2020 Resolutions:
In 2020 I only have 1 fishing goal: to catch 1 new QC species. There are so few left (only 7), that they are getting extremely difficult to come by. I have some plans to target Round Whitefish through the ice in January, but I may end up having to travel a little ways south to search for Grass Carp. Who knows, maybe I'll get desperate and fly out west for Cutthroat Trout and Spoonhead Sculpin or drive way up north for a Fourhorn Sculpin. Catching 2 new ones would blow my expectations and help me towards my goal of catching them all before I turn 30.
EDIT: I thought about it a bit more, and changed my fishing goals slightly to ones I think should make for a more interesting season. I still want to catch 1 new QC species, but I'd also like the challenge of at least trying for a few of the others. Yup, this year I want to target Round Whitefish, Cutthroat Trout, Spoonhead Sculpin, Deepwater Sculpin, and Grass Carp at least once each. Copper Redhorse and Fourhorn Sculpin are the only two I don't expect to target because the former is protected throughout its range and the latter is only found in the Arctic Ocean, which I don't plan to visit this year.
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| Most likely Suspect #1 (Roughfish.com) |
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| Most likely Suspect #2 (Connecticut Fly Angler) |
I guess I kinda lied about the 1 fishing goal, I would also like to explore the remaining parts of the Richelieu River that I have yet to fish so I can produce a sort of fishing guide for the river. I plan on doing a Richelieu River campaign to accomplish this, and recording all of my catches in scientific fashion.
The real big goal for 2020 isn't related to my fishing life, but rather to "real" life. But we can keep that boring stuff off of this blog ;)
2019 Reflections:
I managed to smash my goal of 2 QC lifers and ended up with 5, 4 of them on hook and line! Almost all of them were top targets of mine and some were totally unexpected. First, in May, I scooped up an American Brook Lamprey that was swimming by while I was trout fishing. It was pretty cool to see a non-parasitic lamprey in person.
Next, in June, I spent some time fishing with a buddy from school and hooked into my first ever River Redhorse! I even caught a couple more in the following days and each one surprised me with the power of their runs.
In July, Alex and I went on a short road trip to Connecticut where we met up with Rowan of Connecticut Fly Angler. He was kind enough to guide us on one of his home waters and put me onto my lifer Redfin Pickerel, a species I had been chasing since this whole lifelisting quest began.
In September, I headed to a spot where a friend had caught Eastern Silvery Minnows in years prior, but where I had always been unsuccessful. Something about the Fall weather changed all that and I found a nearby spot filled with the target Hybognathus.
Finally, and possibly one of my most difficult catches ever, is the Atlantic Sturgeon I caught while on a weekend trip with Alex in New Brunswick. We dragged the boat all the way to the Maritimes knowing that they existed, but that catching one would be extremely unlikely. Unexpectedly, I hooked up with one before even getting all of our rigs tied!
I was also able to successfully keep up with my goal of keeping track of each species I caught throughout 2019. As a result, I know that I landed 104 different types of fish on hook and line in one year, with just about half of them (51) being lifers!
I hadn't set any non-fishing related resolutions for 2019, but it turned out to be a pretty big year in that domain as well. Alex and I celebrated our 5-year anniversary, I was able to temporarily work at my dream job doing shift work in the arctic, and I finally graduated university! I have some equally big (or maybe bigger) goals for 2020 so I'm excited to see what the new year has in store for me.
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| Alex and I |
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| Iron Ring Ceremony! |
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