Hey brothers, just reading through some posts and found a few humorous ones, and wondered, do any of you guys have any "Taboos, Habits, or Superstitions"? Anything weird you do that fellow anglers laugh at the first time they see you do, then you catch them doing later? Personally, I always pull the ol' Bill Dance and kiss every bass I catch on the forehead I also have a habit of chewing Skoal Wintergreen Longcut when I'm catfishing, and have a tendency to spit on a crawler before I drown him. Maybe it has something to do with the chew, but dang it works for me!

I have a driving hat and a fishing hat. Never wear your fishing hat in the truck. Same with my duck hunting hat. Not only is it good luck, but it also aides my unnatural obsession of hat collecting!

My kids and I started the tradition of everyone paying a quarter to the first in the group to catch a fish. It was mostly a joke until my oldest and I took a trip to North Dakota and he didn't have a quarter when I caught the first fish. He went 0 for the week and ever since I find myself handing a quarter to anyone I am fishing with that catches the first fish!

NEVER kiss a fish. You can get an intestinal parasite that will make you wish you'd never heard of fish. I'm glad you've been fortunate to avoid it so far, but when (not if) you get sick, I'm sure you'll never do it again!

If you look closely you will notice that Dance and Jim Houston never actually make contact with the fish, it is more of an 'air kiss'.

bass or bass? Thanks for the tip. Of course it would not be sanitary to french kiss a fish or anything that comes out of the lake, however I believe you're being a tad on the germaphobe side here. If my lips do make contact with the fish, I promptly wipe them on my sleeve before returning to fixing my lure or recasting, etc. This would fall into the category of "not drinking un-purified lake/pond/creek water" for the same obvious reasons. I will continue my previous habits, as I've been doing it over 20 years and also have a great doctor if the need arises. On the point though, not a bad idea for people to carry some hand sanitizer in their tackle boxes if they're that worried about it.Consider how many people cut/tighten line or knots with their teeth, or smoke while fishing, both would result in similar danger of pathogen/parasitic transfer to their lips. Again, good tip, DON'T LICK BASS!

I learned about this parasite watching a Bill Dance episode. At the end of the show they showed a trailer with the announcer stating " you may have seen our host or other show hosts kiss a bass after catching it......" then went on to say not to do so because of the intestinal parasite, whose name they gave but I can't remember, that can be contracted by such affectionate displays! just fair warning to all. Happy Fishing!

I wear a giant Buck Knife on my hip. I wouldn't call that a "taboo, habit, or superstition," but it does keep other anglers on the shore from getting too close to me or casting into my waters!