Smoking while fishing
- Thread starter Paul6.5
- Start date
Bamboozle
Well-known member
I was smart enough to quit cigarettes while I was still in high school, A LONG time ago when a pack of smokes was under a $1.00.
Even though I used a pipe to wean myself off cigarettes and smoke cigars when I fish, I never once had the urge to go back to cigarettes.
When I am NOT fishing, I'm NOT smoking cigars which means during some periods, it could be months between cigars with zero urge.
I guess I'm lucky....
Bamboozle
Well-known member
I'm a maduro fan. Two in regular rotation are Arturo Fuente 850 Flor Fina or a Ashton Aged Maduro No. 40 Toro.
However, the first cigar I'll light up on any fishing trip of over several hours is always a Padron Maduro - Magnum or an Arturo Fuente Gran Reserva - Canones. These are LONG cigars at 9" & 8'5" respectively but they burn, draw and smoke beautifully.
I never light them until I am completely rigged up and ready to start casting because I once burned through the Spectra string on my zinger. Fortunately, it was one of several serviceable Abel zingers that I got super cheap, so I sent it back to be restrung.
FWIW - Gear Keeper now offers an aluminum bodied micro zingers for $35 that can be serviced if you are a klutz.
wildtrout2
Well-known member
That's how long I've been a smoker. Being a pack a day smoker for many years, I at least cut back to a half pack a day, about ten years ago. I remember saying I'll quit when smokes go to $.75 a pack. I'm now paying $9.15 a pack.
I will be adding that to my humidor to try. My go to is from My Father their “The Judge” in grand robusto
This sounds quite a bit like my story.. I smoked cigarettes at a rate of 30-40/day for about 20 years, then finally quit in 1990. Stayed that way for about 6 years until I was fishing a Mifflin County freestone one day and the gnats were like a fog. I couldn't hack it and retreated to a convenience store and bought a pack of the cheapest cigarillos they had. That fixed the gnat problem but it also put me right back on cigarettes for the next five years. Finally, I quit for good in 2000 after Petunia explained to me that cigarettes were particularly bad for my health because if I didn't get off them, she might coldcock me with a ball bat.
I'm still a slave to nicotine though. I've been chewing the 2 mg Wal-Mart gum for the last 26 years, starting out at 20-25 pcs/day and tapering now to 4-5. I'll eventually get off it but for now, it's progress not perfection that matters. Besides, I kind of like the gum. The only real complaint I have is that it is a son-of-a-pup to keep it lit..
I think the amount of difficulty or lack of same we might have with quitting is about our internal wiring. I believe there is an addiction gene or something very similar.
Streammagic237
Well-known member
When I was around 16 years old I went with an uncle and a guide he was friends with who was referred to at the " captain" he was about 80 at the time and smoked a pipe , anyway I still recall that hunt any time I smell pipe smoke , windows up heat on full blast and myself in the back of a Jeep Cherokee nestled between about 50 Canada goose decoys in a haze of smoke as we drove out to the fields . Still think on it fondly though have not hunted in many years .
Bamboozle
Well-known member
How LONG you smoked also has a lot to do with it...
Even though I'm proud of quitting cigarettes at age 17, it was only a couple of years prior that I could really smoke a pack or more a day.
When I first began the habit in earnest, my parents didn't know I smoked and I wasn't one of the kids risking suspension in junior high by smoking in the bathrooms so I was hard pressed to smoke 10 cigarettes a day.
My parents discovering my vice and going to a high school with a "smoking area" facilitated an increase in consumption, but believe it or not, that "Surgeon General's warning" and a pledge I made to myself afterwards to quit by age 25 made it easier to "pack it in" (pardon the pun) at age 17.
Regardless, if you roll all of my smoking up in a ball, I probably only smoked 3 or 4 years before quitting. Maybe I'm lucky or wired different, but I hardly think quitting after 3 or 4 years is even close to the same thing as managing to quit after 20, 30 or 40 years.
Nymph-wristed
Well-known member
I smoked weed a couple times while fishing and ended up sitting on the bank staring at the water, sort of like a dry or die fly fisherman 😉
Bamboozle
Well-known member
A blow-up with braid on a casting reel cured me of the desire to ever smoke weed & fish.
I was picking that mess out for hours... 😉
I was picking that mess out for hours... 😉
In my experience, quitting Zyn/pouches has been harder than quitting smoking. I'm not sure if it's the oral fixation or the way the nicotine is delivered or what, but I have been an absolute junkie for some TicTacs, and I'm going on 5 weeks without nicotine...first time in about 13 years.
wildtrout2
Well-known member
I gave up drinking after 25 years of abuse, but giving up smoking is a very different ball game in my opinion. I've heard doctors say giving up a cigarette addiction is tougher than a heroin addiction, I would not doubt that. Wanting to quit any addiction is the first step to recovery, but being very honest with myself, sadly/stupidly, I don't want to give up smoking cigarettes.
I'm almost 70, so whatever damage I've done from smoking at this point can't be reversed. I'll die a smoker.
As a side note, my mom used to smoke four packs a day for years, if you can imagine that. She was basically a chain smoker. She died from cancer at 63 years old. You'd think that would have been enough to make me quit, but it didn't. That shows the hold a nicotine addiction can put on a person.
I'm almost 70, so whatever damage I've done from smoking at this point can't be reversed. I'll die a smoker.
As a side note, my mom used to smoke four packs a day for years, if you can imagine that. She was basically a chain smoker. She died from cancer at 63 years old. You'd think that would have been enough to make me quit, but it didn't. That shows the hold a nicotine addiction can put on a person.
Last edited:
southpawcaddis
New member
I usually smoke cigars when I'm fishing to keep the bugs away. The only other time I smoke cigars is when sitting on the cabin porch. Its been years since I smoked a pipe, but I think it would be too distracting for me to smoke a pipe and fish.
gfenlikestolosepasswords
Well-known member
Until they told me I had cancer I smoked a pipe during fishing, but not the act of fishing. I don't like when smoke goes into my nose like that.
I found it was a good reason to stop sometimes, sit on a log or rock, and watch the stream go by which let you take in what was going on without getting bored or antsy.
For fishing I kept a couple of Peterson 313s because they could break apart hot, if I had to hold it in my mouth it reduced tongue bite, and the bits were solid. I only smoked MacBaren Navy Flake because anything else was simply uncivilized.
I found it was a good reason to stop sometimes, sit on a log or rock, and watch the stream go by which let you take in what was going on without getting bored or antsy.
For fishing I kept a couple of Peterson 313s because they could break apart hot, if I had to hold it in my mouth it reduced tongue bite, and the bits were solid. I only smoked MacBaren Navy Flake because anything else was simply uncivilized.
Ciggy’s were always good for the drive up for a fishing trip to calm anxiety. Also enjoyed sitting on a log and watching nature. And killed the remorse on the drive home at the end of the trip. I haven’t done it for years though and now the smell of cigarettes repulses me. I too remember emptying the butts out of the small pocket at the top of my vest.
Quit smoking January 2016. I was trying to quit, but didn't want to waste the half dozen or so still in the last (?) pack. Then my daughter grabbed the pack from my hand and said stop and I did.
I had just been put on a medicine that could have influenced the ability to quit, but it was done. No more nicotine since.
Have to say it is a lot nicer with few people smoking any more.
Can really smell-distinguish it in parking lotsI
Worked at Hershey Medical Center for a summer for tuition at Penn State. I was a respiratory tech assistant in the ICU who was allowed, if not required, to exceed the job description for providing care. The break room in the respiratory therapy department was where the respiratory therapists would smoke.
Sometimes the patients would come out to the large central nurses' desk on the floor and smoke.
In high school the seniors were provided a specific bathroom for smoking and also a senior lounge off the cafeteria.
I didn't smoke then.
A flyfishing friend smoked and we used to visit some bars and a disco downtown State College. I held a cigarette while cruising the clubs. Needed to look cool.
Then early one morning while driving to my friend's house to head out on another flyfishing adventure, on the northern part of State College, it hit.
It felt weird. A big "whaaaaaat?!!!"
Didn't know it, but the entrance door to the house of addiction, opened with a big welcoming!
The core of my brain talked to me. "Go ahead. Smoke a cigarette."
No, no, no! But then, okay. Don't know why, but okay will smoke a cigarette.
And then the nicotine addiction began. Chewed snuff mostly. Can't maintain a regular exercise routine if messing up lungs smoking. Spitting seems okay.
Switched to all cigarettes later when was playing harmonica lots and lots. Can't eat right before and during a performance. No snuff absolutely. Keep the reeds clean and tuned.
Still that nicotine is nasty addictive.
Glad could quit.
Glad my daughter pulled the cigarette out of my mouth and the pack from hands.
Flyfishing is probably a little more addictive.
(Personal rule of fishing is no drugs, no alcohol and no effects when fishing. Strict rule for self and anyone fishing together. Nothing. But smoking between "pools" was okay. Snuff much easier. Patches helped a little. Drugs and booze and cigs always held off for the end of the day review. Not fishing. Not hunting. But socializing. Yes. Big smile!)
I had just been put on a medicine that could have influenced the ability to quit, but it was done. No more nicotine since.
Have to say it is a lot nicer with few people smoking any more.
Can really smell-distinguish it in parking lotsI
Worked at Hershey Medical Center for a summer for tuition at Penn State. I was a respiratory tech assistant in the ICU who was allowed, if not required, to exceed the job description for providing care. The break room in the respiratory therapy department was where the respiratory therapists would smoke.
Sometimes the patients would come out to the large central nurses' desk on the floor and smoke.
In high school the seniors were provided a specific bathroom for smoking and also a senior lounge off the cafeteria.
I didn't smoke then.
A flyfishing friend smoked and we used to visit some bars and a disco downtown State College. I held a cigarette while cruising the clubs. Needed to look cool.
Then early one morning while driving to my friend's house to head out on another flyfishing adventure, on the northern part of State College, it hit.
It felt weird. A big "whaaaaaat?!!!"
Didn't know it, but the entrance door to the house of addiction, opened with a big welcoming!
The core of my brain talked to me. "Go ahead. Smoke a cigarette."
No, no, no! But then, okay. Don't know why, but okay will smoke a cigarette.
And then the nicotine addiction began. Chewed snuff mostly. Can't maintain a regular exercise routine if messing up lungs smoking. Spitting seems okay.
Switched to all cigarettes later when was playing harmonica lots and lots. Can't eat right before and during a performance. No snuff absolutely. Keep the reeds clean and tuned.
Still that nicotine is nasty addictive.
Glad could quit.
Glad my daughter pulled the cigarette out of my mouth and the pack from hands.
Flyfishing is probably a little more addictive.
(Personal rule of fishing is no drugs, no alcohol and no effects when fishing. Strict rule for self and anyone fishing together. Nothing. But smoking between "pools" was okay. Snuff much easier. Patches helped a little. Drugs and booze and cigs always held off for the end of the day review. Not fishing. Not hunting. But socializing. Yes. Big smile!)
