New Year, New Fish, New Ideas, New Goals

Its 2007 and that means new year, new fish, new ideas, new goals will take place for each of us. What are yours? Where do you plan to spend time learning a body of water? What ideas do you have to help you put more fish in the boat? What goals are you looking at accomplishing for a great year of fishing? As we sit inside on cold nights and dream of the upcoming warmer open water season on our favorite bodies of water we will, in our minds, set out to make this a great year by planning and researching new toys, new waters maybe, ways to learn our favorite waters better, and ways to be able to spend more time on the water. What are your dreams, your plans, your on the water missions to accomplsh this year?
Thanks, Bill

This year is going to be a year of fun. I can feel it in my bones so to speak. I plan to finish rigging my boat that I bought late last fall. I’m taking it slow on this as I want to set it up just the way I want it for catching different spieces of fish. I want to spend time searching and learning more about the bottom strucure of Lake Zumbro which is only 12 1/2 miles from my driveway. I also want to spend some time on Lake Pepin [pool 4] and do some trolling for eyes. This would include long line trolling and also leadcore trolling. I also want to work the rock shorelines by casting B-Fish-N Tackle ringworms and hair jigs. There are always new things to learn. And lots of time on the water will help us learn more about the bodies of water we love to fish. 2007 is going to be a good fun and learning year. Come on Spring.
Thanks, Bill

Great post, Bill!

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately myself, “what am I gonna do?”, “where am I gonna fish?”, “what new methods do I want to try?”, and I’ve come to the conclusion that this is the year I SIMPLIFY and SCALE BACK on my fishing! Yeah, that’s right! I plan to stick closer to home, fish a few of the old haunts I know well, fish with my wife and family more instead of running away every weekend on my own to far-off destinations. The simple fact of the matter is I have been running so hard for the last 5-6 years, expanding my horizons, and purchasing so much gear from sinkers to boats, that I quite honestly am burned out! I need a reprieve. My first child is due the end of March, which makes this decision quite a bit easier, but so does the fact that I miss spending time with my wife and family because I’m always gone fishing. We need the time to “re-connect”, maybe sit on the end of the dock together with a bucket or worms, so this year Slipsinker is “pulling in the reigns”, so to speak.

You have, in my mind, a very good plan. Family is VERY important. Fishing closer to home is what I did alot of last year. And you what, I had a blast fishing multispieces on closer water. Taking grandkids fishing for the kind of fish [panfish] that they enjoy fishing for was alot of fun. This year I will mix in the panfish with the walleyes and even some bass. You will have a new fishing partner coming your way sounds great. Congrats! A person doesn’t have to travel far to enjoy fishing. There are lakes and rivers not too far from wherever someone lives that are waiting for you to fish. Have a GREAT year.
Thanks, Bill

I actually was bored a while ago and made a list in my notebook of my goals for the ’07 bass season. I don’t have the notebook with me, but I can remember some of them:
1- catch a largemouth 22″ or bigger (I’ll try!)
2- catch a smallmouth 21″ or bigger
3-fish pools 7 & 9 multiple times each (my Idea of “branching out” ), and catch decent limits of bass there.
4- catch a limit on Lake Onalaska. i’ve only fished it a couple times and pretty much got skunked
5- find seasonal spots that replenish, I mean more than one of them. I have a couple, but some of them are community holes. i want a few that are all to myself (almost all to myself anyway..)
6-go to the state Junior Bass championship..
7-fish with a few more IDA’ers!
8-Be able to confidently fish any type of rig/bait there is…Basically,this means I need to learn to fish the friggen drop shot and thats about it.

These are just some of my goals..I could probably come up with a lot more! every fishing year just seems to get better and better for me, as I learn new techniques and spend more time on the water. I really look forward to this coming year and can’t imagine topping last year..but wouldn’t mind anyway!

Good luck to everyone in the ’07 fishing season