I did this last year, and thought it would be a good thing to do again this year. Generally the boards start to slow down this time of year (not just this one, but all of em) so I think this is a good thread to start. Alright, so basically just recap your 2001. Where did you improve? What did you focus on? What should you have worked on more? What can you do differently next year? Here's mine:

Last year we had that awesome seabass bite in the harbor, but unfortunately some of those unregistered users must be sealions or something, cause they sure found out about it this year. They pretty much ruined the seabass bite this year which really sucked. On the plus side, I got to fish with Larry a few times this year which was really cool. Got to witness first hand the power (or lack thereof :-)) of the calico hunter. I also spent most of my time/money that I'd normally spend on other things, on albacore trips out of san diego. I caught my first yellowtail, albacore and yellowfin this summer. I also did my first multi day trip of 3.5 days last June. I'm glad I got in a good hardcore season on the tuna, cause now I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing as far as tuna fishing, and I won't have to spend 2 or 3 seasons trying to figure out how to catch an albacore. Now I can just plan the trips and go without worrying about trying to figure out stuff. I also spent a bunch of cash on tuna rods, so I've got a pretty good arsenal in case I want to do some more harder core baja or long range trips. I'll only have to fill a couple holes in my arsenal instead of buying everything besides a 20# and 30# stick. I pretty much only need a 50 and 60 to have everything up to 80# covered, so that's cool. Plus, I can always borrow a couple rods if I need em. Now that I feel fairly comfortable with my saltwater gear, next year I'm going to focus on bass gear and inshore gear. I definitely need more freshwater bass rods, and next year I'll probably do the same thing as with my tuna gear, only on the freshwater side. Get everything squared away so that I can start focusing on baits and stuff instead of not having a jig rod, or not having a dropshot rod, etc. I want to just get all that out of the way so I've got enough rods to cover all the bases.

Getting back to fishing, like I said, I spent most of my time chasing those apple cores, and I can't say I regret it. I had some good times driving back and forth to san diego. Even got a comped trip out of it from Capt. Rick on the Holiday (great boat out of Point Loma, btw). The whole atmosphere in SD with the three landings and the boats unloading and loading is just awesome. I like going down there just for that reason, not to mention the fishing. But, I think I've got some of that out of my blood now. It was cool to go down there and check stuff out and learn how to catch tuna and stuff, but now that I know what I'm doing (more or less), I'd like to plan my trips out of SD for yellowfin or bluefin, and albacore trips out of morro bay late in the year. Maybe limit it to 3 partyboat trips next year so I have more money for bass rods...

This year wasn't a total waste for the bass fishing. With my dad working at Cachuma, we got free camping whenever we wanted, so for spring break we brought up the tv and vcr and camped for a week with Brian #2's boat in a slip. That was the most epic rip bait bite at cachuma I've ever been on. It was awesome. Good memories from that week. We also got on a good rat-l-trap bite and a good crankbait bite later on in the year. The pro/teen at the delta was fun, especially since I got paired up with John Lake (who I stayed with at the hotel the night before). That was kinda funny. We coulda caught a few more fish, and I coulda farmed less, but it was still fun. I gained a lot of confidence in a lot of different baits that I didn't fish very much before this year, so that's good. I want to work on fishing deepwater, and jig fishing next year.

I think my rodbuilding was a success. Not only did it save me some money in my accumulation of tuna rods, but some of em look almost tolerable. lol. Nah, most of em came out good, I'm really happy with em. I even built a couple for some homies, and showed Zach how to wrap. I was gonna buy a loom at the fred hall show, but I don't know if I will now that I've got most of my arsenal squared away already. We'll see though. I'd like to do some real, actual weaves.

Just checked last year's recap, and I put together my top 3 trips. Let's see if I can remember the top 3 from this year. The best trip would have to have been the Holiday trip with Brian #2, Daniel and Daniel's dad. That's when I caught my yellowfin, and like 4 or 5 albies and handed Brian his first albie. That was a super fun trip, and Brian puked in the morning so we got to make fun of him for that. Second best trip, hmmmm, might have to be that spring break camping trip. Lots of campsite antics (don't hold more than 20 matches to the side of a coal starter. They explode.) as well as good fishin. Number three trip I think would be that halibut tournament with Larry. That was cool cause I got that 23lber which ended up being big fish, and we caught a lot of fish that day. It's also funny to hear Larry try to explain how he trying to gaff his own halibut, and then missing and losing the fish is my fault. LMAO. That was a big fish, but it didn't matter cause he ended up winning anyway. The 3.5 day would have to go in there somewhere, but I think it's in it's own league. The first day or two sucked cause I couldn't get bit and I was still trying to figure out what the deal was (see rob about this dillemma), but once I figured it out it was really fun. I knocked the $hit out of em on the slide. I also got 2 yellows which are making their way to the top of my favorite fish list. I got one on 15# on the 900XL that whooped my ass. Another one dove into a kelp paddy on 25#, but I got him out ok. Man, those things are fun. Seeing freeswimmers around the boat was insane. Same with the albies. Ok, I'm done rambling I think. Let's hear how your year went!
-Brian