This Is The End

Despite the fact that we are still having one of, if not the, nicest Novembers in the history of Minnesota, it seems as though the nights have finally gotten cold enough to make the bass and bluegills head out to deeper water in my favorite local lake, and they probably won't return until next spring. Which means that the fishing season for me is effectively over. I came to this conclusion on Wednesday afternoon, when I took 10 minutes to walk down to the lake, which had been full of ravenous bluegills on Saturday, and saw a total of zero fish. Actually, that is wrong; I did see one giant carp jump clear out of the water about a hundred yards out from shore, but he was a few inches out of my preferred casting distance, so I won't count him.

Now that the fish are gone and I won't be fishing anymore, I thought it would be fun to look back on the Year That Was, at least as far as my fishing went. I caught a ton of bluegills throughout the year, a few bass, I got out to fish for trout about 6 or 8 times and had fairly good success each time, and I got to cast a bunch of great, old fly rods. What an awesome year! Let's go through some of my favorite photos from the year, shall we?

A nice 'gill on the Wonderod

A nice bass on the Wonderod

My Brother-in-Law's first fish on a fly

The 2nd Annual Twin Cities Glass Cast was a huge success, if you consider 5 guys to be huge...

My favorite trout stream

The kids are not quite as fish crazy as I am, but I am working on that

Went back to my old favorite trout stream for the first time in several years. Had a great time!

A nice brown on my Garcia Americana Beaver Kill rod

Ahh, my Berkley Parametric P-40, possibly the best casting fly rod ever made...

The last fish of the year, a lovely little bluegill on my CGR

Jubilation after slaying a monster

No fish were caught on the last day, but the Curt Gowdy Parametric felt nice as I was fruitlessly flailing away...

A beautiful fall day on my favorite lake!