2015 — a look back<\/p>\n

It seems like I\u2019ve got it in my head that 2015 was a terrible fishing year for me.\u00a0 As a dad, a homeowner, a landlord, an employee, and an actual grownup, I sure don\u2019t have the time to get out like I used to.\u00a0 Although part of that is that I don\u2019t NEED to catch fish like I used to.\u00a0 What the heck, Wisconsin trout season just opened, and I haven\u2019t even considered going, and probably won\u2019t for at least a month.\u00a0 The fact that favorite trout stream went to crap doesn\u2019t help, but more on that later.<\/p>\n

And for someone who doesn\u2019t \u201cfish that much anymore\u201d, I sure do fish a lot.\u00a0 I was explaining to an old friend, \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating to not get out much anymore.\u00a0 I only made it out one night last week, and only one half day on the weekend.\u00a0 I did go on a short trip out of town the weekend before that, but otherwise\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Now I notice my friend has a WTF look on his face that says \u201cYou still fish more than anyone I know\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fish smarter, not harder might be my mantra now.\u00a0 I don\u2019t do a lot of exploratory stuff anymore, and really try to focus on what I can depend on.\u00a0 But I somehow still manage to add some new spots to the lineup, which is good because some old favorites have been way off. \u00a0The more you fish, the easier it is to stay on them, and its easier to decide when to make a move if you have plenty of spots to make a move to.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where we launched for smallies one fine day this fall, based on a tip from a friend.\u00a0 It was a good tip.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

My fishing season usually kicks off in early March, chasing trout on favorite Wisco streams.\u00a0 It\u2019s no secret now that the trout numbers are WAY down, populations have suffered from a few long cold winters and some big floods. \u00a0Last opener I managed only a few fish on my first trips, but one was a full sized 20\u201d brown.<\/a><\/p>\n

Next on the itinerary was a trip to Sanibel\/Captiva, one of my favorite places. Besides going out with a guide one day and renting a boat one day,I got out at dawn a few mornings to harass the snook and stuff that live there and ended up having good fishing each time, and one morning was really great\u2014seriously one of the best fishing sessions I\u2019ve ever had ever.\u00a0 Some big snook, a redfish that was ridiculous, and I didn\u2019t get eaten or even gnawed on by a shark or alligator.\u00a0 A manatee came up so close to me that I was able to poke it with just the tip section of a 3 piece fly rod.
\n<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I kept my parking receipts from each morning, the time shown was how long my parking was good for.<\/h4>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

May saw the beginning of the end of a favorite bass lake\u2014Little Falls Lake was drained last year. I got in one last session there in the float tube.\u00a0 It looks likely to me that the dam will be rebuilt and the lake will fill back in, but I have to believe it will be 10 years or more before the fishing comes back to what it once was.<\/p>\n

Summer means smallmouth on the Mississippi, but for reasons I\u2019m unsure of, this was not fishing well this year either, at least not in the Monti stretch.\u00a0 \u00a0There were fish to be caught for sure, but you had to work for them.\u00a0 A big catfish was my most memorable catch from there this year.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

I did take the girls on a camping\/fishing trip later in the summer, we had a fine time in the Royalton section.\u00a0 We\u2019re looking forward to doing it again this year.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Savannah is my partner is a series of bass tournaments each summer.\u00a0 When started this two years ago I made it clear that we didn\u2019t have to win\u2026but we definitely don\u2019t want to lose!\u00a0 The first year we did pretty good, always came in with a nice bag and were even in the money once.\u00a0 This past year, ugh.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what happened but we just couldn\u2019t get it together.\u00a0 This year will be better, I just have to convince Savannah that bass can be caught in places other than under docks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here is Savannah weighing in our bag at South Center Lake.<\/h3>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One perk of working in the fishing business is that once in a while you can actually be on the clock while fishing, usually under the guise of product testing, team building, or some other BS.\u00a0 One such day I was testing out some new equipment for my company on White Bear Lake.\u00a0 When I had done all the testing that was needed I found I still had an hour before I needed to be anywhere.\u00a0 It was hot and sunny and calm, not ideal fishing weather, but I somehow ended up with a full-sized muskie on the line in less than ten casts.\u00a0 I also got a phone call that day that was a job offer, and it is with this new company that I am presently employed.\u00a0 So to summarize this day– 1.\u00a0 Got paid to be out on the water. \u00a02.\u00a0 Caught a big muskie. \u00a0\u00a03.\u00a0 Got offered a new job.\u00a0 I guess this was a good day.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

There were other fish, there were great times spent on the water with family and friends.\u00a0 Agates and mushrooms were found.\u00a0 Fish were kept and eaten.\u00a0 There were sunrises and sunsets, campfires, canoes, kayaks, seashells, loons, lady slippers, waterfalls, rivers, streams, and lakes.\u00a0 I wanted to just mention a couple of highlights, I find myself wanting to add to what I\u2019ve already got here. \u00a0Now that I really look back, there may have been somewhat of a shortage of fish that were caught, but there were as many good memories as a person could ask for.<\/p>\n

One friend tells me I am definitely living the dream. \u00a0He may be right–I have a great wife, two kids, two boats, a house, a job, and I do get to fish a fair amount.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s to 2016, which I see is the year of the monkey.\u00a0 There must be a joke here somewhere, but much like a school of 4 lb. largemouth, I just can\u2019t seem to find it.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2015 — a look back It seems like I\u2019ve got it in my head that 2015 was a terrible fishing year for me.\u00a0 As a dad, a homeowner, a landlord, an employee, and an actual grownup, I sure don\u2019t have the time to get out like I used to.\u00a0 Although part of that is that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[21,16,39,51,9,31,7,12,36,22,13,17,47,32],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879\/revisions\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}