what a miserable prick I was...

FishStalker · Jun-28-2009, 04:02 PM

Don't forget me getting tangled with 'that guy' while trying to make squid at the rocks. Fucking classic...'that guy' fishing the downwind side of the boat on the drift with a squid jig.

**SALTYDAWG** · Jun-28-2009, 04:25 PM

That guy threw over the top of my line when I just hooked up after a long dry spell with no bites. It wrapped around my line about 3 times and he just started yanking on it. I grabbed his rod and unwound it and barked at me "dont ever touch my rod again" I leaned over and whispered ever so softly, "The next time I have to touch your rod, I'll be ripping out of your hands and throwing it in the drink". He then went and sat down and pouted, Making ugly faces at me, So I blew him a kiss

The guy probably had as many or more long range trips under his belt than any of us, But what an arrogant asshole