2014 Fly Fishing New Years Resolutions

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Photo by Dan Flynn

Photo by Dan Flynn

Yet another year has slipped away and left me with the feeling that so much remains undone.

It’s not that I did not accomplish what I wanted in 2013. Quite the opposite, in fact. It’s been a great year. I set some very high goals for myself and not only met them but found some unexpected opportunities along the way. The adventure Kent and I took with BF Goodrich comes to mind. I would never have thought to set that as a goal but it ranks high in my list of accomplishments.

Still, with an embarrassment of riches In the “done column,” there are a great many things I feel I have missed out on. For example, when my Christmas fishing plans got rained out, I realized that I spent not one day of 2013 fishing with my brother. That’s just not right. I traveled to some amazing places and had some epic days of fishing but I didn’t explore one new stream here at home. How is that possible?

Have I become too focused on my goals to see the treasure at my feet?

With this in mind I have decided to make a list of fly fishing New Years Resolutions for 2014.

1) Spend more time fishing with the people I love. My oldest friends and fishing buddies. My family. The people who feed my soul and remind me of who I am. The folks I have learned from, on and off the water. This list includes my brother, the man who taught me to make bamboo rods, some old friends who have just found their way to fly fishing and my wife, who hates to fish and will have to be dragged kicking and screaming.

2) Find new water to love, right here at home. I’m not proud of it, but I have come to have some bad feelings about the state of trout fishing in the southeast. Not without reason. We have profound problems and the future of trout fishing in GA is questionable. I need to get past these feelings by finding some new places that remind me of the things I love about my home water. It will likely involve sore feet and small fish but it will be worth it.

3) Spend some days fishing without the camera. I have a bad habit of turning the things I love into work. I’m blessed to have work that I love but I do deserve a day off. I need to get past the idea that if I leave the camera at home, something magical will happen and take some days to just enjoy fishing. Come to think of it, that might just constitute ‘something magical.’

4) Spend some days alone in the woods. Lately, I find myself dreaming of being alone in the woods. To some people that image might be distressing but for me it’s very peaceful. I find a quiet perspective when I am on my own in nature that grounds me like nothing else. I cannot think of a day this past year when I finished alone. I’m due.

5) Catch some new species. I don’t have anything specific in mind. I just want to do something new. Get to know some fish I’ve never caught before. See what they can teach me about fly fishing.

6) Do some warm water fly fishing. I live in the south for crying out loud! I really should spend more time on the great warm water fishing we have here. Would it kill me to catch a bass once in a while?

There it is. A simple list that I hope will make 2014 my best fly fishing season ever. Somewhere in there I should find time to ride my bike, lose some weight, finish renovating my kitchen and do some serious writing. It looks like 2014 is going to be busy.

I encourage you to make some fly fishing resolutions yourself. If you feel like sharing them here, please do.

Come fish with us in the Bahamas!

Louis Cahill
Gink & Gasoline
www.ginkandgasoline.com
hookups@ginkandgasoline.com
 
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11 thoughts on “2014 Fly Fishing New Years Resolutions

  1. I’m not the resolutions type, but THESE I could get behind. Thoughtful, down-to-earth, and doable, Louis. And substantive. Just how such things should be.

    Oh, and I’d pay good money to watch you try to drag Kathy to the stream.

  2. Sounds good Louis. Some of mine are similar. I’d like to fish more with some of my friends, especially those I’ve never fished with before. I’ve gotten to know so many new people, and I’ve made so many new friends in fly fishing, but I’ve yet to get out on the water with any of them! I’d also like to fish new places both near and far. I wanna get back to my Brookie stream, and hook up the camper and make the trek out to Yellowstone. New York steelhead and Owyhee browns are high up on that list as well. And I hear ya on the warmwater fishing. I want to take my dad fishing again because that was some of the most fun I’ve had. And I want to do even more guiding. Over the past few years I’ve really fallen in love with taking people fly fishing and teaching folks about this awesome sport. It’s gonna be a busy year for sure, but I can’t wait to see what it brings.

  3. I want to get on the water more: do less thinking and planning about fishing and more actual fishing. I live on a Tailwater for gosh sakes! I could triple my days on the water if I put aside all the excuses I can’t go… and just do it.

    I want to train my 6 month old retriever to be a behaved companion so I can take him fishing with me for the rest of our lives.

    I want to take my grandkids fishing more than a couple times a year.

    I want to teach my TU and Project Healing Waters friends to be safer and smarter so no one gets hurt trying to fish.

    I want to co-author a book about my WW II hero father-in-law with my son as a legacy to the family.

    Louis, you have inspired me. I can do these things …

  4. 3 is a huge one…. Thinking about it. Some of the fish that have meant the most to me, I dont have a picture of. I am definitely guilty for snappin pics of fish. But if you truly think about it, it really cheapens the experience and the moment. Some things are just better left for the minds eye

  5. Good inspiration! Your #1 is mine as well. Life is very short and you should fish with those you love as much as possible.

    I didn’t catch 2 of my “new species” OTF targets for 2013 (shad, white bass) but did catch a huge carp. They’re on my list again.

    The record rainfall put a hurt on my fishing in 2013. Hoping for more moderate water levels in my area in 2014.

  6. Louis, sounds like my resolutions are almost the opposite of yours in a way, but everyone has different lives and opportunities! Here it goes:

    Fish OTHER places other than my home waters. I won’t say I have conquered them (although the trout in Spearfish Creek fear me), but it’s time for some new scenery. I have already booked a trip in Colorado, and floating the South Platte is on the agenda as well for the summer. I have never fly fished out of a drift boat. Bucket list item for me!

    Get my kids on the water with me. I know my son wants to go, and we tried last fall, but the stream was blown out from a recent storm. I want to pass on to both my son and daughter what I know, and try to give them the fly fish fever. They are just getting to the age of being coordinated enough for the cast, and patient enough for the fish!

    I want to try and see if I can get my fiance interested in the sport so she doesn’t roll her eyes (Louis and I get the same reaction) every time I come home with a new pack or piece of gear. She has shown interest, and even bought me a new fly rod for Christmas! There has to be something there to spark her inner fish fire.

    OK, so it probably will not happen this year, but I want to at least plan for and book my LFS’s bonefish trip for 2015 this year. This is another bucket list item. Obviously it will take saving up money, getting some saltwater specific gear, and learning to double haul (still not great at it).

    Meet new people and make new fishing buddies! I currently fish alone 98% of the time. But, it is my time of zen and to be one with nature to leave the real world behind for a while.

    Thank you for the inspiration Louis!

    Jon
    @peaceoutbrowntrout

  7. Oh Mon frère, what lofty goals!

    As read your blog I often see differences of perspective in events from our childhood and sometimes today, your accounting and mine. I usually ignore these subtle differences and pass them off as our difference in age or just other facets of a gem. How ever I can’t let this one pass.

    In many ways 2013 was one of the toughest years of my life. I spent the year working a dead end job to meet obligations that no longer held rewards for me. Worse yet, everyday I witnessed the exploitation of other human beings forced by necessity to work for wage less than adequate to maintain a poverty standard of living. My goal for 2014 is to correct the remaining issues in my life and set it back on coarse. It is important, to me that you see my side of the coin.

    Every day I got 30 minutes to eat lunch. In that time I consumed the food and water to keep my body going. I also took time to read Ginkandgasoline: to fish for bone fish in the Bahamas, steelhead in British Colombia, back pack with you and john in Colorado and to ride that Ford F-150 with you and Kent to fish the Owyhee River. I fished with you every day.

    On behalf of myself and I’m sure many of your reader, Thank You, to you and Kent for taking us fishing when our obligations would not allow us to go. Thank you, for standing it the river, carrying a torch and allowing us to see through your eyes.

    PS. a little bass never hurt anybody.

  8. Speaking of a good start to the New Year, Louis, congratulations on the Cover photo for TU’s Trout magazine. Great shot. I have seen the Nantahala with ice and snow, but your photo makes it look formidably frigid. Is that Kent risking his butt on an icy rock? It looks like him.

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