How an artist spends their time by day will influence the creative process at night. In Don’t Quit Your Day Job, Scene Point Blank looks at how musicians split their time, and how their careers influence their music (or how their music provides escape).
In this edition, we caught up with Chuck Ragan, known as the gruffest voice of Hot Water Music and an impressive solo career. Besides music, Ragan is also a professional angler and fishing guide.
Scene Point Blank: First, the basics. You are a fishing guide, is that your job title?
Chuck Ragan: Yes. I’m a fly fishing guide and instructor. The vast majority of my trips are fly fishing but have always been set up to accommodate conventional anglers as well.
Scene Point Blank: What does that mean in relation to your role at Cast Hope?
Chuck Ragan: When I began guiding I started working with Cast Hope. I’d fallen in love with the cause and the mission of sharing the outdoors with youth and their mentors to help with awareness of our waterways and the importance of connecting with Mother Nature.
Scene Point Blank: Do you guide people on rivers, primarily? Are you a boat captain as well?
Chuck Ragan: I’m mostly working in rivers, yes, but also work in a number of our foothill lakes and reservoirs in Northern California. Some of the rivers I work are deemed navigable waters in which I have to have a merchant mariners credential, TWIC card and a OUPV 6-pack captain’s license through the Coast Guard to charge money in a motorized vessel.
Scene Point Blank: In short, what is your role and how do you interact with people who purchase a fishing package?
Chuck Ragan: People hire me to take them fishing. My role is to take them to the waterways, do my best to put them on fish, keep them safe and well cared for and give them the best memory and experience of that day possible.
There’s many moving pieces in my life so it’s crucial to plan far ahead of time to reduce stress and find the little security we can. That’s all part of living and working independently. We have to hunt it. We have to go find it. The more we prepare, the easier it is.
Scene Point Blank: How would you describe an average day? Do you always visit the same locations, and then choose your focus (fish species) based on season or customer preference?
Chuck Ragan: The days are usually dictated by both seasons and weather, first and foremost. Where I live, we’re very lucky to have a number of very diverse fisheries and seasons. We have both anadromous migratory species as well as resident populations of fish. Some clients come for a specific species, others are game for whatever is happening in the given month they’re there to fish. Many clients have me choose the best time for them to visit.
An average day for me always begins very early. All of the fisheries I visit are anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half drive. I wake early, get right with the day (truck and boat are usually rigged and ready from night before), I hit the road, and fuel up. Sometimes I pick up clients, sometimes we meet at the launch. We typically do a quick safety briefing if they are new to my boat and program. From there I bring them to an open area to quickly gauge their ability and to see where they’re at as anglers. If they are new, this is the time I give them a 101 lesson on whatever program we are doing that day. Once I feel they’re ready, we get to it. The type of fishing I’m usually doing is a pursuit. We are hunting them. Constantly moving and adapting to whatever Mother Nature is throwing at us whether it be currents, temperatures, or weather. My full days usually consist of 8 hours of fishing, breaks or lunch when needed. From there, I send them on their way and head home to my family.
I spend as much time with the family in the evening until they are in bed before hitting the reset button to rig rods, clean the boat and get ready for the next trip. In the slower months, an average day consists of all the work that needs to happen to give us a worry-free day on the water: licenses, permits, insurance, truck, motor, gear and trailer maintenance. This is where the real work is: everything that needs to happen that ensures that my clients have everything they need and that we can go and come safely.
Scene Point Blank: Maybe you answered this in the first question, but is Cast Hope a nonprofit organization and how important was that in you choosing this job?
Chuck Ragan: Yes, Cast Hope is a nonprofit organization. When Hogan Brown, who was my mentor in guiding, exposed me to Cast Hope, he suggested I should consider guiding for the kids. It was more or less my intro into guiding. Even though I’d been taking people fishing for years, I had yet to figure out how to make it a day to day drive. After working with Cast Hope, word of mouth spread that I was guiding and people started to get in touch wanting to get on my boat. From there I realized it could work if I put the time and energy into it.
Scene Point Blank: You were a carpenter when you moved west, then got married and had a family, based on your job bio. Was this sort of an alignment of common interests and contacts, or how did your job at Cast Hope become reality in the overall bigger picture of your career?
Chuck Ragan: I’ve done carpentry work for years. For a while I thought I wanted to be a contractor and went down that road. When the housing market fell out in 2008, folks were calling for me to play shows more than for remodels so I chose to make ends meet any way I could. When my wife and I decided to have a kid, I knew that I needed to spend less time on the road to be able to be present for my family. Hogan Brown was the one that pointed out that I could potentially find a balance between music and guiding. When I would return home from the road and before kids, I was on the water constantly as it was. So it was a very natural and organic transition for me.
Scene Point Blank: What other jobs have you held?
Chuck Ragan: Quite a few. Restaurant work from dish duty, to white glove service, fine dining, line cook, head cook, ditch digger, heavy machinery operator, contractor, and so on and so forth.
Scene Point Blank: How long have you played music?
Chuck Ragan: About 35 years, I reckon.
Scene Point Blank: How has that overlapped with your career? In short, the real question I'm digging for is: Did playing music influence your career path, either through people you met or because the job fit your scheduling needs or creative process?
Chuck Ragan: Music has been and is my career or part of my career. So I landed in a place where I more or less balance two careers.
Scene Point Blank: Your name is right on the website and URL, so I imagine most people who hire you know your background? How often does music come up while working with customers?
Chuck Ragan: Not as many as you may think. It seems the majority of my clients come for the reputation and work I’ve put into my fishing programs. Most learn of the music aspect of my life after the fact.
Scene Point Blank: Have your experiences from the music world, such as playing in front of people and meeting new people through music influenced your day job(s) in any surprising ways? For example, do you think it makes you more of a "people person"?
Chuck Ragan: Absolutely. A massive part of guiding is dealing with people. Being neutral, to an extent, since you never know who’s stepping into your boat and who you’ll be spending the next 8 hours with. It’s important to stay friendly and cordial, work hard, do your job and give the folks a great experience. There are some guides out there who are incredible anglers: knowledgeable in their waters. yet terrible guides. That’s usually due to not knowing how to deal or not willing to deal with people. Those types of guides typically don’t last long in the business, or so it seems.
Scene Point Blank: What about vice versa? Does your work help you when going on the road, maybe seeking a local fishing hole for solitude or to some personal space?
Chuck Ragan: Paying attention to Mother Nature, life and death cycles, currents, holding zones, tides, seasons and moon cycles makes us look at the world in a completely different way. So yes it does, greatly.
Scene Point Blank: How do you balance everything? Do you set schedules or block off time to write/record music? Or do you write more spontaneously?
Chuck Ragan: Usually everything I'm doing today was more or less planned or held last year. There’s many moving pieces in my life so it’s crucial to plan far ahead of time to reduce stress and find the little security we can. That’s all part of living and working independently. We have to hunt it. We have to go find it. The more we prepare, the easier it is.
Scene Point Blank: To kind of summarize everything: How intertwined are your "professional life" and "music life"?
Chuck Ragan: They are truly one and the same in more ways than one.
Scene Point Blank: What advice would you give to a musician who is interested in commercial fishing or a similar field?
Chuck Ragan: Plan ahead. If it’s commercial fishing or guiding, it’s largely going to be based on the seasons they’d be able to work. It would start there. From there, it’s up to them whether or not they want to find a balance between the two. If they’re wanting to step away from music, the object would be to completely submerge themselves into the lifestyle, put their head down and work endlessly to get wired to every end of everything that has to do with that particular job. Sooner or later, they will find a focus. From there, it’s just devoting time, energy, money and having a “take no prisoners” attitude.
Scene Point Blank: Do you listen to music while fishing?
Chuck Ragan: Not unless the client wishes to listen to music. When fishing on my own, no.
Scene Point Blank: Anything you'd like to add?
Chuck Ragan: If anyone is interested in fishing with me, visit crflyfishing.com.
Check out previous entries in the Don’t Quit Your Day Job series.
