Merry Christmas to all my fellow fly fishermen and lady fly anglers. I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing, and healthy holiday season with their friends and families. Hopefully you’ll find some time to get on the water as well. I know I will be taking advantage of a few days in the 40s coming up. Days in the 40s are hard to come by here in the winter months.
This is pretty short and sweet post today. There will be more coming around the new year and into the new year. However, for today’s post, I want to take a few minutes to reflect and thank everyone for supporting me throughout the year. Thank you all for joining me on the water, for net purchases, for visiting/reading my site and posts, and for following along throughout the year. I appreciate and enjoy the interactions with everyone, old friends and new. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing without your support and I look forward to seeing everyone on the water in the future.
In addition to expressing my thanks and appreciation, I figured I’d share a few highlights from the fall season. Fall seemed to move quickly this year, probably because I was on vacation for a few weeks in September. In any event, it was full of fun adventures, days on the water, and a few days afield chasing ducks. Notice I said chasing… If only I could wingshoot like I can cast a fly rod…haha!
September started with a trip to Badlands National Park, Glacier National Park and Teton National Park for some hiking with my Wife and a couple of cousins. In 9 or 10 days of hiking, Jen and I put 120+ miles on our boots and saw some amazing sites. We were up close and personal with wildlife (by the critters’ will, not mine) including moose, bear, goats, wolverine, deer, extremely poor-mannered chipmunks, and countless other small critters. We worked through sunburns, some brutal wind, 20+ mile days, and we were fortunate to luck out with the weather. Wildfire smoke was only an issue for 1 day and we were only rained out for 1 day as well. It was a great trip.
Once home, I switched gears quickly and it was back to the creeks. I enjoy teaching new anglers and introducing new anglers to the sport. I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to share my passion with all of the new anglers I worked with this fall. There were a lot of lessons taught and new anglers joining me this year. The fishing was very good at times, and very difficult during others. All of my guests did a great job working to learn and I always appreciate the hard work and efforts. I’m confident when I say I think I’ve helped a few anglers get hooked as I know a few have purchased new rods and continue to share pictures and stories. Keep them coming!
In October, I made my way out to Cape Cod to chase around a few stripers for a couple days. I didn’t find anything big and I didn’t find any concentrations of fish in high numbers either, but it’s always nice to get out there and catch a few anyhow. I fished a competition in late October on a local stream. A good morning session was followed by a very rough afternoon, but I enjoyed getting out, meeting a few new anglers, and getting back into comp fishing a bit. The calendar quickly rolled to November and I was invited to give a talk on striper fishing to the Capital District Fly Fishers. I enjoyed my night out there meeting a passionate group of fly anglers and appreciate the opportunity. As November wore on, trout fishing became difficult. High water and moody, uncooperative, spawning trout was the storyline for the month. However, there has been some slight improvement on select days in recent weeks.
Just wanted to say thank you again to everyone. Whether you join me on the water, support my woodworking business, or follow along on social media, I appreciate your support. I look forward to the continued friendships next year and beyond. Please continue to check back as I will have more coming for the new year and I contribute to this blog a bit more. As always, thanks for reading! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
-Brian Lansing
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