Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day...

let me teach you how to fish and you'll starve to death.

Day 1.
 Skunked. Zero bites. I never even saw a fish jump. But to be fair (or to make excuses) the lake we fished was dead.
 Our first night we camped on the banks of a muddy desert lake called Lake Meredith down in Crowley County. We got stuck in the mud driving down to the camp sight and a local farmer helped us out. As a bonus there is a massive feedlot on it's north bank and we awoke to a nearly nauseating smell of feedlot. Getting out of the tent in to 25 degree temps my eyes watered... and I grew up working in hog farms. So my family was pretty distraught. Literally not a single tree within a half mile. I threw out some bait and let it sit but never had any hopes. It was an adventure though and really the craptastickness of it all is good for my boys. They roll with it at this point and I see them growing stronger every time we do something like this. Ben is seven and he built our campfire all by himself using a magnesium rod and a knife... pretty cool. I've tried to teach them that hardship is what shapes us. Of course being coddled and pampered shapes us also... but the end shape is different.
 Bonus: No internet. Of course I didn't even bring my lap top and if I had an i-telephone I wouldn't have brung it. Although I did to get to see a family enjoying a meal at a Mexican restaurant. The father, mother and two kids all had their faces buried in their phones. No talking. No eye contact. I watched them the entire time and they didn't say a word. Yay. I'll stop there and save it for a GOM rant with GZ.


Day 2-3.
 Skunked. Zero bites. Definitely one of the better lakes I've been on though. Lake Pueblo State Park. Fantastic and we'll be back, but definitely only in the early spring or late fall. It was over 70 in March. Too hot in the summer I suspect so we'll stay up high. I hate public camping and we prefer primitive back country but this was really great. I fished maybe an hour in two days, the rest of the time was hiking and exploring and fishing with my kids. And you need to understand... fishing with a 4 and 7 year old ain't "fishing". I talked to a couple other guys who had been there for the weekend and they didn't have a single bite either.
 While we were in Pueblo, which I have to admit is an OK town as far as towns go, I saw an old barber shop. The kind with the candy cane pole out front and it had to have been ~80 years old. I checked it out. $14.00 for a shave and a haircut... beautiful.
 On Friday I looked like this....

On Saturday I looked like this...

 "RC" cut and shaved me. He's 80 and he's been cutting hair for 60 years. Turns out he's a runner. He runs an hour every other day. He's eighty effing years old... Pueblo isn't that far... I may just head back down next time I need a haircut. Cool guy with lots of great stories. I love that about life. I walk in to an old barber shop and meet an old man with twice my life experience who is willing to share. Everyone has a story.

 Great weekend. No fish... but fishing with my boys is something that I cherish and it has nothing to do with fish.