Guest Blog: Charlie, part 2

Thanks for coming back to read part 2!  My ramblings can run long, so lets get started...

The years went by, and I do remember a scattered trip here and there, especially the couple to the area's Lock & Dam site, where my uncle had started fishing often.  I learned about gar here.  There isn't much to talk about in regards to gar.  Its a prehistoric creature from the paleolithic era or something, and some people eat it.

Flash forward a few years to Shreveport in 2004, which was met with many changes, as previously mentioned.  But in the hustle and bustle of it all, and the devastating loss of my father that year, made me really cherish the moments I did get to enjoy, even more. 

Caught up in the status quo of work work work party party party of a guy in his 20's living in the area, I rarely got time to enjoy the things I was exposed to by my dad while in my 10's.  No longer squirrel hunting with the old guys, I did try my hand at deer hunting.  I learned how to fire a compound bow with archery-meet precision, and purchased a climbing stand, feeders, and enough gear and stinky lures and clothes wafers, that surely I'd have a solid season.  Not so much.  I might be afraid of plummeting to my death from that climbing stand.  And 3 am, is no time to be fumbling through the woods when you are this age!

I really never got to fish much at that time, but I do remember showing up at my uncle Jerry's place one morning, without invite, and getting to go on an impromptu fishing outting.  We caught enough bream that cleaning and table prepping was going to be a long afternoon.  But he took me.  And it was a blast. I was older now than the other times I'd recalled 'tagging' along with my dad and his friends.  I was actually doing something.  Making decisions about where the line goes, speed of reeling, etc.  I was actively engaged.  Its the classic give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish scenario.

That was probably the last time I recall specifically fishing.  Almost a decade ago.  Insane isn't it.  Well, whats even crazier, is I love to eat fish.  I mean, a lot. But I noticed, I never actually ate much fish.

Well, the story gets better, but this post got long.  I'll shut it down here.  See ya'll tomorrow morning at 7 for the rest of the story.