CTF name: SoundsFishy
Real Name: Ed Kasper
Real Real Name: Edward Zygmund Fabian Kacprzynski Jr.
Year born: In the year of JuJu – 1950
Current city: Trumbull, CT
Hometown: Bridgeport CT
Family members: Wife: Denece aka (Tellulah) - Son: Craig – Dog and Best Friend: Holly
Occupation: SAP Service Software Business Analyst

1. Is it going to be possible to get a straight answer out of you during this interview?
Just what are you trying to say Mitch? Did TMACK9000 aka Toodles put you up to a question like this? I know he is in constant contact with you since he needs continual internet companionship and your undying love and admiration. He worships you and this site. He sleeps with his iPhone next to him awaiting a Livewell reply. He is the reason behind all that is EVIL !! Now what was the question again?

2. What is a typical day on the job like?
In my current position, I support a global network of field service engineers with their software needs and issues, for a Life Science Company Headquartered in Massachusetts. We use a software named SAP (A German Software Company) that ties in all our business offices globally to insure we maintain best practices. Normally I will be on the phone or on email responding to problems with the software in the field. At this time, I am configuring the Service Software into a new company we recently purchased. The hours are long, but the team I work with is extremely professional and fun. I am looking forward to retiring in a few years and fishing more though. I’m thinking seriously about writing a comedy novel about corporate life called Monkey Business. I have soooo many stories. Gawd.



3. How and when did you first get into fishing?
My dad was a Commercial Fisherman out of Bridgeport CT. The boat was an Atlantic Dragger built in 1922 (converted schooner) moored at Hitchcock Gas Engine Co. on California Street next to the old Pequonnock Y.C. He had me out on the Sound at three years old, & it was love at first sight.



I worked as a deck hand for him throughout grammar & high school summer vacations. I remember when he would laugh when we were dragging the nets & I was on the stern dragging a lipped lure on tarred line behind the boat catching bluefish. But, the Commercial fishing business was not the life for me. I needed more structure and certainty in my life. And a steady paycheck didn’t hurt either. The prices fluctuated greatly but your expenses remained constant.



I remember one day when we dumped 10,000 pounds of scup into Bridgeport harbor because the Fulton Fish Market truck (from NY) would have charged us big $$$$ to get the fish to the processor. We would have had a net loss based on the price of the fish vs the transport cost. But recreationally, I was hooked for life. Shore fished when young, but got into boat fishing when I realized you could catch more. One thing I never was nor shall I ever be is a Boat Ho. I believe this is the lowest form of sea scum.

4. What is one of your most memorable fishing experiences?
There are so many. We dragged up a 20’+ Thresher Shark towing our nets west of Middleground Light House, a 500+ lb Manta Ray East of Middleground.



A Wing Tank, an Air National Guard Pilot in a parachute (very sad), Shark & Tuna Tourneys, the late 70’s yellowfin tuna invasion at the Butterfish Hole, etc. But to pick one, I was aboard Ward Strang’s 37’ Silverton heading to Montauk for 7 days of offshore tuna fishing. It was one of those perfect days on the Sound with 5 knot southerlies. We were all on vacation, mid-sound off of New Haven on course to Plum Gut, all of us up on the flying bridge popping our first beers when Capt Ward looks at me and sez he has some good news & some bad news. He tells me the Good news is, he just purchased before this trip, & mounted, a new 4 person survival raft up on the bow. The bad news was, I was the 5th guy.


A jet's wing tank that was dragged up south of Penfield Light House.

5. Do you have any fishing friends who scoff at the idea of talking fishing online at sites like CTF?
The old timers don’t scoff, most of the ones I know, just don’t know how to use a computer. Some of the younger guys I know have weak handshakes & don’t know how to type and are timid to join in. Danny B & Andrew come to mind as I write this. But I never heard someone say that this type of medium is scoff-worthy. I think you need to start believing more in yourself here Mitch and this monster you have created.

6. How has CTF changed your fishing over the years?
Well, I never used to drink or smoke until I met Team Tuesday. And then there was this 15 minute drift about 5 years ago where I once tried one of Fuzzy2U’s fluke rigs.


Piketoberfest bazooka launching.

7. You’ve been a member since 2003, but it seems you’ve only been really active in recent years. What made you become a more active poster?
Look closely in your archives Mitch at when Toodles started posting. That should make it very clear. He brings out the worse in me and between him, jonh, DEN, Dusty & the Livewell I have never laughed so hard at times…..I have paid 20X the cost of this site to see a comedy show that paled in comparison to some of the funny stuff here behind these firewalls.


Piketoberfest balloon launching. (That's Ed on the left.) Click here for more from Piketoberfest VIII (2009).

8. You’re one of the most sarcastic people on the site, yet in person you’re more subdued. Are you more sarcastic in real life with some of your close friends or family?
Sarcastic? Me?? Hell wait to get you get to be my age. Really though, this is an easy question. We were at a co-workers football game party a few years ago. At the party was a fella fighting some type of disease. The guys I knew all called me into the kitchen and asked me not to goof on the guy because the disease was very serious and could take his life. Cause they knew me (wink) as aka “The Devil” or “Evil Ed”. Well at half-time I make some conversation with him and he tells me he’s a sailboter. Uh-Oh. I tell him I fish the sound with a powerboat and that he would be welcome to join me next summer, ……..as ya’ never know when one of us ain’t gonna be around any longer!!! He lanquished a low guttural laugh & …a prolonged groan emanated from my co-workers in the kitchen. The good news is he IS still alive. But to better answer your question more simply, Yes!

9. Has your sense of humor ever gotten you in trouble?
Wow !! Sure !! But first, in Central High School, in Bridgeport, you can’t believe how many times it saved my life!! Canadians love to laugh. The more you made them laugh the less likelihood of you wearing a shiv under your third rib. Here’s the most recent one where I cringed. We hired a new software programmer from India a few months back. As I walked by his office at work, I noticed his computer’s screen saver. It looked like a pic of Jermaine Jackson of the Jackson 5. So I ask him…” Hey Pradeep, is that Jermaine Jackson on your computer?” He answered “No , …..that is my God !!” …………Ouch! Whoops…exit stage left…


Kanai Drift Trip.

10. You posted a report about fishing in Alaska with your son. Why isn’t he a CTF member? Does he ever question what you are doing talking with much younger anglers than yourself online?
My son loves boating but never really caught the fishing bug. He does join me a few times a year though when his schedule at the Milford Firehouse allows. He’s into his house, job, band & GIRLS. With regard to talking with younger anglers, well, they may have less years than I, but they look, feel and act older than I do, so it’s never been an issue.



11. Do you have a dream fishing trip or destination you’d like to take?
Have already taken that off my bucket list. The Alaska Trip with my son, the day MED took me deep water Flukin’ off of Niantic AND live-lining mackerel off Stellwagon with DEN & Toodles for Giant BFT. A memorable trip was when Danny B was SCREAMING that our anchor shifted and we were off the wreck, with his line straight up & down stuck in…you guessed it…the wreck.


Bankshot and SoundsFishy on Capt. Blaine's boat.

12. What’s the hardest thing you’ve had to overcome in your life?
Ok, I know this is gonna sound cold & hard, but really nothing. Let me explain. My dad was a hard-working guy & one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet, unless he was hitting the bottle. He then became very mean & abusive…not a good thing at all. I kept my distance when he was drinking (he never drank when operating the boat), but one thing it taught me was to take life with a grain of salt. Look, we are born to die, so to me death or disease IS a HUGE part of our lives. Too many peeps don’t really get that. They prance around as if nothing bad is ever gonna happen. Look, something is ALWAYS trying to hurt or kill us. I fully realize that EVERY day is a gift as peeps many years younger than I have hit the glue pots. With that mindset, it has been easy to handle anything thrown at me…I accept fate for what it is and move forward. Just about EVERYTHING is out of our individual control so why worry about it?? I treat my family and friends as I would like to be treated or even better in return. I love my wife & son more than anything but understand that they can be taken from me at any time. I stay away from the crazies and surround myself with family & peeps who love to laugh and enjoy life. Then these feelings all disappear, my soul shakes, my hands tremble, when I sign into the ChumBucket.



13. What do I think happens to us after we die?
Hoooo boy…Here we go !! Let me begin this discussion by unequivocally stating that I admire and honor the faith that any individual shares. Religion is a very PERSONAL subject & I fully respect everyone’s beliefs. I was raised a Catholic in a local Polish Church where priests kept their kielbasa in their pants. The nuns there truly worked to provide us with a good basic & religious education. We both feared them & goofed on them whenever we could all in good fun. If you call using a straw to shoot straight pins into the backs of their habits (robes), while they wrote lesson plans on the blackboards, “fun”. My Mom, being a devout Catholic, wanted me to become a priest…well after 8th grade, I didn’t know any better so I agreed to attend a Franciscan’s Fathers Seminary in Texas. That lasted about a week. I think it was something to do about some sort of chastity vow. I fell in love with my cousin Theresa during grammar school & I yearned for her dearly. But what I did do, was take away a deep desire to understand the history of ALL religions. So I studied Islam, Buddism, Hinduism & Derivatives of Christianity. Joseph Campbell was an incredible author on the history of religion during our species formative years…he spent his entire life studying & writing of the subject & I found his work extremely informative, intriguing & fascinating. During College, Psychology & Theology was minors of mine because of my love for the subject. What I came away with from all my studies, is this:

1. All Religions are Myths
2. All Religions are Beautiful & Good, Mankind makes them evil.
3. All Religions are based on FAITH.
4. All Religions create fanatics that create war, pain, misery, hatred and even death because fanatics want EVERYONE to believe their way is the right way.

I believe that god is not a grey haired man sitting on a throne awaiting our worship. I believe that God is all around us. In a very real and true sense of the term, “all around us”. Every bit of matter, everything we see and can’t see in the spectrum of light invisible to us, every atom that makes up our body, every rock, grain of sand, cloud, Star, Globular Cluster, distant pulsar or black hole is God. No, not god’s creation, but we are all part of the god that IS this universe that we now have a chance to experience. This is very deep. You have to be almost stoned to truly understand what I am saying here.

We have existed prior to this life forever, for a fleeting instance we get a chance to experience it, and when we die, we return to the state we existed in prior to our birth in our continuing journey through eternity. Hell was dreamed up to keep crazy peeps in line because back in the day, some peeps were 4 hairs short of being monkeys, heaven was imagined up because there was rampant persecution & slavery during the early years of religious awareness. Mankind is extremely self-centered to believe that we were made in the image of a supreme being. Imagine that…God looks like us!! Uhhh that’s a tough one to swallow!!! In addition, if eternity prior to our existence wasn’t all that bad, what’s the problem with returning to it?

My philosophy has me treating all others I meet with kindness and friendship, I shun those that are not accepting or choose to treat others unfairly or unjustly. This earth we have, that we experience everyday, is incredibly beautiful…it IS truly heaven !! From Fiji, to Alaska to the fjords of Norway, this rock, three orbital slots away from our star the sun is truly amazing. Would I love to live here for a thousand years??? Who wouldn’t? Well maybe not some peeps with genetic issues, but we only get this one chance, we should all embrace it and make it better…but we don’t and sadly, religion is one of the reasons why.



14. What is your favorite fish species to pursue?
I love to fish all Salt Water Species, but over the past 10 years I have focused on Fluke and have found it very fun, gay, challenging & rewarding. DEN has shown me how to catch big porgies too. One day I would really love to catch a yellow perch though.




15. Do you have any fish-that-got-away stories that still haunt you?
I have three that always pop up when shootin’ the breeze.. One was when flinging eels near the main light house channel in New Haven Harbor one evening with a good friend Frank (Bankshot). I had a pick up and a run that felt like 5 bowling balls falling down hill away from me. After that first run she stops, I set the hook & pulled the eel. Arrrggghhh Tuff way to learn to use a bigger hook on a bigger eel.
Another was fishing off Charles Island about 8 years ago in a bluefish tournament, had my bunker picked up, and whatever it was SLOWLY walked my line up to the bow, past my anchor line , then 100 yds away, heading into the tide slowly, methodically, steadily & eerily, then…… it drops off, along with my heart.



In the late 60’s we used to rig my dad’s dragger for 2 weeks of harpooning swords off Block Island to No Man’s Land. One day I was up the mast on lookout. What I thought were fishing or fruit crates floating were really the dorsal & tail fins of a swordfish sunning up on the surface. We slowly steamed the boat closer with the harpooner nervously awaiting the beast. The dorsal & tail fins were conservatively 16-18 feet apart. I wish we had GoPro’s back then ‘cause Toodles will call BS, but facts are facts (smile). As the diesel brought our pulpit closer inching the harpooner slowly & quietly to our quarry, he flings the harpoon, the rosette (dart) hits below the dorsal and glances off the side of the fish as she rolled away from him AND the poon’s trajectory path he threw it on. I can see this today as vividly as some peeps we know on this site, see things on Meth.




16. How long have you been married? Does your wife ever join you for fishing trips?
I met Tellulah (Denece) at a Yacht Club Octoberfest 37 years ago and we were married a year after meeting. The marriage has lasted because she does NOT come out fishing with me! She gets to do what she loves & I get to do what I love. It works for us. My fishing partner Bernie & his wife joined us at Mohegan Sun one evening for Dinner at Jasper White’s Summer Shack. My wife leans back in her dinner chair and says..”So, Bernie & Marilyn, …How do you like “MY” boat, opening her arms embracing the ambience of the casino”? After dinner she went to the ATM for bait and went fishing.


Ed's boat.

17. You’re facing the electric chair and you have one last meal. What does it consist of?
A diet of all Tosh.O reruns & rum raisin ice cream. Which spelled backwards is “Murder”. Oh wait, that was RedRum. Sorry.

18. Besides food, clothing and your fishing gear you can only take three items on a week-long fishing trip out at sea. What three items do you bring?
Team Tuesday
Team Toodles, Bernie & Bankshot
Team Allison (Riptide), Timmy (Pistol) & DEN


Team Tuesday.

19. What are your fishing goals for 2012?
The local MudHole fishing clubs that I am a member at, have year-long fishing tournaments with a Fisherman of the Year Status based on points. I would love to have a fish in each category making that board…..…1st, 2nd. Or 3rd is fine. But even if I don’t get there, will have a ball trying.




20. What are some of your favorite bands and musicians?
Years ago…Cat Stevens, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, All MoTown Records. Today, ColdPlay, Sugarland, Racal Flatts, Kid Rock.

Thanks Mitch, I have to stop now, my bus is beeping in front of the house. I gotta go…


Ed's dog, Holly.