In 2010, I gave myself an explicit set of goals to guide my fly fishing during the year. I didn’t perform so well against the standard I set to say the least… Perhaps in reaction to that failure, I didn’t post a new set of fishing goals for 2011. I just sort of carried on with the 2011 goals floating around in the back of my mind but without talking or posting about them very much. The one exception was the goal to fish 52 days a year or an average of one day per week. This one wasn’t about the actual days, rather as a catalyst to roll out of bed on those days that might appear marginal when looking at Internet forecasts, etc. Sometimes, those can be the best fishing days of all as the river will be uncrowded due to everyone else sleeping in…
Anyway, here are my (Un)goals of 2011 and how I fared:
- Take the kids fly fishing more and coach their casting less – Partial success, Aika couldn’t fish this summer due to her knee injury but Angus and I got out including a trip to Idaho. I still coached his casting too much…
- Get some return out of my 2009 investment in a cataraft – Total failure, even wore than 2010. I think I only took the cat out twice which is a ridiculous waste. Need to get off my butt and either sell it or use it.
- Fish at least 52 days in 2010 – Partial success, ended up with 43 days which is pretty good considering the record snowpack and high water until late summer.
- Fish in Oregon, Idaho, Montana & BC – Fail, only made it to Idaho. I was barely over the border from Montana but the high flow levels prevented the second leg of the trip so we stayed on the NF CDA.
- Camping trip to headwaters of the Elwah – Fail, just couldn’t get it done. This was partially due to spending more time fishing for summer-run steelhead on the Forks rivers which I like better any way…
- Keep an accurate fishing log (should be helpful for #3) – Success, kept good data about each day’s fishing, weather, flows, catches, etc.
- Take someone who has never fly fished before to a river and help them catch a trout – Partial success, while I didn’t take anyone fishing, I did give a casting lesson as well as help a couple people get started in fly fishing through info sharing over lunch meetings, etc.
- Spend less money and time on gear and more on actually fishing than in 2010 – Partial success, I definitely spent more money on actually fishing but I’m not sure I spent less on gear. However, most gear purchases where via the proceeds from other gear sales so I’ll give myself a break on this one.
- Attend a spey casting lesson and break my bad self-taught habits – Partial success, while it wasn’t a formal casting lesson, I did go out with well-regarded Olympic Peninsula guide Jim Kerr for an instructional day of fishing. There was some coaching on the cast but it was mostly about learning how to fish.
- Take my ’serious’ camera fishing and actually use it for a change – Success, but the serious camera became a video camera. I made a couple short videos, learning a lot along the way. Much more in this direction for 2012…
Depending on how much ‘credit’ I give myself for the partials, I’m coming in somewhere between 70% and 45%. Not bad compared to last year’s paltry 40% giving myself full credits for partials. The three items marked “Fail” all seem to relate to traveling to fish. 2012 will be tough in that respect too as is my final season of playing the combined coach/Dad role and there will be a fair amount of wrestling travel this summer.
Even so, I’m really looking forward to spending an increased amount of time rediscovering the Olympic Peninsula this year – not just for steelhead, I’m also very excited about the potential for sea-run cutthroat on the little troutspey, resident trout fishing and of course, salmon.
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