Cap'n Chuck Duggins with a Penobscot River Smallmouth Spring of '99
Since I'm the "New Guy" on this website, I guess I have to reveal all of my foibles and follies, sins and secrets, along with a bunch of character faults, the worst/best of which is that I am a fisherman! Worse still, at least here in Maine, a Bass fisherman! And still worser, as they sometimes say in Maine, a Smallmouth Bass Fisherman! Now I KNOW worser is spelled wrong. I just don't know how to spell it right! I'm typing this on a machine that is a lot smarter than me. It underlines things in wavy red when I spell them wrong. Usually I correct things when I see that. I get to see a LOT of wavy red. It underlines things in wavy green when it thinks I say things in a way is not quite right! I frequently just ignore that! I don't want to write like a computer, I want to write like the fisherman I am!
I am also a guide - Record Quest Guides, is that two strikes? Licensed by both the State of Maine and the U.S. Coast Guard, I am legal to guide in any of the inland or coastal waters adjacent to the State. In practice I guide mostly on South Branch Lake out of the sporting camps of the same name and on the Penobscot and Piscataquis Rivers for Smallmouth with an occasional trip for either Largemouth or Stripers, inshore, on the coast. Most years, I spend between 100 and 150 days in a boat. My elder Son, Cap'n Jack, frequently gives me a hand when we are faced with a party too large for me to handle by myself.
In 1972, I retired from the NAVY as a Chief Petty Officer, which is how I came to be here in the first place. I was sent here in 1965 to teach Aircrew Survival and the Navy, evidently forgot about me until I put in my retirement papers. I had things going pretty well for myself, retired and found my choice was either go to work for a living or go guiding. We all know that guiding has GOT to be better than working, right? Now I don't think you can get to be a Chief in the Navy without being a bit stubborn, and I know you can't be a guide without being both hard headed and having a huge ego! On top of all this, I'm Irish, is that three strikes against me?
Now I'd hate for anyone to get the idea that I don't take my fishing OR guiding, seriously. I do. It's just that I don't take my self too seriously. Shucks, I'm not that important. Fishing IS! For my entire life, I have been an extremely lucky person. In 64 years, I have only had one job that I didn't like. Held it for just under a year. Many years ago I read a book by Buck Perry in which he said not to worry about why you are not catching fish, 'cause that didn't matter. Rather figure out why you were catching them because that did matter and would tell you how to catch more or them! It's probably the simplest, real smart thing I have ever read about fishing and I took it to heart. I really learned from that.
Many years later, I was fortunate enough on several occasions to share a boat with Billy Westmoreland, the best Smallmouth fisherman I have ever met. The first time we fished the river together, Billy was driving. He pointed the bow down stream, put the trolling motor one click below Mach 1 and started fishing. All morning, I'm watching Billy and catching absolutely nothing! Thinking to my self, "Self, you are not too bad of a fisherman, you're casting to the same cover Billy is, using the same lure, retrieving the same way. You're doing OK," I kept telling my self. "Then how come you aren't catching fish", I thought?
Man, I just couldn't figure it out. Here I was fishing with the Great Billy Westmoreland. Fishing where he was fishing. Fishing the same lures. We are steaming down the bank. Much faster than I would usually be fishing. Ploop, Billy's lure went in the water. Hop, hop and then, back to the boat, just as fast as he could reel it.
Ploop, Cap'n Chucks lure went into the water. Hop, hop and back to the boat! Just like a pair of machines! Comes lunchtime. Billy has about twenty fish in the boat. Old Cap'n, has maybe two! I am feeling some BAD! I finally figured it out. If the fish was there, Billy caught it! If Billy didn't catch it, the fish wasn't THERE. I am CONVINCED that the two I caught were paired in a hole with another fish. Billy caught the first one and I caught the other. I learned from that too. It just wasn't something I WANTED to learn!
What makes me different, and different from WHAT? The biggest thing(s) that make me different is that I have a couple of rivers and a lake, right full of Smallmouth that are quite willing to play, day after day, year after year. I have a bride, (40+) years that tolerates me going off fishing for up to 5 or 6 months at a time. During the season we do get together for a day or two at a time, but not very frequently. Due to being retired, I can afford to guide and due to being inquisitive by nature, I enjoy thinking about what I am doing and learning all of the time! I told you earlier that I was lucky, and being able to do all of this, without having wife pressures and money pressures hanging over me all of the time are just a couple of the things that make me lucky!
A little bit about money, I don't have enough. I don't think there is enough for me to ever HAVE enough. I have done so much, for so long, with so little, I have become able to do practically anything, at all times, with practically nothing! I am pretty much convinced that the best way to solve any problem is NOT to throw money at it! To that end, virtually NONE of the equipment I use is the most expensive. I can think of only one exception to that off-hand. Gary Yamamoto Baits are, as far as I know, the most expensive lures around. I believe they are worth it. As you get to know me you will hear outrageous stories about them. It's going to sound like B.S. or advertising hyperbole, or pipe dreaming. It's not, but feel free to NOT believe me. Belief is NOT required! Just don't BET against me. Right in line with all of this, while it IS expensive to hire me, I'm the most economical way for most fishermen to have quality fishing, but that's a story by itself!
In all of my fishing, economy is a consideration. Both my economy and yours. I have purchased over the years, a lot of years, several hundred fishing rods, at a guess. I have paid dearly for the knowledge of fishing rods that I have gained. Feel free to purchase the knowledge, the same way I did. It won't upset me in the least. Feel free, IF YOU WISH, to learn from my experiences and save the money. That doesn't bother me either! I guess my basic philosophy would best be summed up by saying: buy value, not price, function, not fancy. This is what I try to do.
Being wrong does not bother me very much. Being accused of lying does. I have had lots of experience and practice at being wrong. That doesn't bother me. I have very little practice at lying, for one very good reason. If I have to lie to get you here, how can I make you happy once you come? Now to me, that's pretty basic. But every year at shows, I see a few guides who have yet to learn that basic fact!
We have a difference in perspective. I see things from the viewpoint of a working guide. I can't help that nor do I want to. What does that mean? While I do catch a lot of fish that is NOT why I am usually fishing with my clients. I'm fishing with them to see if we are, in fact, on fish! If THEY are catching fish on a steady basis, I usually put my rod down. They' re telling me what I need to know. They are standing or sitting in the bow and stern of the boat, I am standing in the middle operating it. THEY get the first (and usually the second, third and fourth) casts to the prime cover. I cast to the stuff that they either can't or won't reach. They are NOT paying me to catch fish, but to help them catch fish!
This has become a much longer "confession" than I had started out to write, but I guess it will give you a pretty good idea of what I am about. I hope so and look forward to us learning a few things from each other.
