The "Gear" Guy

I'm sure that we're acquainted with a "Gear" guy....you know the type - the guy with all of the new gear/bag/stripping basket/rod/reel/hat/high tech clothing....and he isn't afraid to talk about it.

What I find funny about the Gear Guy is, none of his gear help him get on fish any better than me or you. It's not as if the gear is a fish attractor....because, as my friend Scott likes to say, "The fish haven't read "In Fisherman" yet this month".

That's me in the photo, and I'm pretty geared up because we were quite a ways from the car and we were walking a fairly long stretch of beach.

I can remember being Gear Guy. When I used to bass fish, I'd always drag out 3 HUGE tackle boxes, and 4 rods just to hit a golf course pond. I can distinctly remember being out fished by my buddy one day, me with all of my gear and he with a Wal-Mart spinning rig and a few bags of plastic worms.

I usually don't carry all that much gear with me when I fish unless it's "expedition" style fishing....or I'm REALLY far from home. 90 percent of my gear isn't name brand gear and most of it isn't fishing gear at all, rather other gear "converted" into fly fishing gear. I'm not trashing anyone outfitted head to toe, I'm just saying that it doesn't work for me. I'm not going to list everything I take, I'm just mentioning the fact that I'm a minimalist of sorts.

Ken Morrow can be a gear guy too, but he uses everything....(just kidding Ken)

Take for instance, the gear guy at Long Key State Park. There were several of them sighted on this particular trip, but the guy I'm speaking of was a Gear God on a scale of gear-guy-ness. This guy looked like he just walked out of a fly shop that day, knocked off all the price tags, and started fishing....new wading shoes not even sandy yet. I was wading back to the campsite as the tide was almost gone, tired, spent and thirsty....my two 32 oz Nalgenes empty, I see this guy walking along the shore, and says to me "I can't see anything to cast at" to which I responded "you just have to wade and blind cast", opened up my fly box and gave him a few hot pink Sweet Ernies I had tied that morning...and he just sort of wandered off down the beach. It was necessary to blind cast because the 30 mph wind made it so. I couldn't see anything and I was getting hit.

Just like "softball guy", People of Wal-Mart and the always popular "boat guy", Gear Guy will always make me chuckle a bit.....