Promises to Keep GLENN LAW
While it’s not yet Halloween as we send this issue off, the new calendars that hit my desk today, and the date on this issue, force a reminder that another year has passed, but more importantly, another one lies ahead.
Taking a minute to look back over my own angling year, I find a mixed list.
There were some great trips and good memories over the last year. I learned some new skills and polished some old ones. I visited a couple of places that were new and I’d long looked forward to as my own dream destinations. I made new friends on the water, made some satisfying catches, and most gratifying of all, watched a couple of non-anglers catch fire with their own memorable first catches.
But when I look back over the entirety of last year, one thing I cannot tell myself is that “I fished too much.” There were still things I wanted to do and didn’t get done. Whose fault is that?
Looking forward, my own to-do list hangs over my head. I’d like to catch a swordfish. They are supposed to be easy enough to catch. Anyone who spends a little time at it invariably chalks that off their list. Then there are some who have spent more than just a little time at it and have yet to find success. Just ask me about it.
This year, once again, I intend to get the job done.
There is always something that goes unexplored. None of us can do everything. Catch the mullet run on the east coast of Florida and you are missing an opportunity somewhere else. June is particularly bothersome. It’s a good month to be everywhere. Since one can be in only one place at a time, that means the years become key to growing our experience. Each new one offers another chance to expand our reach into new water, provided we get out and do it.
Our great fortune in Florida is yearround fishing of one sort or another. We do have seasons here. Though the weather appears consistent to newcomers and visitors, the seasons do exist, but as anglers we call them by different names. We don’t have fall, winter and spring, per se. We have sailfish season, tarpon season, dolphin season and snook season.
But to be in one place in the spring, when the permit cruise the Gulf wrecks, means we miss the first run of stripers in the mid-atlantic. If we’re fishing sailfish in the Keys, we’re probably missing the bluefin tuna off the Carolina beaches.
Thus, every new year brings opportunity for new experience in a world where you can likely never fish it all. But we try. So, what do you want to do? You’ll find this issue is packed with destinations, plenty of ideas to ponder for the coming seasons. For some of us, a single trip such as we offer here would be the trip of a lifetime. For others, it would simply be an accustomed seasonal outing, or perhaps a promise we made to ourselves at some point. But that’s the thing about our fishing: There’s no wrong way to go about it.
And it’s important to keep your promises, especially to yourself.
This month we’ve tried to present a breadth of possibilities. Chances are few of us will spend an entire season at Montauk, but it’s good to know that there’s a big window of opportunity, and if we find ourselves within striking distance, there’s probably something just offshore worth spending a day or two on. None of us have to be limited by a short season when a place has a lot to offer.
We hope you find some ideas in this fat collection of stories, some inspiration for the coming year. It’s a worthy goal to set your sights 12 months from now and to be able to say, “I might not have fished too much, but I sure tried.”