Up until three hours ago, I was planning on having a few friends over for the weekend. We were gonna mess with our PSP's and play a hell of a lot of RockBand. But sitting here at work, I thought, "Why?"

We play games all the time and the weather is so nice right now, LETS GO FISHINING!!

So I called up one of my buddies, and now we are heading on a 200 mile drive to Ashurst Lake near Flagstaff, AZ. I have never been there but we leave at 5am tomorrow and come back when we get bored.

I let you know how it goes

just dont use your psp as bait, the fish may want to play but let them play it topside.

Take pictures of what you catch!

You know, they do sell fish at the grocery store.

Good luck on your fishing trip.

But it's relaxing going out on the water trying to catch fish and have good conversation. Better than driving 5 minutes to the local Wally World and buying fish then going back home to play Rock Band. That's how f*ckers get fat.

I didn't know people actually bought fish. I have always cought the fish.

^ Wha... what?

So you've never been through a fish market experience?

Nope, can't say that I have.

My only fish market experience was me going to the lake and nabbing a fish with my bare hands, then frying it afterwards.

Catching fish is a nice experience. I've caught, cleaned, and cooked my fish. The sad part is that I'm allergic to fish.

So I give it to the fam.

I used to fish every once in a while. Eventually, I got tired of getting eaten alive by insects despite the expensive repelent and not being lucky enough to catch water.

Hmmm... fishing is very low on my interests. I don't even eat fish
But I hope you enjoyed/are enjoying your fishing trip.

Uh, f_ckers get fat sitting in a car for 200 miles only to sit in a boat or on the shore.

But it's still more relaxing. And it shows you do something else other than staying at home like a bum.

You have to leave the house to go to the grocery store.

Ah! the quote of a quote of a quote of a quote of a post! This is getting crazy.
But I have to agree with both to an extent. Yes, sitting in a couch and playing video games can be as physically (un)productive as sitting in a boat waiting for a fish. Personally, going fishing is not an activity I would do, but doing something different every once in a while can be refreshing. Who cares if it's fishing or sky diving, cow tipping or just a road trip, as long as you could say in a few years, "remember when instead of staying home, we [insert activity here]? Man that was awesome/sucked/whatever"
And.. umm.. yeah, that is all I have to say...

Well, my first post about selling fish at the store was a joke all along. I expect everyone knows that, but I am the type of person that thinks that there is no set way of doing things. Sure getting out of the house may be great, but staying in maybe great too. Fishing may be great, but playing games may be great too.

The only point where I got a little serious is that sometimes things are glorified for reasons that don't quite apply. I understand what it spiritually means to get out and go fishing, but it is hardly physically active.

People used to criticize video games to me because they don't require you to be active (they never heard of DDR obviously) so I would say, what should I do, read books (recall that reading books is usually done while sitting just like video games)?

I'm sure that this fishing trip will be great for insultobot. I don't think that it makes you less of a bum though. It depends on what motivates you personally in my opinion. What I mean to say is that I don't think one can call another a bum because we all have differnt interests, energy levels, and I don't see any pursuit universally more valuable than another.

@bo and SF: I don't give a damn about either of your egos especially when it seems people argue just to argue but I respect both of your opinions. While fishing isn't as active as football or basketball, it is a great oppertunity to get outside and do something out of the ordinary. (Also great point Bo, reading is not active but its looked upon as a "better" activity than video games or tv.) Its more about the experience and doing something that reminds me of funner times as a child. Its also empowering to dominate and decide the fate of another (the fish of course.) And SF hit the nail on the head, it is very relaxing. But now you guys got me looking into it too much so I will shut up about all that. In fact we all should.



The trip was doomed from the start. We left Friday at midnight and when we got about 20mins from Flagstaff, I looked in the back and asked my friend,"Where's the tent?"

You see he had my tent at his house and it was his responsibility to grab it up and pick up the food while I got the poles and tackle and beer for the three of us. Well, his response was "OH CRAP!!!"

Turns out he forgot to bring anything but some clothes. So we stopped at walmart in Flagstaff to pick up a new tent and since he was the one who forgot it, he was the one to buy the new one. He was complaining that they were too expensive, like 80 bucks and up. Then he found one that was 45 and was happy. I asked how big and he said it was 12'x9'

That should be perfect. Then when it was going up, it becomes clear that we are all to freeze at night. What he bought was actually one of those picnic canopies with the tent like top and the mesh sides. So with 50 or 60 degree weather and constant wind.... yeah it was cold.

As far as the actual fishing went, without a boat, it was just too damn windy. We couldn't cast far enough to get past the underwater plants and muck. So after losing some tackle in that mess, we switched from floating bait and weights to sinking bait and bobbers. But the bobbers would just float back to shore in the wind so we had to constantly recast. In the end only one fish was caught. A pike that was too small to keep.

So now that we were cold and fishless, we had to have hotdogs for dinner the whole trip but at least the bacon and eggs always taste better over a camp fire.

And since we all feel like we wasted the 45 dollars on our fishing licenses, we are going fishing again but this time just for the day and we are going to Lake Pleasant which is about 20 min north of PHX.

I plan to go next Saturday. Hopefuly then I will have pics of some glorious bass and catfish. We might also bring the boat but it would be fun to take the canoe the lakes up in PineTop... idunno.

$45 for a fishing license. You did get ripped off. Here it's only $18.