Fishing Resolutions

I'm not really one for New Years' resolutions in general, but I am a very goal-oriented fisherman so I always set my sights high for what I want to achieve each year. I don't always reach my goals in time, which is fine; if you set your sights low enough that every goal gets achieved in short order you aren't really gaining much. I wanted to reach fish #150 on my lifelist in 2019, I was 7 short. I'm not setting a lifelist goal this year, though there are a bunch of species I am bound and determined to finally catch this year that have been evading me. Banded sunfish, goldfish, and lake trout are at the top of that list. I have plans for each. A non-fly centric goal I have for 2020 is to catch a big shark or ray from the beach in CT. It doesn't matter what species, it just has to be over 100lbs; more ideally something bigger than me. I'd like another shark on the fly as well, and I don't care where that occurs. It's been bugging me that the only shark I ever caught on the fly I was too much of a chicken to handle and photograph.

Perhaps my biggest fishing resolution for 2020 though is a multi-parter and something I've already been doing. I'm going to fish some of my home fisheries that I have lost touch with over the years. My local smallmouth and largemouth bass really haven't seen a whole lot of me lately, especially at certain times of year. Some of the stocked trout rivers I used to fish regularly have fallen out of favor. There are also places I've just never put time into at certain times of year. I know I've been missing out on some things, and I've fallen into a bit of a boring rhythm. I need to explore more, even the places I've already been too. That ties well into the second part and that is using methods on these waters that I never really have to any significant extent. That means mono rigging streamers, mono rigging inline spinners (not a joke), indicator nymphing, swinging a team of wets, spey casting, float and fly for bass and panfish, deep lake structure with small streamers on sinking line... I've chosen these methods because I know they represent significant gaps in my skill set, and because they are likely to teach me new things and catch me new fish on the waters I've been fishing for years. Like I already said, I've gotten a head starter on this multi-faceted resolution this year. It may not have worked out as well as it has were this not an abnormal winter in Southern New England. Many winters some of these local waters wouldn't even be fishable this time of year. But I'm also quickly learning that I was definitely missing out on some fast fishing some of the other warm winter spells. I've mostly ignored most of the larger local trout rivers from mid December until April. I never really put in the time to find the good wintering holes, or just explore likely water well away from the stocking locations where some fish could have wandered away to after being stocked in the fall. More so, I've always known there were places that had potential to have holdovers from the spring stocking and even possibly some big rogue wild or multi-year holdover fish. Not to mention big white suckers, fallfish, and smallmouth that I've always had a hard time finding in the winter. Those are the real end game this winter, the fall stockies I've already got down pat, though I am finding them in some cool spots I wouldn't have expected well away from where they get stocked.

Indicator nymphing and spey casting had been the primary methods thus far, and I actually did some nymphing on my 11ft 8wt two hander for the sake of practice for a trip to Pulaski that ended up getting canceled. I am confident though that I will get up there this winter and hopefully catch my first steelhead. But for now, I've tormented plenty of dumb planter rainbows  this winter (like, a couple hundred already) and odds are I'm going to torment plenty more. Indicator nymphing has been the productive method, I've yet to pull of a fish on the swing this winter locally, though I've ha some grabs.

But I have also found some of the more interesting things I've been seeking, including a fallfish an common shiner hole. I've always had a little bit of trouble finding viable winter spots for these species really close to home. I don't have to go that far to find them really, but I'd never found a winter fallfish spot I can just walk or bike to until now. This is good, I have a viable bait catching spot in case we ever have fishable ice in these parts again.

Semotilus corporalis

Luxilus cornutus

I found holdovers as well, and its all the easier to tell in these water because DEEP only stocks rainbows in the fall and not only did I catch rainbows that very clearly had been in the river a long time (skinny body, big head), but I also caught brown trout. Some of these waters used to produce the odd wild fish, but that's going back to my very early days in fly fishing an I haven't caught a wild brown trout in them in years. Part of that may well just be because I haven't been fishing them that hard but I would say there are definitely fewer than there once were. That is a sad thing.

I wish all of you the grit and determination to accomplish your own resolutions. Fish long, fish hard, fish smart. We're only six days into 2020, but I've fished all of them. Will tomorrow be the first skunking? It has the working of possibly being one, but it going to be a fun day regardless. But that's a story for another day. 

Until next time.

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

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