Millarian

This weekend my Dad and I took my four year old, Ethan, on his first fishing trip. He had a blast and even caught two fish!

Ethan’s First Fishing Trip Photos

The first fishing trip of 2007 was to Roosevelt Lake. This time, we were fishing for a purpose. The AZ Game & Fish Department asked for volunteers to help restock Apache Lake with smallmouth bass, so we answered the call. What is better than having a great time fishing while helping a local lake get back on its feet?

Saturday was cold and it rained off and on, but we caught 15 fish! Too bad only two were smallmouth, but at least we were able to contribute something. On Sunday, it was even colder (38F) and it rained the entire time. We ended up leaving before noon because it was just too darned cold and we were soaked. We had only caught 3 more fish and none were smallmouth…

When we got back to Globe warmed up and were getting ready to head back to Phoenix, we encountered this sudden change in weather:

Guess it’s a good thing we decided to leave when we did. Sadly, we got stuck waiting for a snow plow to clear the mountain pass before we could continue on to Phoenix. A great trip with a strange ending. I’ll be glad when it warms up a bit…

I took a little time before the holiday to go on another fishing trip with my dad. This time we went to Bartlett Lake, just northeast of Phoenix. The fishing wasn’t great, but the location was spectacular. The lake itself sits in the Tonto National Forest, an area overflowing with saguaro cactus, desert vegetation, and wildlife. We only caught three fish between the two of us, the largest being my large mouth bass. It was about 15.5 inches and probably around 2-2.5 pounds, although we didn’t weigh it. We may take another trip before the new year, but that is yet to be decided.

I met my end of year goals of revising my executive summary, creating a presentation from it, and submitting it to a handful of VC firms. I also updated my resume as a few firms would like your full resume, not just a paragraph description of your accomplishments. I also met a stretch goal of releasing another version of the site, although admittedly it is only a minor version; mostly backend changes. I feel really good about what I have accomplished this year.

I hope everyone has a happy holiday. I will be spending time with my family and relaxing for a few days then it’s full steam ahead into 2007. I am confident this will be a great year.

Just got back from another fishing trip. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this time we went to Alamo lake in Arizona. The Alamo State Park is really beautiful. The lake itself is surrounded by mountains with shades of red and purple. It is not a big lake, only about 4-5 miles, but it was nice. It is literally in the middle of nowhere.

There were only about a dozen boats on the lake so we had it pretty much to ourselves. We were fishing with crankbaits close to shore. Crankbaits are a lure that dives about 5-6 feet underwater and wiggles a lot. We had chosen a chartreuse color because that had seemed to work well at Roosevelt a few weeks ago. Between my dad and me, we caught nine fish; I caught five and he caught four. They were all small bass, around 12-14 inches and probably weighing in at about one to one and a half pounds.

I thought it might be a little cold for fishing today, but it turned out to be a great day. When we got there it was warm with barely a breeze. It clouded over a little and the wind picked up in the afternoon a little. We headed over to the far side of the lake, the direction the wind was blowing and found a cove in which some bass were biting. It seems that they were probably eating whatever was being blown up on that shoreline. We caught most of our fish there.

On the way to the lake there are two towns: Salome and Wenden. Both are small, but Wenden is by far the smaller of the two. Salome is the home of the Frogs and the town slogan is “Where she danced” (follow the link if you want to know why). Anyway, after exiting I-10 toward Salome there is a 30 mile stretch of road that has open range cattle. I have never in my life seen so many cow carcasses; the road was littered with them. You don’t realize how big a cow really is until you see it spread across a road by a vehicle traveling at over 55 mph…

We are hoping to go fishing at least one more time, possibly two, before the end of the year. My digital camera is broken, but I would love to get some photos and share them. Maybe one of me holding the state record-breaking bass?

I was sorely in need of some time off last weekend, so I organized an impromptu fishing trip to Roosevelt Lake with my dad, brother, and best friend. We used to go to Roosevelt a lot when I was younger to fish, water ski, hike and just hang out.

My parents used to have a place near the lake in which we did not have a TV or video games. We only had one phone for emergencies and I’m pretty sure very few people had the number. Instead of watching TV or playing video games we would get outside for hiking or fishing. We also played a lot of games, either board games or card games. We continue to play card games like pinochle or hand-and-foot at family gatherings. It kinda became a tradition.

It was really nice to reconnect with nature in a familiar way. It is peaceful to sit on a boat, listening to the water lap against the side or splash upon the shore. Fishing is also somewhat meditative as it involves being very methodical and you tend to work out a rhythm when casting. At the end of the day, I only caught one fish (and released it back into the lake), but I felt much more refreshed.

I enjoyed it so much, my dad and I are taking a trip to Alamo Lake soon to try our luck again.