The Angler in Winter
Tags blkizrur
Now is the time for anglers in the Northern Hemisphere to engage in a few yearly rituals. These are not the seasonal rites of the general populace and, though they may involve tinsel, evergreens and reindeer rarely figure into these activities. No, most anglers see the depth of Winter as the perfect time to prepare for the next spring thaw and the seasons to follow when open water and more comfortable temperatures will draw them once more from their dens, TV's and firesides. It pays to apply some planning to this period to maximize the effectiveness of one's efforts while requiring a minimum of time. Here is a quick list of things to do to prepare for a highly productive season to come!
1.Make some lists!
This brain work should be your first step because it will increase the effectiveness of your physical labors later. Make lists of:
* Species you want to target
* Places you want to fish next year
* Gear you will need
These lists will, in turn, spawn other lists. Species you want to target will dictate some places you want to fish and gear you will need. Places you want to fish will spawn lists of maps you will need, guides you are considering, licenses you will need, vacation days and lodgings. Gear you will need will spawn the most lists, with headings such as flies needed, rods and reels, boat repairs and upgrades, ancillary gear (such as waders, life vests, hemostats, rain gear and camping gear) needed and Items needing to be repaired or replaced.
2. Take Inventory!
Once you know what you will need, you will need to find out what you have. The difference between what you will need and what you have will yield lists of things you must acquire, either by purchase or your own labor, as in the case of tying flies. At this point you need to be realistic with yourself. Sure, you can build your own drift boat for that trip to Montana but guides usually have their own boats and you won't have time to make your other preparations if you spend all your time on a boat.
Your other lists will greatly streamline the process of finding how much more you will need of particular items. For instance, if you intend to finally notch some carp with your fly rod this year and your fly of choice is a rust brown #2 Woolly Bugger, you had better have a huge bunch of rust brown saddle hackle and chenille on hand when you sit down to your vise. A tying box that boasts only five dry fly hackles will definitely need to be augmented.
3.Set a Schedule!
No kidding here! Set a schedule for what you need to accomplish by certain points of the Winter or it will be Groundhog Day before you get started! This is not to say anyone is lazy. This is just an observation that, since anglers think so much like fish, they can develop a tendency to become somewhat somnolent during the colder months. Setting a schedule will also help keep you focused on the tasks you need to accomplish and less on pining for Spring. Let's face it! If you are staring at a January 10 deadline for having fifty #6 Marabou Muddlers tied, a February 5 deadline for booking a guide for Lake Pend Oreille, and having all your fly lines cleaned and leaders constructed by St. Valentine's Day, open water will be here before you know it!
4.Set a budget!
There should be monetary and time budgets. You need to know how much your plans will cost you in terms of money and time expended. Some plans are monetary bargains but temporal suicide. (See the driftboat example above in item 2!) You also know that your lists will never supercede demands on your time from bosses, spouses, children and your own body. Be bold within reason!
5.Go after that list like your life depends on it!
When it comes down to it, a large portion of a year of your life does depend on that list, or at least the quality of that portion of that year! Think about it this way! You are your first and most reliable fishing guide. The success or failure of any fishing trip you go on begins and ends with you. If you were guiding someone else who was paying you, you would put in as many hours and as much effort as possible to make that trip a success. Now look at the way you prepare for your own trips. Applying the yardstick from the previous sentence, would you be happy if someone recommended a guide like you to yourself? Be as thorough as you can possibly be! Did you allow time to sharpen hooks? Is your tackle box disorganized and dirty? Do you have new line on your spinning and baitcasting rigs? Is your fly line clean? Are all your reels cleaned and oiled and the drags checked? Do you know all the species available in the water you are going to fish? If you are planning to do a hiking trip to fish for trout in high mountain lakes, did you figure in gym time to prepare your body?
6.Do a sanity check on your lists and plans!
Don't try to take on so much that you will bankrupt your time or monetary budget! You can get a reading on the samity of your plans by monitoring your progress and noting when you start falling behind schedule or going over budget. Violations of your time budget will appear as a growing “honey-do” list or kids you are starting to have difficulty recognizing.
One tip that will help is to work from the known to the unknown. Familiar waters you fish all the time will probably be something you are well prepared for again this season. You probably have at least some lures or flies that have worked well for you on those waters before and you probably have some knowledge of the topography and species you will encounter. Do your preparation for these waters first because it will go quickly and leave the bulk of your time for researching and planning trips to new places!
7.When the weather warms, go on your first trip grinning!
You are fully prepared, therefore you will be fully relaxed and more able to concentrate on catching fish and enjoying the day. Does this mean all your planned trips will go off without any hitches? Of course not! However, you will be much more able to handle the odd problems that crop up if you start each trip feeling in control!
If you liked this article, check out my others at Examiner.com.
1.Make some lists!
This brain work should be your first step because it will increase the effectiveness of your physical labors later. Make lists of:
* Species you want to target
* Places you want to fish next year
* Gear you will need
These lists will, in turn, spawn other lists. Species you want to target will dictate some places you want to fish and gear you will need. Places you want to fish will spawn lists of maps you will need, guides you are considering, licenses you will need, vacation days and lodgings. Gear you will need will spawn the most lists, with headings such as flies needed, rods and reels, boat repairs and upgrades, ancillary gear (such as waders, life vests, hemostats, rain gear and camping gear) needed and Items needing to be repaired or replaced.
2. Take Inventory!
Once you know what you will need, you will need to find out what you have. The difference between what you will need and what you have will yield lists of things you must acquire, either by purchase or your own labor, as in the case of tying flies. At this point you need to be realistic with yourself. Sure, you can build your own drift boat for that trip to Montana but guides usually have their own boats and you won't have time to make your other preparations if you spend all your time on a boat.
Your other lists will greatly streamline the process of finding how much more you will need of particular items. For instance, if you intend to finally notch some carp with your fly rod this year and your fly of choice is a rust brown #2 Woolly Bugger, you had better have a huge bunch of rust brown saddle hackle and chenille on hand when you sit down to your vise. A tying box that boasts only five dry fly hackles will definitely need to be augmented.
3.Set a Schedule!
No kidding here! Set a schedule for what you need to accomplish by certain points of the Winter or it will be Groundhog Day before you get started! This is not to say anyone is lazy. This is just an observation that, since anglers think so much like fish, they can develop a tendency to become somewhat somnolent during the colder months. Setting a schedule will also help keep you focused on the tasks you need to accomplish and less on pining for Spring. Let's face it! If you are staring at a January 10 deadline for having fifty #6 Marabou Muddlers tied, a February 5 deadline for booking a guide for Lake Pend Oreille, and having all your fly lines cleaned and leaders constructed by St. Valentine's Day, open water will be here before you know it!
4.Set a budget!
There should be monetary and time budgets. You need to know how much your plans will cost you in terms of money and time expended. Some plans are monetary bargains but temporal suicide. (See the driftboat example above in item 2!) You also know that your lists will never supercede demands on your time from bosses, spouses, children and your own body. Be bold within reason!
5.Go after that list like your life depends on it!
When it comes down to it, a large portion of a year of your life does depend on that list, or at least the quality of that portion of that year! Think about it this way! You are your first and most reliable fishing guide. The success or failure of any fishing trip you go on begins and ends with you. If you were guiding someone else who was paying you, you would put in as many hours and as much effort as possible to make that trip a success. Now look at the way you prepare for your own trips. Applying the yardstick from the previous sentence, would you be happy if someone recommended a guide like you to yourself? Be as thorough as you can possibly be! Did you allow time to sharpen hooks? Is your tackle box disorganized and dirty? Do you have new line on your spinning and baitcasting rigs? Is your fly line clean? Are all your reels cleaned and oiled and the drags checked? Do you know all the species available in the water you are going to fish? If you are planning to do a hiking trip to fish for trout in high mountain lakes, did you figure in gym time to prepare your body?
6.Do a sanity check on your lists and plans!
Don't try to take on so much that you will bankrupt your time or monetary budget! You can get a reading on the samity of your plans by monitoring your progress and noting when you start falling behind schedule or going over budget. Violations of your time budget will appear as a growing “honey-do” list or kids you are starting to have difficulty recognizing.
One tip that will help is to work from the known to the unknown. Familiar waters you fish all the time will probably be something you are well prepared for again this season. You probably have at least some lures or flies that have worked well for you on those waters before and you probably have some knowledge of the topography and species you will encounter. Do your preparation for these waters first because it will go quickly and leave the bulk of your time for researching and planning trips to new places!
7.When the weather warms, go on your first trip grinning!
You are fully prepared, therefore you will be fully relaxed and more able to concentrate on catching fish and enjoying the day. Does this mean all your planned trips will go off without any hitches? Of course not! However, you will be much more able to handle the odd problems that crop up if you start each trip feeling in control!
If you liked this article, check out my others at Examiner.com.
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