What 2010 Brought. My Year in Review

Well what can I say about this year? The year 2010 has been something else. For starters, the year seemed to have done by rather fast. I have been fishing for roughly 2 years now and have fallen in love with this sport. I find it quite entertaining seeing how much I have progressed both in a technical aspect and tackle aspect in this relatively short time period I have been bass fishing.

It’s a funny how I started fishing anyways. It began with a project my girlfriend had to do for class; she needed to take photos of people in the park. At that time, I just started trying out trout fishing with a friend of mine I knew from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I would frequent this particular park but that night I saw a bass angler nail a huge bass, and another one was pulled out of the small city pond almost immediately by another angler. That guy who caught the first bass became somewhat of a fishing mentor to me as I soon found myself buying bass gear and fishing the park often. I kept up on this hobby despite the fact it took me nearly 4 months to finally catch a fish at this city pond known to the locals as being the hardest pond to catch a bass.

A year later, my rod collection had grown considerably, now consisting of high end JDM bass rods and high end fishing reels. It didn’t stop there; lures were now costing me roughly $15 a piece. The year 2010 brought to my attention that you absolutely get what you pay for and that these high end lures are priced as such because it really does make a difference.

2010 also brought in a new style of fishing for me. Nearly all of 2009, I finesse fished approximately 90% of the time. This year, I probably drop-shotted about 5 days total. Results of this? Much less fish hooked, but I made up for quality fish by nearly Texas-Rigging the majority of the time. This was also the year I fell in love with “Hard Baits”. I never really liked hard baits such as cranks, vibration baits, and spinnerbaits, but I caught great fish off these lures and some were the most vicious strikes I have ever felt in my few yrs of bass fishing. I also got my largest fish of the year off a shallow crankbait; a beautiful 5lb 1oz bass.

Unfortunately this year has seen a decrease in amount of bass pulled out of the pond. Numerous people were keeping bass; some even over 6 lbs. Don’t get me wrong; I believe it’s their right to keep bass, but it’s also their responsibility to help keep and maintain a population of bass, especially at small city ponds like the types I love fishing at. By November of last year, I had caught at least six fish over 5 lbs; this year… only one.

This year, I have lost friends too. It seems like people want to fish with a particular person because it’s “cool” to fish with that person. I did not let that bother me much though as I didn’t feel the need to go to their secret ponds for guaranteed catches. I was completely at home at the “hardest pond to catch bass”. I found it funny though as once that person moved away, I got phone calls asking if I wanted to fish. I consider myself an urban angler and although these private lakes are tempting with 10+ bass days, I was fine at my park where it was a good day if you caught one. This pond is where my fishing friends are at anyways.

Lastly, and probably the best part of the year is the friends I have made by fishing. When I started this blog, I never meant for anybody to find it, yet alone read what I have to say. I had probably 2 followers at the beginning of the year, and little to no updates. Now I’m currently at 22 followers and according to the stats of my blog, it has been visited over 400 different people. Social networking had a great role in my blog being known to others. Many of these people I talk to here, I have yet to meet in person; the guys at Bass Brigade especially Lloyd Gomez, Chris Jackson of Fins-n-Grins, Tyler Brinks, Sinjin Kim, and even the guys on Twitter like @Tairyo28 and @HataTakuma of Jackall, and @DDBethke of Optimum Baits to name a few.

2011 is just a day away, I’ll be renewing my fishing license soon. I wish you all a great New Year! Keep casting and keep fishing! Thanks for visiting.