Thoughts of this past year... and plans for the upcoming season???

[bulletbob]

fishing was bad for me up here in the Finger lakes ..
Caught a grand total of 2 keeper walleyes out of the Susquehanna this fall and maybe 5 or 6 shorts, in about a dozen tries.. They just aren't where they used to be.. i can tell its NOT just me, because not only have the walleyes left, so have the fishermen.. NO one fishing the river for them any more.. SMB was ok , but this river is a mud bucket much of the time, up here.. Its mainly mud bottom, not rocky like the Delaware in NJ is, and runs through farmland, and then through cities and suburbs. Very often its unfishable for weeks at a time.

finger lakes are good for downrigger trollers, but I detest deep trolling.. Some years I have done OK with Ll salmon, big Browns, lakers, by jigging and casting, but a lot depends on where the bait is.. When the bait is down 200 feet over 400 feet, thats where the fish are, and I just do not like fishing that deep for a 3 or 4 pound trout, especially when having to reel up a fish that deep from a moving boat.. Like reeling in a waterlogged easy chair.

caught a few nice fish this year, a good LMB, some nice SMB a big pike, an 11 pound channel cat,but even my panfishing was not great this year compared to others,,

Sadly as i get older [ 65 now] my trips to fish the salt water in my native NJ are becoming more problematic.. Too far for a rapidly aging man to drive down, fish all day, and drive back that night , especially with the reduced bag limits, and often tough fishing. Matter of fact, I might be done with it altogether.. We'll see.. Maybe this year will see me with more time and energy. This past year, meh, not one of my better years, but to be fair, in "good years" typically, I have put for more effort than I did this past year. bob