I went out fishing with my friend Paul Halter at 6 am. We went around La Crosse and down to Brownsville, Minnesota. It was a beautiful morning and the water was like glass as we were the only ones on this stretch of the Mississippi. Pretty easy to clear your mind and give thanks on a morning like this. Well fishing was the name of the game and we caught a few but the fishing was not the greatest. We made plenty of casts to catch those few fish but try as we would it just wasn't working. It looked as if the fish had gorged themselves on the high protein mayfly feast and weren't interested in our rubber worms It reminded me that it's why they call it fishing and not catching. It also reminded me practice develops patience.

We decided not to use Paul's Fishlogix fishing program this morning to locate our fish as both of us are pretty confident in the places and the techniques that we have used to catch fish so we decided to go with our gut. I wish we would have taken along the fishing plan and left the gut stuff at home.

My son and I go fishing occasionally and he likes it ok as long as he catches fish. He has about a two hour fishing limit if they're not biting. I remember when my dad used to take me fishing, we would leave our home in Milwaukee at 3am and get to the lake and fish all day. Sometimes it would rain and we would be a little cold and sometimes a little wet but there was no quitting. We were there to fish. Very often times we would catch lots of fish but there were times that it was slower and we really had to work to get them. Whether we caught them or not it taught me a real love for fishing, taught me how to do it better, and taught me patience and the ability to keep on.

Catching fish one after another is an exhilarating experience, but having to work for them really makes you appreciate the effort and the prize. I won't try to kid you, I'd rather catch lots of them and every time that I go out, but I realize and appreciate the lessons that I've learned from having to work for the prize. It's like that in most all that we do. The things that make us get started, learn something, take some action in the direction of our goal, and then earn the prize that we're after are most often things that we learn the most from and appreciate the most.

Keep after your prize whatever it may be. The challenges that you encounter are there for a purpose. They only make you stronger, better educated, and more determined to see it through.

Fred Nicklaus