I am a small fish in terms to what a lot of others have to offer so am looking to find others to help me start something up.

Someday you'll be the big fish with cash that someone else is frustrated with.

Stay lean and mean and outlast everybody else so you're one of the only fish left in your pond(s).

I’m not from here originally but I’ve learned it’s a great place to raise kids and if you’ve got the ability to risk it all, you can become a good size fish in a complacent pond.

Just because the government will allow you to speculate with sharks because you have enough money doesn't mean the "accredited" investors have a clue what they are doing or getting into.Accredited Investors are some of the most sought after "fish" for a reason, and end up being the poster boys for the saying "a fool and his money are soon parted".The OP needs to learn to be a sophisticated investor, not just an accredited one. 

Succeeding years led to the pursuit of many idle and trivial agendas until I met my sweetheart while working a summer job at Fish Lake Resorts.

my wife and I are looking to get started in investment properties this is our situation my wife works part-time as an engineer for Chrysler myself I work has a fishing charter captain and I also own a landscaping business which is part time to bring in more cash all of my wife's Paychex are claimed but both of my businesses are cash hey we don't show that much I have payments on a boat for about 35,000 we tried a big Bank like Bank of America to take out home equity loan but because both of us put both of our names on it they denied us because of our debt to income ratio because of the boat that we own for the fishing charter business.

I am floating down the bitterroot after great day of fishing    !!  

Many of the people at these meetings are people just getting started and look like fish out of water. 

Drive a bargain on the buy and if the deal fails, c'est la vie theres plenty of fish etc etc... until I have it one my hands.