Life's Journey

Today was a great day! One of the items on my list is to “Catch a fish (then let it go)”… this is one of those things that I honestly have never done before but I feel like everyone should at some point? A couple of my dear friends decided to arrange a guided fishing boat excursion for me. We’ve had this in the works for a couple of weeks now and I’ve really been looking forward to it!

Roy and I had to wake up just after 5:00am to get to our friends house. The boat was leaving at 8:00am and we had to be at the dock 30 minutes before. This doesn’t sound bad at all except that there has been a “cold spell” that came through the desert this week. For those of you that don’t live in Arizona let me tell you that when it gets cold in the desert it gets damn cold! The highs this week have been in the 40’s (ok, those of you in the mid-west are mocking me right now – but shut up, it’s cold!) LOL. Yesterday was the start of the warm-up and we knew that today was supposed to top out in the lower 70’s (phew). But as I was getting ready for bed at 9:00pm last night I realized that I had no idea what to wear fishing on a day like this. So, I texted my friend that was going with us. Her advice was wise, she said “wear comfty layers”. We texted back and forth about this and then I set off into my closet to find my layers. I heard my phone ding and she texted again saying “I’ll bring a bucket for pee”. Yup, I hope you are laughing as hard as I was…. You lost me at “bucket”. LOL Now I’m not sure of what I’ve gotten myself into. I mean, I know we are going fishing and all but…. A bucket?!? Well, I’m a trooper and by no means am I shy so I figured, whatever, it’s going to be a fun day!

When the alarm went off at 5:00am – I snoozed it. When the alarm went off at 5:30am – I shut it off. When Roy pestered me at 5:45am because I wasn’t up yet – I pulled the blankets over my head!  I crawled out of bed just in time to pull on my layers and get in the car. I must admit that I was having quite a bit of bone pain from the Neupogen shots so I was in slow motion. Roy had already loaded the cooler and snacks and we were ready to hit the road. One stop by Dunkin Donuts on the way! We arrived at our friends house on time and headed to the lake shortly after.

The day was spent at Lake Pleasant which is about 40 min north of Phoenix. I’ve passed this exit on the freeway many times but had never been there before today. The lake was much larger than I expected, surrounded by mountains and desert – it was beautiful. But, holy cow it was cold and windy when we set off to find our first fishing spot. I had on 4 layers, a scarf, gloves, my super warm hat and it was just barely enough. The four of us were as bundled up as you get sitting in a line at the back of the boat trying to stay warm. The boat by the way was really nice. I quickly learned that fishing boats are made for fishing – period. There are no bells and whistles, no cup holders or cushy seats, no fancy speakers and certainly no built in bathrooms (the bucket text was lingering in the back of my head at this point). We asked about this situation and they told us there were floating bathrooms on the lake we could use if needed. Check – no bucket necessary (phew).

Our guide’s name was Mike McFarland, he was great. He is a professional competitive fisherman and he definitely knew his stuff! He taught us the basics of bass fishing and how the sonar computers work to find good spots. We were all naturals right off the bat (wink wink). We cast and then cast again then we cast some more… no bites at the first stop.

As the sun came out and the wind died down it turned out to be a really nice day on the lake. We found our second fishing stop in a channel between two cliff areas. We used real bait here and weights to drop the 45 feet to the bottom where all the bass were hanging out (I knew this because I now know how to read the sonar screen – yup I’m officially a fishergirl). I think the “cold spell” caused a “dry spell” for fishing. Nothing was biting here either. But we had a few beers, kicked back and enjoyed a beautiful day on the lake with good friends.

Four hours later we came back to shore empty handed. No fish, no bites. But, we had a great time trying! I can’t officially check this one off my bucket list yet – we are planning to go back in April and try again when the fish thaw out!

If you have never been fishing before I highly reccommend it - great day!

Sending hugs and smiles,

Sarah