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[Guest]

This year was different for me.

I proposed to my fiancee on one knee in a johnboat.

(See pic of her in the red fleece, thats the bass she caught before I pulled out the ring)

We moved into a new home on Clear Creek.

I still managed 60+ days on the water, although most trips were 1-4hrs.

I meet some cool new friends this year.

Killed the biggest buck of my life.

I perfected several new techniques: flick shake and dropping a spoon

I caught several bass over 6 pounds.

[Col Ron]

Nice job SIU, I own a piece of that University also. My son graduated about 9 years ago. I deer hunt in your backyard, in Giant City, best cooking anywhere for a lodge. Good luck this year,

Knots

[eric1978]

So what was your 2009 fishing season like?

Clearly not as good as yours.

Wow, great reports from you guys.

I didn't get to do much fishing this year, and what I did do was mostly from late summer on. Only got to float a handful of times. Twice on the Bourbeuse and six floats on the Meramec. I waded a few new streams and creeks, and conveniently didn't have my camera for my two best fish of the year, a smallie around 18 inches from the Bourbeuse and another that just broke 19 wading the way upper Big River.

I did buy a new solo canoe and had some fun playing with that.

The biggest breakthrough for me this year was finally picking up a fly rod and starting that learning process. So far I've found it to be one of the most rewarding ways to spend my time.

I set up my first tying station and even learned to tie a couple easy ones.

Got to see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time over the summer, and even though they're not fish, whale-watching was incredible, to say the least.

Although I didn't fish as much as in years past, I have to say that I've learned more this year than any other from all the great folks on this forum. I made fast friends with a few and even managed to meet one of them so far, with hopes to meet many more in the future. Here's Pat outfishing me at Busch.

And I guess the most important development of the year is that I have a new fishing buddy baking in the oven as we speak, and although that will surely throw a wrench into the 2010 fishing prospects, I look forward to my new partner and can't wait to teach him/her to fish.

The biggest disappointment of the year is that I could never figure out how to correctly post pictures on the new format, so I apologize that they are all tiny or huge. Maybe I'll figure it out someday.