CTF name: Real name: Chuck Fogarty Age: 48 Current city: East Hartford, CT Hometown: Hartford, CT Family members: Wife Cindy, sons Rick & Mike Occupation: Systems Engineer
1. How'd you come up with your screen name, SunganaBeach? I think I posted that story one time http://www.ctfisherman.com/ubbthreads/ub...true#Post418695 My name was given to me by a group of old Italian immigrants. I was flying into the narrow NO WAKE zone with my boat up on plane. Over on the shoreline and adjoining docks was this group of vacationing Italian immigrants. They were having a good time fishing and wading in the water with their pants rolled up. Just as I was approaching them, I dropped my beer and it rolled to the back of the boat. So naturally, I got up, walked to the back of the boat and bent down to retrieve it. As I was bending down, I could hear some yelling and commotion coming from shore. There were some clinking and pinging sounds, followed by the sound of drag washers whirring at a furious rate. Then there were some splashing sounds like waves slamming against a dock, and again, I swear I heard some loud voices. As I stood up and made my way back to the driver's seat, I saw all the immigrants along the shore pointing at me with just one finger (it must be an Italian custom) and they were all soaking wet (from swimming or something). Right about then I ran over a NO WAKE ZONE buoy (why they put them right in the channel I'll never know). So I figure I'll be a nice guy and I throttled down the engine. It was about then I heard a bunch of the guys yelling, "Hey, you Sungana Beach!", and they were pointing at me in that weird one fingered way again. So I smiled and waved back to them saying, "Who, me?". "Yeah, you're a Sungana Beach" they told me. So I figured, Who am I to argue with them?
2. How has CTF, and the Internet in general, changed your fishing? I’ve been surfing the internet for a long time – even before it was popular. I bought my first home computer in 1982. It was an Atari 400 with 16K of memory! I had a tape recorder to go with it for saving and loading programs. I picked up a 300 BAUD modem, and typed-in a “browser” program that I found in a magazine! (300 BAUD means 300 bits per second! Can you say S-L-O-W? My new Comcast cable set-up is 6.0 Million bits per second!) At the time, Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) were popular. You’d get a list of phone numbers and dial directly to the modem of the BBS you wanted to connect to! Compuserve was the biggest thing going at the time. But I digress…
Over the years, I’ve met a lot of my fishing buddies via the internet. I started out posting on Soundfishing.com and CTriverStripers.com, and then I created the EGF&G Club’s website (around 1998). It started out on some free servers and it was moved around a couple of times. It’s now hosted at a paid location as http://www.egfg.org. That’s where I post all my hunting & fishing reports. I also made another website http://www.ScrugneysGundogs.egfg.org around the same time, when my dog, Scrugney was about to have a litter of puppies.
I signed-up for CTF in 2002, and it’s been a favorite place of mine ever since! I’ve fished with many people from this website – on my boat and theirs – and I haven’t met any of them I didn’t like. My best fishing buddies and friends all came from here, guys like Vick, MyGirl, Big Al, KWK, Crazy Ivan, Reel Therapy, Numbercruncher, and a host of others. I already knew Bennett and Paul D. from Jim Gavin's website. P.Dona volunteered to sponsor my field trial - before I even met him in person! There are many guys from the website that I’ve fished with once or twice, and I’d fish with them again - anytime. We all share a passion for the sport and I think that is what makes it great. Without the internet, and CTF specifically, I’d never have met any of these guys, and THAT is what the internet has done for my fishing.
3. You were one of the first CTF members to start sharing a lot of video from your adventures. How did you first get into working with videos and websites? Well, I alluded to the beginnings of my website experiences in the last question. I guess I should add that I started out working in Data Processing in 1979. When I found it interesting, I went back to college and took some programming classes. Shortly after that, I became a mainframe COBOL & Assembler language programmer. The mainframe was a job and other computer stuff was a hobby. I learned several other programming languages, including BASIC, C, 6502 Assembler, JAVA, REXX, HTML, and more. So, the websites grew from that interest.
The videos were a little different. I had a big collection of VHS tapes for the T.V. and I wanted to archive them to DVD’s when that media became popular. I picked up Pinnacle’s Studio Deluxe program/hardware that allowed me to copy VHS tapes onto the computer, edit them, and save them as DVDs.
I also used to do a little filming with a Super-8 camera, and made some videos with borrowed VHS recorders, so the camcorder was the next step. It fit right in with the video editing software and things just took off from there. MY VIDEOS
4. You're a member of the East Glastonbury Fish and Game Club and run their website. What are the benefits of joining your club, or any game club in general?
I joined EGF&G because I like to hunt & fish, and out of the clubs I looked at, they had the most to offer. Bristol Fish & Game and Wallingford Rod & Gun Club were my other choices. I didn’t join BF&G because they were too far away and had too many members, and I was just about to join Wallingford (also far away), when I found a sponsor for EGF&G. EGF&G has trout ponds, pheasant hunting, deer & turkey hunting, trap & skeet fields, a rifle range, and a Private Regulated Dog Training Area. I’m the Field Trial Chairman, and as such, I’m in charge of the Dog Training Area. I also recall a conversation I had with a DEP official right around the time I joined EGF&G, about pheasant tags…
Let me try to illustrate, several years ago when I tried to buy a second set of "Pheasant Tags" (which by the way, is a way to increase State revenues), I was told by a DEP official that I could not - the reason being that it wasn't fair to the hunter who had no dog. Since some hunters don't have dogs, we hunters who did have dogs could not purchase a second set of pheasant tags - that's how we achieve equality between hunters. I was told to join a private club. I did! That one baffles me still!
5. You won a CTF winter photo contest with a picture of your dog, Buddha. Tell us about what makes him a special dog.
Buddha, he’s my buddy! I’ve been a dog guy for many, many years, and Buddha is number 5 in a long line of canine companions. I’ve had a beagle, a Springer Spaniel, a cat (how’d that get in there? ), and three Labrador Retrievers. I’ve had a yellow, a black and now (Buddha) a chocolate Lab.
I used to be a big pheasant hunter and I trained my own dogs to hunt them. Lately, I’ve focused more on waterfowling and Buddha is the first dog I’ve trained exclusively for waterfowling, at the expense of upland hunting. I wanted him to be steady in the blind before teaching him to hunt in the Uplands. Maybe this year we’ll start doing more Upland training.
He’s been a fishing dog all along. He enjoys going on boat trips for stripers and fluke. He cracks me up when we go clamming and he starts “digging” in the water next to me! That’s where he got the nickname, “Buddha the Clam Digging Wonder dog”! Here’s a link to his photo gallery: http://www.scrugneysgundogs.egfg.org/photo/thumbnails.php?album=120
6. How and when did you first get into the outdoors? It must have started in a past life or something, because even as a kid, I dressed in cowboy outfits and camped-out under the stars. My grandparents had a camp on Glenn Echo Lake in Massachusetts, and that’s where my dad taught me to fish. We started out catching “Kivas” off the dock, and years later, LMB were the prized fish of the lake. My dad used to take me and my brothers to the Hitchcock Chair Factory in Riverton every year for the Opening Day Fishing Derby. Those are some of my fondest memories!
I used to go camping in the Boy Scouts and Order of the Arrow. My best friends from grammar school were all in the Scouts. I didn’t start hunting until I was 18 and could buy my own guns. We used to hunt pheasants without a dog for a few years, and not very successfully I might add. My friend Tommy Guidotti at the Aetna got me back into pheasant hunting over his Brittney Spaniel, Ginger. Hunting over the dog(s) made all the difference and I’ve been doing it ever since! Another Aetnoid, George Zaugg, introduced me to waterfowling. He is now my #1 duck hunting buddy. And, a combination of Bobby Klemba and Jerry Cloutier took me to a hilltop farm one day for a tremendous hunt that I call, "The day I became a goose hunter!" (I even have that day on video! )
7. You've posted a variety of hunting/fishing reports (inshore, offshore, party boats, clamming, crabbing, sporting clays, lure making, etc.), but I don't think we've seen an ice-fishing report from you. Do you ice-fish?
Heh, heh! That’s a trick question! I must have posted the answer before! Yup… http://www.ctfisherman.com/ubbthreads/ub...true#Post720257 Are you talking about the "Great Winnipesaukee Ice Fishing Derby"? That's the one that made me give up on ice fishing for good! I froze my a$$ off and spent my last dollar buying long underwear. Then we had about 8 guys sleeping in a 2 bed motel room. When I got home, I packed up all my tip ups, auger, ice scoop and any other paraphernalia and gave it all to my buddy Steve. I never went ice fishing again!
8. Do you have a favorite fish species to target? What is your favorite animal to hunt? Fluke is my favorite fish, and geese are my favorite fowl.
10. What is the most awe-inspiring thing you have witnessed in nature? Tough question! It’s got to have something to do with the vastness or sheer magnitude of nature that’s out there?! The view from on top of Mount Washington or Boot Spur is pretty impressive. How about being in the middle of a school of porpoises a thousand strong, 90 miles offshore at the canyons? Watching my kids being born! (Starting their lives was pretty awesome too! )
11. What is the most "Beyond Addicted, Just Plain Sick!" thing you have done in pursuit of fish or game? I really don’t have a good answer for this question?! I guess when you’re addicted to something it all seems normal to you?! Does an alcoholic think he’s addicted? Does a drug addict think he’s just plain sick? I think my HUNTING and FISHING buddies are the ones who’ll have to answer that question for me!
12. Have you ever been in a life-threatening situation while fishing or hunting? No, not really. Contrary to popular opinion, I’m not an idiot! I try to avoid situations where my life is in danger. I’ve been on the ocean on a few nasty, lumpy days, but I never really feared for my life. Yes, it was uncomfortable, but not life threatening. When I go hunting I’m armed, things that threaten my life would be in worse trouble than me! Probably the most danger I’ve faced was having a policeman point an assault weapon at me?!
13. "What's that sound I hear?" Cap’n Christopher might tell you, “It’s the sound of balls busting”! Heh, heh! Yes, it’s true, I’m a ball buster! But, I’ll only bust on you if I like you! It’s kind of like how siblings were when I was growing up. It was O.K. for me to bust on my brothers and sisters, but if anybody else tried to do it, I wouldn’t let them.
14. What does your wife think of your outdoor escapades? (Don’t tell her I said so, but she’s the best! ) Usually, if I hang around the house too long, she kicks me out and tells me to go fishing. She’ll even make me a lunch to take with me! The only thing she complains about is when I bring the dog home with ticks on him.
15. What do you think about the proposed saltwater license? To be absolutely truthful, I think it is nothing more than a money grab by the DEP. They are trying to get their hands on my money before the Federal government does. We’re not getting any value-added services and the money is certainly not going into anything that’s going to improve saltwater fishing. The way I see it, the money is only going to pay for the increased costs of existing services, and more law enforcement to check to see if we’ve paid the license fees to cover the cost of them checking on us.
I’d like to see some of the money go to a flounder stocking program. Or better yet, put a checklist of all available DEP programs on the license application, and have you check off which ones your license fee will be used to support.
16. Where is the strangest place you have ever woken up? Sorry, this is a family site?!
17. What is the biggest hardship you have had to overcome in your life? The death of my dad. I still miss him.
18. Do you have a dream fishing trip you'd like to go on? What about a dream hunting trip? I did one last year on Numbercruncher’s boat! http://egfg.org/photos/displayimage.php?pos=-2537 I suppose a trip to Alaska for some barn door-sized halibut would be a great trip. Mix that in with some fly fishing for salmon and a duck hunt or two, and I might not ever come home!
19. For the 2008 CTF Game Dinner, you contributed some succulent smoked goose! How did you learn your cooking skills? Do you have a favorite dish or recipe you can share. I’m really not much of a cook. Smoking and grilling is pretty easy, and I’m good at cooking Chinese, but other than that, my skills are limited. As a bachelor, my staples were PBJ’s and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese!
20. What is your most memorable fishing or hunting experience with a CTF member? Another tough question, there have been so many memorable trips. The most salient one, right at this moment, was an offshore trip on the Aye Spy with Aye Spy, Vick, me and Aye Spy’s buddy Paul. We caught BFT on spinning gear. Sight fishing for tuna busting the surface and catching them on light spinning gear can’t be beat! It would be accurate to say that I’m visually oriented and that kind of fishing appeals to me. I really like dry fly fishing too - it also has that visual aspect that I crave. Sight fishing for tuna is almost like hunting and fishing at the same time. What more could you ask for? http://egfg.org/photos/displayimage.php?pos=-1856
I’ve been a dog guy for many, many years, and Buddha is number 5 in a long line of canine companions. I’ve had a beagle, a Springer Spaniel, a cat (how’d that get in there? 
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