Reflection is good, but looking toward the new fishing season with pen and paper is much more exciting. How about compiling a "bucket list" for 2014 — filled with your fishing goals, desires and untried wants — and make this year of angling your best and most interesting yet. Here are ten ideas to get you started.
- Embrace the Ice. Ice fishing is growing in leaps and bounds, with comfort, technology and unlimited know-how all at our fingertips. If you're a fair-weather angler that shuns winter fishing, make this year your goal to take auger to ice.
- Chase a Different Fish. Make it a goal this season to target a specie of fish you have never caught. It could be a crappie, sturgeon or even a muskie. Broadening your game fish horizons can be a ton of fun and an exercise in knowledge, but most of all, an accomplishment. Here's to catching my first laker and carp this coming season!
- Learn to Fly. Fly fishing puts a completely new spin on angling, with an emphasis on graceful casts, reading water and entomology. But most importantly it is a hands-down fun way to fish. Beginner kits are economical and streams easy to access, making this sport a great one to tackle this year.
- Share Your Passion. We all know why we love fishing so much, so lets share that passion with another. Make it your goal to introduce one new person to fishing this year. Whether it is a child, a parent or an elderly neighbour, passing on your knowledge and enthusiasm will help in getting a would-be angler hooked for life.
- Take a Trip. Pack up your family, or your fishing mates, and head to one of the thousands of lodges that dot the North American wilderness. Choose a fly-in or a drive-to, but either way get ready for rejuvenation and relaxation, fantastic fishing, and monumental memories.
- Join a Club. Want to make new fishing friends, learn techniques and reap the abundant camaraderie? If the answer is yes, then a fishing club is right up your alley. Most towns have fishing clubs that are looking for new members, and the weekly or monthly meetings can be a treasure-trove of experience and fun.
- Lend a Hand. We have all been witness to it — the garbage left behind by uncaring "anglers." Not only does this trash pose an environmental concern, it is also unsightly and gives fishermen a bad name. Organize your own cleaning crew this season and spend the day beautifying our waterways. A few garbage bags and a couple of hours can have such a dramatic impact if we all pitch in.
- Learn Your Electronics. Your electronics can offer you so much more than just the depth. Put in the time to increase your knowledge and understanding of your unit — and let it show you what it can really do. Believe me, the anglers that know the ins and outs of their electronics always catch more fish.
- Hit a New Spot. An angler is a creature of habit, often trailering the boat to the same handful of lakes time and time again. Each year I make it a goal to fish three new bodies of water — this gives me added variety, allows me to figure out something new, and updates my ongoing list of lakes I know and have at my disposal. What will your three lakes be this season?
- Share in a Shore Lunch. Fish are delicious. No doubt about that. But whom has yet to savour a mess of fish cooked over an open flame — out in amongst nature? Make it a goal to organize a shore lunch this year. With a little planning and a few items, this tasty treat on shore will become a favorite pastime.
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