By Lou “The Rod Guru” Caruso
The other night I’m on the beach and it was slow, real slow … I started reflecting on how fortunate I truly am. I was able to retire early from my job, (forced out actually after the new company took over and moved my work to Syracuse) and got the opportunity to do what I love. Build custom fishing rods full time. I still enjoy going into the shop, cranking up the rock and roll and spinning rods. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not always peaches and cream. This time of the year gets nerve wracking as hell trying to get everyone’s rod to them, before the bite picks up, but we try.
I also thought about all the people I have met and built for. I have become friends with many of them. There’s my good friend Alan, “the flying Hawaiian” from Jersey. He is a very talented musician. How cool is that. One day we were chatting and I mentioned I like Kona Coffee. It’s hard to get the good stuff around here. About two weeks later I get a package from Hawaii. Its full of all different Kona’s and it’s the real thing! The man is a saint.
Then, there is Lee from California. Lee originally came from Long Island but relocated to the West Coast. I come to find out he is a weatherman at a local station out there. This past summer I had the opportunity to meet up with him out in Montauk. We got to fish a while and chat. What a great guy. As it turns out he fishes with a crew out there that all fish for Stripe Bass. I wound up building rods for 5 of them now. One of the interesting ones was Mike Fixters fishing buddy. He was the first left coast customer I had. I told him how much I admired Mike’s plugs. He wound up sending me a some of them
The best though is a local from Queens. Mike was here one day discussing his build and we got on the subject of fresh water fishing. I mentioned I had a house in the Adrondacks. He said he also had a house up there. I asked him what exit he was off. He said 25 I almost fell over. I’m off exit 24 meaning we are very close. As we chatted more, it turns out he is less then 5 miles and on the other side of the mountain from me!!!!!! Small world. I could go on and on but I wont bore you to tears. There are so many more.
I am truly blessed to have met so many fun and interesting people in the fishing community.
Now if I could just manage to catch some damn fish!
Editor’s note
The new issue is finished but we are having some difficulties locating our web designer who is hiking somewhere between Islip, New York and Melbourne, Australia.
Don’t ask……..anyway, in case you missed the new video on pencil popping John Skinner uploaded yesterday, here it is..enjoy
Zeno
Click here to view the embedded video.