Stat Recap 2023, Goals for 2024

[Ethansauce_]

Dang! I feel like I've been lacking on the stats for 2023 with all these sick breakdowns. I finally broke the 100 species mark on my life list in California, the more notable additions from 2023 (or at least the ones I remember) include salty stripers, a butterfly ray, blue shark, SoCal anadromous steelhead, and some proper native trout from the sierras. Ended up spending as much time catching snakes and reading about herpetology as I did fishing. It was a bit of a change of pace from previous years, but I'm happy to report that I've added 25 native species to my snake life list (out of about 40 native to CA) and 35 total between California, Montana, and Minnesota. It's well below freezing at school right now, so I've got plenty of motivation to get back and add some more this spring! I also fell short on the LBSF side of things, had some epic multi-fish thresher days on the kayak but the 7 gills are calling, it's been too long. I'd also like to finally get my legal WSB from the surf or yak, bastards been eluding me for far too long, 2023 was the year of endless shorts and almosts for me. I'm hoping 2024 will be more fruitful.

[jrodda]

Dang! I feel like I've been lacking on the stats for 2023 with all these sick breakdowns. I finally broke the 100 species mark on my life list in California, the more notable additions from 2023 (or at least the ones I remember) include salty stripers, a butterfly ray, blue shark, SoCal anadromous steelhead, and some proper native trout from the sierras. Ended up spending as much time catching snakes and reading about herpetology as I did fishing. It was a bit of a change of pace from previous years, but I'm happy to report that I've added 25 native species to my snake life list (out of about 40 native to CA) and 35 total between California, Montana, and Minnesota. It's well below freezing at school right now, so I've got plenty of motivation to get back and add some more this spring! I also fell short on the LBSF side of things, had some epic multi-fish thresher days on the kayak but the 7 gills are calling, it's been too long. I'd also like to finally get my legal WSB from the surf or yak, bastards been eluding me for far too long, 2023 was the year of endless shorts and almosts for me. I'm hoping 2024 will be more fruitful.

Your snake charming has been insane! I guess I don't get out much in search of snakes but I've found very few snakes on hunts and caught even fewer. 35 species of snakes is incredible.

And the WSB and 7s are maybe the two hardest fish in SoCal to catch, best of luck. But you do seem to find a way, so I have faith in you.

[vdisney]

Good seeing your name on the board Ethan, hopefully school is going well for you. 

[Ethansauce_]

Good seeing your name on the board Ethan, hopefully school is going well for you.

Thanks! It's definitely going haha with all the damn lakes and rivers frozen, I'm contemplating taking up ice fishing if I can find the time. I'll be back in Cali for a bit in the second week of march. Hopefully, I'll see you on the sand!

[Latimeria]

I'm totally surprised you haven't gone ice fishing yet!  Well, it will be great to see what you catch on your next trip back here, but I want to see some ice fishing posts!  lol

[Pinoyfisher]

Not much in the way of fishing for me in 2023. Usual catch of some YT, BFT, YFT off of the sport boats. Piers kicked out some corvina, sargo, macks, and lots of queenfish. Surf was dead to me. Perch and croaker made the rounds. I kicked out more kidney stones than sharks this past year.

I'll be putting in a more concerted effort to get out for grinners this year. Got some new locations in my sights, here in SD and a bit further. More posts will be made as well. Oh yeah, I still need to buy a license 

[vdisney]

Not much in the way of fishing for me in 2023. Usual catch of some YT, BFT, YFT off of the sport boats. Piers kicked out some corvina, sargo, macks, and lots of queenfish

Dang dude, that sounds like a good year to me