Hindsight - Would you have done anything differently this season?

[Way north bass guy]

2020 was a pretty good year for me, both fishing wise and for work. The problem with work, if you could call it that, was mainly in the summer and fall, I was always too busy to get out fishing as much as I wanted to. 
As I get older, I realize more each year that I need to start making more “me time”, and leaving work for a bit every now and again. If I have one thing to change for next year, it’s simply that. Being self employed, I plan to just say to hell with it sometimes, and take those occasional days to free up some head space on the water. 

[roadwarrior]

Well, I don't care a thing about numbers, just size.  I dream about the biggest fish

on any given body of water, lake or river. Just one fish makes my day and just one

fish made my year.

 

I had the privilege of joining ghoti and his family for a few days In Orlando. The girls

and the kids spent three days at Disney World, Gary and I used our time fishing for 

trophy bass on ToHo.

 

Gary started us off with a monster just short of 10lbs. We followed that with a couple

of 6's and 7's. An hour or so went by and  all of a sudden,  "There she blows!' It was my

turn, so step up to the plate and shine. 

 

The initial fight was strong, but the fish was still green when it saw the boat.   Out about

thirty feet when it tried to bury itself in the grass. Fought the fish and the veggies as we got

a little closer. Finally grabbed the line and brought her aboard. 

 

January 5, 2020 Personal Best...

 

 

 

[DogBone_384]

Hind-sight is always 20/20, but would I have done anything differently in 2020?  That's a tough one. If I had to decide today, I would not have bought my Ranger this Summer and have stuck with kayak fishing in smaller waters.  

 

Compared to '18 & '19, my September 'till now is almost embarrassing.  

 

Since it's just about Thanksgiving, I'm parking the Ranger until Spring and reevaluating it.

 

My goal for '21 is to sell off inventory and go back to basics.

[ThatZX14Fella]

I would have fished the river and creeks more instead of pond hopping in private areas. I didn't catch a single bass this year (other than stripe) that wasn't out of a pond, and I only caught one catfish that wasnt. Also wish would have done more bass fishing in general. Most of the time I went to the river or creeks, I was chasing catfish. Although, I can say there's one thing I'm proud of. I've fished more with a spinning reel this year than I probably have in all my years combined. I've been almost exclusively a BC guy from 17 years old until now. I'm finally getting comfortable with using spinning reels.

[Bluegillslayer]

2020 was my best fishing year so far. Mainly because I caught several new species including pikeminnow, pink salmon, sockeye salmon, pumpkinseed, smallmouth bass and a variety of new saltwater species. I also caught two of my biggest fish ever a silver salmon and a halibut in Alaska. I also caught some fish in several states I have never fished before I also bought a new row boat and a trolling motor all for less than 300 dollars. I also caught a new pb bluegill and largemouth bass. Something I would have done differently this year would be to spend less time at a pond that's filled with super dinks and more time at the lake that's filled with larger bass. Overall I am glad I took advice from youtube and people here and began to use more soft plastics and topwater. Its been a great fishing year and I cant wait to fish the spring and summer next year.    

[Bluebasser86]

I wish I wouldn't have waited so late in the year to order my kayak so maybe I would have gotten to use it more this year in preparation to hopefully fish tournaments out of it next year.

 

I got to fish with my wife and kids a lot this year, which was really enjoyable. When everything else is closed down and the outdoors is really the only option, it was great to be able to share it with them.

[Hammer 4]

I needed to fish more... But, for us here on the west coast, there are no seasons, so I still have some time, much though, to make up for it. Still looking for my PB..

[zell_pop1]

I just plan on fishing more, between work and virus stuff I barely got to go when I normally fish alot, and i did not fish a single tournament for the 1st time in a decade. Going to start on Black Friday by buying some stuff then as soon as Indiana hits 50 degrees and sunny this spring it is on.

[Nitrofreak]

I just finished my first season as a co angler in a club, to think about what I would have done differently, I probably should have done what I’m doing now a good bit sooner.

 

I needed to fish cleaner for one, poor decision making is another but the biggest mistake I made is that I tried to be to versatile, more so than what I was even remotely capable of.

 

I can attribute some of that to the over enthusiastic approach of fishing large “new to me” bodies of water via social media outlets instead of seeing them first hand, geez, the money I could have saved or at least invested in the right way.

[BrianMDTX]

15 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Finally, wish I had spent more quality time with this little lady while I had it. 

I feel your pain. We lost her in June. Still miss her bad. 
 

 

[Spankey]

1 minute ago, BrianMDTX said:

I feel your pain. We lost her in June. Still miss her bad. 
 

 

I love the tuxedo cats. Wish you the best. Hopefully you can find another just  like her. My oldest she has two tuxedos. Both real social. 

[BrianMDTX]

1 minute ago, Spankey said:

I love the tuxedo cats. Wish you the best. Hopefully you can find another just  like her. My oldest she has two tuxedos. Both real social. 

Tuxies are special. We had a grey/white Tuxedo for 17 years and when she passed, we got Fresca. She was only 13 when she passed due to cancer. They are great cats. 
 

A week later we heard that this kitten climbed under the hood of a car in MS and wasn’t discovered until a rest stop in LA. Upon reaching TX, we adopted her. Turned out to be a “him” lol. Named him Harry after my wife’s maternal grandfather and because my oldest daughter loves Harry Potter lol. 

When we went to pick her (him) up, this one was too good to pass up. I think he’s got some Siamese in him as he’s a talker. Named him Boh (from Natty Boh, a local beer from back home in MD). Besides, Harry needed a playmate. Would’ve drive the other 13 year-old cat Amber nuts lol. 
 

 

 

[Teal]

Yes.  I would have spent more time fishing! Although I fished more this year than in the past 6 years.   I would have spent more time fishing waters other than my local waters.  

 

 

[MassYak85]

I felt like I learned a lot but felt like I spent too much time trying "new stuff" and not sticking to my strengths. It's always a balance of branching out vs putting in the time with proven baits/spots. I'm optimistic about next year I feel like I'm more dialed in on a lot of things. 

 

The two biggest downsides to this year was I took a break during the first surge in Covid, which meant I kind of missed out on the pre-spawn.

 

The second was the fall transition. I had some of my worst fishing ever in September into October. It was demoralizing to watch videos about "The Fall Feed" and then go out and skunk or catch like 2 dinks. It wasn't until almost November I finally capitalized a bit on it. 

 

My goal for 2021 is to try more night fishing, and to try and key in better on the spring and fall transition periods.  

[Boomstick]

On 11/23/2020 at 10:55 AM, MN Fisher said:

I WILL catch a bass on a T-Rig...I will, I will.

I believe in you, you can do it!

[Sphynx]

Other than the obvious "I wish I had started out throwing what eventually ended up working" which hardly counts as a productive review, I guess spending more time at it is my biggest one, I tend to drift off and just enjoy the outdoors while I'm fishing, I take breaks and have a pipe and just soak it all up and suddenly 45 minutes of fishing time is gone, not the world's worst sin by any means, but one I am certain is costing me fish, I also would like to continue refining he selection of gear I take on bank trips, and have a few techniques that I want to get better with, next year is going to be the walking bait for topwater, I always seem to overlook them and I want that to change, for a moving bait I want to start fishing a jerkbait and swim jig more often, and this will be the year I want to really get the drop shot figured out. 

[galyonj]

I wish I'd stuck to my guns better.

 

Mentioned this on @Luke Barnes thread in the tackle sub, but earlier this year I made a commitment to myself to bring (and throw) less junk into the water in an attempt to get bit.

 

That lasted about three trips before I put everything back into the bag and went right back to panic fishing, just desperately trying to get bit.

 

I gotta learn to control myself and trust the process.

[Spankey]

1 minute ago, galyonj said:

I wish I'd stuck to my guns better.

 

Mentioned this on @Luke Barnes thread in the tackle sub, but earlier this year I made a commitment to myself to bring (and throw) less junk into the water in an attempt to get bit.

 

That lasted about three trips before I put everything back into the bag and went right back to panic fishing, just desperately trying to get bit.

 

I gotta learn to control myself and trust the process.

Don’t get stressed out over it. I know I’m no pro and only have the answers for so much. But I just give it heck. I take the good with the bad. I sort of just do the “Ike” thing and “never give up”. My season is done for the year now. I lost a fish this season that haunts me weekly, daily, monthly. I’m at a point that that fish has me obsessed. I can’t shake it. That is what I’m out to catch when I’m out now. Nothing else will satisfy me. I believe it was 7 pounds roughly. It would have broken my personal best. Would have been a very very respectable fish for Pennsylvania. I will pick up again where I left off. And I know what I’m after. That loss of that fish has kept me more focused for sure. 

[galyonj]

3 minutes ago, Spankey said:

Don’t get stressed out over it. I know I’m no pro and only have the answers for so much. But I just give it heck. I take the good with the bad. I sort of just do the “Ike” thing and “never give up”. My season is done for the year now. I lost a fish this season that haunts me weekly, daily, monthly. I’m at a point that that fish has me obsessed. I can’t shake it. That is what I’m out to catch when I’m out now. Nothing else will satisfy me. I believe it was 7 pounds roughly. It would have broken my personal best. Would have been a very very respectable fish for Pennsylvania. I will pick up again where I left off. And I know what I’m after. That loss of that fish has kept me more focused for sure. 

 

Totally. I think it's easy for me to forget that this is supposed to be fun, and I get too wrapped up in the grind of bad days.

 

Luckily, I live in the south where hard water's not really a thing, so the season's only over until I pack my stuff for next time.

[Luke Barnes]

59 minutes ago, galyonj said:

 

Totally. I think it's easy for me to forget that this is supposed to be fun, and I get too wrapped up in the grind of bad days.

 

Luckily, I live in the south where hard water's not really a thing, so the season's only over until I pack my stuff for next time.

Hit the nail on the head for me! Also being in the south/Midwest my water will never see a freeze so I can still fish year round. Except the slow winter bite gets me even more frustrated! 

[galyonj]

1 minute ago, Luke Barnes said:

Hit the nail on the head for me! Also being in the south/Midwest my water will never see a freeze so I can still fish year round. Except the slow winter bite gets me even more frustrated! 

 

It's funny – a lot of my more productive days since I got back into it have been cold weather days. I feel like the fishing pressure dies back to the point that the fish that are still in range of the bank are a little more game if one is willing to slow things down for them.

[throttleplate]

my change will be to bring a better lunch with me, more sandwiches less cookies.

 

Use both arms more to cast,reel,jerk so as to save my joints as it only takes me 15 seconds to switch handle to other side of spining reel.

 

Buy a mosquito net type covering for my head-face to wear when the 8pm minnesota skeeters come out in force and use mosquito spray on my clothes as we usually fish till 10pm in the summer.

 

Buy 2 way radio to clip onto my waders so when around a corner my wife can contact me and stop worrying that i drown.

[Sphynx]

4 hours ago, Spankey said:

Don’t get stressed out over it. I know I’m no pro and only have the answers for so much. But I just give it heck. I take the good with the bad. I sort of just do the “Ike” thing and “never give up”. My season is done for the year now. I lost a fish this season that haunts me weekly, daily, monthly. I’m at a point that that fish has me obsessed. I can’t shake it. That is what I’m out to catch when I’m out now. Nothing else will satisfy me. I believe it was 7 pounds roughly. It would have broken my personal best. Would have been a very very respectable fish for Pennsylvania. I will pick up again where I left off. And I know what I’m after. That loss of that fish has kept me more focused for sure. 

Please tell me you've named him Catfish Hunter...

[Darth-Baiter]

I wish I didn’t miss spring 2020. 

[J Francho]

Fished more.