Fishing Goals 2022

[Carl1969]

16 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Love to hear how your year has gone so far.

Not well, actually. Been on Pomme a half dozen times this summer & Truman (Fairfield) twice that & have caught exactly 3 fish. Weather, timing, stupidity, I dunno, but I've been beating the water & burning gas with nothing to show for it. Nobody I was with, nor anyone we spoke to, was catching either, but darned if that makes it any less frustrating.

Not like I'm chasing trophies or limits or even species. Just wanna catch supper once in a while & can't for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong. I look at maps & charts, try to read up on what the fish are wanting & where, what baits, etc. & bupkus. I'm trying to be positive & upbeat, but I gotta tell you, it's kinda starting to not be fun anymore.

I had better luck on LOZ back in May, cutting up & day drinking with my aunt & pitching jigs off her dock. In fact, I caught more than twice as many fish that one day than I have since.

[Flysmallie]

11 hours ago, Carl1969 said:

Not well, actually. Been on Pomme a half dozen times this summer & Truman (Fairfield) twice that & have caught exactly 3 fish. Weather, timing, stupidity, I dunno, but I've been beating the water & burning gas with nothing to show for it. Nobody I was with, nor anyone we spoke to, was catching either, but darned if that makes it any less frustrating.

Not like I'm chasing trophies or limits or even species. Just wanna catch supper once in a while & can't for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong. I look at maps & charts, try to read up on what the fish are wanting & where, what baits, etc. & bupkus. I'm trying to be positive & upbeat, but I gotta tell you, it's kinda starting to not be fun anymore.

I had better luck on LOZ back in May, cutting up & day drinking with my aunt & pitching jigs off her dock. In fact, I caught more than twice as many fish that one day than I have since.

Pomme is a very difficult lake in the summer. A lot of times those fish are going to be much shallower than anyone would expect. It can be incredible during the fall. At this point I would have on a crankbait and spinnerbait and go cover a bunch of water. 

[Johnsfolly]

On 1/6/2022 at 1:59 PM, Johnsfolly said:

Still working out some details with my Betterhalf that will affect my final goals. I have a starter list going:

1) Fish for roanoke bass - Fished ENO river for roanoke bass

2) Catch at least three species of darter; at least two different species in MD and one lifer. - completed previously

3) Catch at least 15 lifers with targets of - Increased the target to 18 total.

    a ) two lifer goby, blenny, and/or sculpin; - completed previously - added Potomac sculpin

    b) two lifer sunfish; either Lepomis or Enneacanthus (banded) species; and 

    c) two lifer bullheads. Still need to catch a spotted, snail, and flat bullhead. - Caught Flat BH

With just a hair over one month more to go in 2022, posting an update (with lots of photos, but @snagged in outlet 3 is still AWOL).

I case you didn't see my posts from North Carolina, I got a boost with four lifers and one specific target.

I did fish the Eno river trying for roanoke bass, but didn't catch any. I technically met the goal of fishing for roanoke bass 😉.

I did catch two lifers in the Eno and almost a third.

Caught a few bull chubs

I caught at least one white shiner.

I half heartedly tried for some darters. It's possible that they were lifers, but I was focused more on snail bullheads or roanoke bass to commit a significant amount of time on the darters. I didn't catch a snail bullhead either 🙄.

In Kit creek I caught a lifer flat bullhead, which partially satisfied my specific goal to catch two new lifer bullheads in 2022.

 

I fished Town Creek near Germanton NC and was able to catch a couple of cresent shiners. These were one of the nicer fish that I caught during that trip.

In November I have been targeting spots where I knew possible lifers were located. 

I have fished Fifteenmile creek three times previously trying for Potomac sculpin. I saw them on all three trips and lost several before I could get a photo. This fourth trip was a charm. I was finally able to hook up and get a P sculpin in the photo bag😁!

 

Lastly, I was able to hook up with another lifer from a fairly local creek (actually across the street from one of my daughter's friends). I got intel from a contact from INAT and was successful in catching my 16th lifer of 2022, a spottail shiner.

A second spottail.

Lately I have been running out and fishing at night for additional lifers. I still have a few weeks left and hope to get at least two more lifers before the end of the year. I have some spots that may result in a banded sunfish, which would be one of the specific targets. I won't likely get the two that I had set out to catch before the end of the year. I will not be able to head south or to northern midwest states to where they live. I will not be able to get another bullhead species in 2022, since I will not be able to get down south again.

There has been a recent split of the longear sunfish into multiple species. Going back through old photos we determined that I had caught one of the new species, a rio grande longear sunfish, Lepomis aquilensis.

I have been looking at many of my minnow/shiner photos to see if any would be new species. I am also still trying to get confirmation of a couple of fish that I caught recently. Maybe those may end up as new species. 

I still have a few trips in mind and hope that the weather holds in my favor to be able to get to the 18 lifers that I had hoped for in 2022. More to come.. I hope 😉.

[FishnDave]

You are very close to 18!  Good luck!

[Johnsfolly]

20 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

You are very close to 18!  Good luck!

I have a INAT contact that is currently down in NC and he is catching more than a few species that would be lifers for me. That includes a blackcheek tonguefish. Who wouldn't want to catch on of these guys😁!

 At this point I just can't work out a way to get down there again before the end of the year. So those fish will likely end up as 2023 targets 😉.

[Devan S.]

Here is the update right at the finish line. I may get a trip or 2 in between now and the clock striking midnight but I've accepted my fate at this point.

Here is my updated list:

Gila Trout

Apache Trout

NM trout slam 

1 level of Arizona trout challenge Both Levels complete

2 more Arkansas Master Anglers-Wasn't even close although I picked up 2 in Nebraska and 1 in NM.

1 trout park lunker(not RR)-Never stood a chance. Was a stretch goal anyways.

I've got a couple more want-to's on the list but I'm not sure how travel will work out.- Travel worked out and was able to get Nebraska trout slam and Colorado for my western natives challenge. 

I really got farther than expected with completed NM, AZ, and Nebraska trout slams. I really figured I would come up short in AZ. I really thought I might stumble into an Arkansas Master Angler but they are very much about finding a higher percentage location and spending the time. I did get reasonably close with Walleye and Trout. Trout park lunker was a pipe dream that hasn't materialized yet. Just don't have time to commit.

 

[Carl1969]

On 7/12/2022 at 12:57 PM, Carl1969 said:

1) Get out on the water as often as possible.

2) Keep learning & working on "mastering" fishing techniques.

3) Learn how to find/pattern the species I'm interested in.

4) Catch a few suppers' worth of crappie.

5) Catch some eater size white bass &/or wipers.

6) Catch at least one keeper walleye.

I achieved #1, but my failure to achieve #s 4-6 tells me I failed at #s 2&3 as well. Don't know how I managed it, but every time I got on the water, it was too hot, rain too recent, water level just changed, you name a reason for fish not to bite & I was out on the water, burning gas & getting skunked that day. Half a dozen plus times each on Pomme & Truman & I caught 2 lousy fish, neither worth keeping. Tried getting back out in October when conditions should have been ideal & it was so windy my jumped up little jon boat was taking on water over the transom before I could even back away from the ramp. Said to hell with it & parked it for the year.

[Ham]

On 1/1/2022 at 7:35 AM, Ham said:

I had intended to only have one Fishing Goal this year. My intention was for My only Goal being to Keep it Goofy. Just fish for Fun! If I somehow wanted to fish for Bluegill 365 days in a row, JUST DO THAT.  Just fish the moment and not be so Goal oriented. I seemingly can't do that.; I'm wired wrong. 

sooooooo 

1) Keep it Goofy

2) > 3000 fish

3) Get Life List to 200 Species (I am at 164 right now)

I have other stuff in my head, but I am (mostly) keeping that crazy stuff to myself. 

I wish Everyone The Best of Luck in 2022 and I hope All Your Fishing Dreams Come True. 

Dream Big! Beat Yesterday!

So, 

1) I definitely Kept it Goofy

2) I tapped out at 2871 fish. 95.7% of goal = failure

3) I got my Life List up to 202. 
 

My first private extra credit goal was to catch 50 species on fly. Considering that I had only caught like 38 species of fish on fly prior to 2022, it was a pretty bold quest. I got to 56 species. That 56 species had all but 9 species that I had ever caught. Lifetime list of Fly is at 65. 

my second private extra credit goal was to beat the 108 species total that I got in 2021. I got my 109 th species on 9/10/22. I finished with 126 species. 
It was an awesome year with some Great trips. I learned a lot and had a Bunch of Fun. Some tremendous frustrations, but some tremendous satisfaction too. 
I hope that 2023 is my last year to try for maximum number of species. I want to learn to target lifers while still thumping the crap out of bass and crappie. 

[FishnDave]

I caught 39 species on the fly rod in 2022, 5 of which were new species to me. 

I ended with 207 Koi on fly for the year, 133 Goldfish, 46 Bowfin, 40 Grass Carp.

I've continued to witness the skillfully magical fishing wizardry that is @Ham . 😁  I'm pretty sure if I spilled a little bit of bottled water in a hard-packed tire rut on a dirt road in Arkansas...Hamilton could/would catch a Lake Trout out of it.  Or an Orangespotted Sunfish. 🏆   I appreciate all the times we managed to fish together over the past year, we visited quite a few really neat places!

[Ham]

I was pretty magical at MTC. I made all the fish disappear. I turned a hero into a zero with minimal effort really. Pretty sure that was the only trip all year that I zeroed.