For a long time chewing and fishing was synonymous for me. Actually, chewing and virtually everything was synonymous. About a year ago that all changed though, and I have officially been tobacco free for over a year now. In my case laser acupuncture seemed to help. I mean it really truly seemed to help. For the first two days I was homicidal and for a good month I really couldn't fish worth a damn but otherwise quitting was pretty easy.
How is life post chew?
Well, not being enslaved to 7 eleven and a spittoon is sweet. Not having bad breath at all times is rad. Not having to walk the "do what I say not what I do" walk of hypocrisy with my son is bitchin. And that leaves me desperately short of archaic old-fart replacements for sick. Because as a friend pointed out today we are all of us pretty much too old to get away with "sick".
More than anything else though, this means I get to be a sanctimonious prick to anybody else who hasn't quit. I looked it up, those are the rules.
Incidentally their is a long-standing theory about chewing and carpin. The theory goes something like this:
- You have it on your hands.
- Therefore it gets on your flies.
- Carp can smell tobacco in the one part per bazillion gazillion.
- Carp HATE the smell of tobacco.
- Therefore you catch less carp.
Just a theory mind you, but it would also seem to indicate that either the proponents of the theory or the carp themselves are also sanctimonious pricks who quit chewing a while back. Either way I am officially on board.
Excellent McT. This April will be a year for me off of the worm dirt and I've had a pretty good run on the carp since then as well!
ReplyDeleteNot a coincidence I am sure.
DeleteWell done McT a great effort.
ReplyDeleteThanks FFR
Delete3 years free myself from cigs this week, Congrats!
ReplyDeleteNice. Three years is pretty much an eternity.
DeleteI'm sure your wife is appreciative.
ReplyDeleteFrankly it was her idea Kevin. Hooked me up with the laser acupuncture and everything. She loves me.
DeleteI am totally on board with the carp hating tobacco theory. I had a cigarette butt in the same pocket as my fly box once and flies that normally always got eaten were flat out ignored. Some fish even spooked on them.
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly possible. Carp are so hard to figure out day to day that I could never be sure, but it seems reasonable.
DeleteWow! Mctage!
ReplyDeleteThat is quite an accomplishment! Bully for you. I never touched tobacco and glad of it. However, here is an anecdote I've shared before elsewhere. On a local park's water my partner and I watched a very large carp push an empty cigarette (I almost can't write that word,) pack at least 30 feet, mouthing it, diving, leaving and coming back. This is place where ducks eat feed bread, and the carp are right there, but the reds and golds and cellophane looked nothing like people food. We were dumbfounded, perhaps this fish was just extremely curious.
Gregg
I can't imagine quitting an addiction! Congratulations on it! And on an awesome wife from the sound of it! Stay True!
ReplyDelete"More than anything else though, this means I get to be a sanctimonious prick to anybody else who hasn't quit. I looked it up, those are the rules. " Perfectly hilarious! And true!