Looking Forward (To The New Year)

About a month ago, I was all settled in to write about how great the last year had been, at least from an angling perspective. And it was. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best year of fishing I’ve had since fishing worked its way back into my life.

But, from what I can tell, this blog is an excellent look back at the year I had. I had some good outings (here and here), I finally figured out a local lake (here) and I got to go fly fishing with my dad (here).

I don’t really think I need to talk about the year that was. What I am excited to start thinking about is the year that’s only just getting started.

Perhaps the best thing that happened last year was discovering where the holes in my skill-set were and taking steps to fill them. And, I must say, the thought of testing out what I learned over the last year is beyond exciting to me.

For starters, this year I’m going to spend more time fishing rivers and streams. 2015 was an extremely hot year here in BC and that meant, among other things, that most of rivers around here were closed to fishing for a good chunk of the year. As a result, I kind of forgot how much I enjoyed fishing rivers.

Fortunately, in 2016, I was not only reminded how much fun it was, but I started to really get a sense of how to fish them. Learning how to nymph, or at least starting the process of learning how to nymph, paid off almost immediately last year and I cannot wait to see how that progresses in 2017. There is a decent handful of rivers and streams, some pretty small, that I plan to fish a lot in 2017. Some I’ve been fishing for years with decent luck, others are trickier to fish, others I’ve wet a line in a few times, others I can’t wait to try for the first time.

I can’t wait.

On the stillwater front, I’m looking forward to finding more hike-in lakes to fish. As far as experiences go, the hike-in lake are almost perfect. The excitement of following a trail through the woods, while dragging your boat–a 14 foot canoe in my case–paired with what are often very feisty, energetic fish (regardless of the species), simply can’t be beat. I’ve already got a couple of lakes in mind for this year and I’m hoping to find a couple more to check out by the time the ice melt.

I also hope to fish with my family more.

I think, though,  I’m looking forward to seeing this website continue to grow, more than anything. In the last few months of 2016 I saw a quite increase in the number of people visiting the site, which is just fantastic.

After spending entirely too many years writing that either never gets read, or spends all its time in a school library or classroom, it’s nice knowing that people are not only reading, but are enjoying what they’re reading. Even more so than that, it’s great to connect with other anglers (and non-anglers) who comment and share their experiences. I’ve almost learned more from the comments this year than I have on the water.

So thank you to everyone who came out last year. You made it worth taking the time to write and I thank you for that. I’ve got some cool ideas that I hope to see happen in the next year and I’m looking forward to sharing them with all of you in the new year.

Tight lines!