From the moment you drive through the gates of Casa Vieja Lodge, step out of the van and receive the “Drink of the Day,” you know that the food and libationss are going to be great. That first taste of the amazing local ingredients in your glass are just the “teaser” for everything you’ll be served daily, on land and water.

Looking for the ultimate spring weekend trip – one that’s easy to get to, likely to produce loads of fish and not terribly expensive? Think Detroit. It’s a trip I took with a group of my lady anglers a couple of years back. We caught a lot of fish, ate like queens, and even took some fillets home.

I will never be as famous as Vinko Bogataj for his wipeout featured on ABC’s Wide World of Sports, but my disappointments and failures leave me just as devastated. Anyone who has ever fished knows that while we like to talk about our success, the chatter at the dock is always about “the one that got away.”

I’m typically not one to make resolutions but I am very goal-oriented. I also love checklists. I love the satisfaction of crossing off “to do’s” and I will do something that isn’t written on the checklist, then write it down just to check it off. In 2021, I’m accelerating my dreams.

This Thanksgiving Pete and I were supposed to drive to Chicago to cook, eat, relax, eat and eat again on a long overdue visit to see family and friends. We were scheduled to be in Mexico from November 14 to 21, but that wouldn’t give us time to quarantine or get a COVID test, so we made the decision to not make the drive. This will be my fifty-third (!) Thanksgiving and for each and every one I have been thankful to be surrounded by close family and friends.

I want everyone – and especially women – to be cautious, but I also want them to have a chance to experience the great fishing at Lake El Salto and Lake Picachos. I’ve been visiting Anglers Inn properties since 2009, and while there have been a few women in our groups, historically they were mostly or entirely male, except for me. Back in June of 2017 I decided that listening to all the men jibber jabber about all the fish they caught, how they caught them and how many beers they drank was getting old -- we needed some more lady anglers in the mix.

When learning to fish you need to go where you will get a lot of chances. If you’re only going to get one bite a day, and they’re only hitting one particular lure, it’s hard to refine your technique. If you only catch little fish, you won’t be tested. In Mexico, not only are there numbers of fish, but lots of quality specimens, too, so you’ll have tons of opportunities to catch them just about any way you want.

Circa summer 2009: I’m planning Pete’s 40th birthday party for February 2010 and I’m at a loss -- What to do? what to do? I think I threw him a surprise party on the actual date. Good golly I’m old. I can’t remember anything anymore. What I do remember is that before the actual birthday I gathered some friends to go to this place that Pete talked about endlessly: Lake El Salto, Mexico.

Everyone always wants to catch a 10-pounder when they go to Anglers Inn, but no one wants to talk about the 10 pounds of extra weight it’s possible to bring home. I haven’t gone that far, but I’ve left with an extra five to be sure, as the food at Anglers Inn is ridiculously abundant and rich, and every part of it is YUMMY.

The fight was amazing. They jump and jump and when you think you finally have worn them down, they take off, ripping drag, and you have to reel them in all over again.

Before we left for Alaska I wrote about being unhappy it was going to be cold while we were there. Not Arctic-cold like in the winter, but I was leaving my hot and humid summer for a place where I’d have to be layered up with clothes.

I grew up in Chicago, where winter waits for the school bus seemed to take a decade. We would wait so long that you could feel your little nose hairs freeze. Does that sound appealing?

When I was a kid, our family vacations were road trips around the country, hitting as many states as we could, trying to fit in as many historical sites, museums, friends and family and state parks as possible. Of course, my sister, brother and I bitched and moaned the entire vacation. We were typical kids who just wanted to be with our friends or go to Florida and sit on the beach. Despite that resistance, when my social studies teachers asked if anyone had been to certain locations/destinations throughout the United States it was very cool that I was one of the only students with his or her hands raised just about every time.

I’ve been a redhead all my life, and I’m old enough to remember coming home from playing outside all day (Xbox hadn’t been invented) and having sun blisters on my shoulders. My mom would walk me upstairs, sit me on the top of the toilet, light a match, heat up a needle and poke the blister to release the “goo.”

For a beginner, the feeling of hitting a rock, getting caught on a piece of grass or actually getting a bite can seem very similar. Either way, I was told, by the boyfriend, to set the hook. Hook sets are free.

Ever flown in a float plane? More importantly, have you ever landed safely in a float plane?

I am crossing my fingers that our June Anglers Inn El Salto trip will go off as planned, but in case it does not I have already reserved dates for the June of 2021, and have also blocked out rooms for November 2020.

I’ve always loved going to the zoo. Every time I go I stare endlessly at the animals. What would it be like to get behind the glass? Behind the bars?