Does this post even make sense?

Whether you're a hoity toity pruist fly angler or a zip gunner gear angler, I'd be willing to bet that you've got, or at one point had, a list of things you wanted to accomplish on or near the water. I'm going to share mine, but would like to hear yours (that's you, reader) in the comments section.

1. Catch a Fish
2. Catch a Trout
3. Experience as many species as I can in one year (October -> October)
4. Learn to cast at least two ways acceptably well (acceptable by my standards anyway)
5. Learn to tie flies (On going but damnit the ones I tie work sometimes)
6. Fish from a kayak
7. Catch fish while in a kayak
8. Fish at least one mountain pond
   
9. Be confident walking up to at least one spot that most of the time fish will be caught
10. Get my wife to try fly fishing once.

Ok, so no great big things to overcome there. Remember folks, my first time fly fishing was less than a year ago and before that, I was the occasional [whatever rod I had] fisherman that never ever caught fish without a worm, and then it was typically sunfish of one kind or another.

Don't get me wrong, I love sunfish more than most folks, I think, but catching them with a worm and catching them with a spin bait, popper, fly, or something a little more active is a different ballgame.

I've caught more species this year than I really expected to. Living where I live, its pretty easy to chase trout all year, so I knew I'd catch at least one, and I did... catch... exactly one. Year's not over and hopefully my trout tally will go up. That's one this season - I caught three on my first trip, which was in Vermont. I really expected this season to be all about the sunfish, since that is pretty much all I had ever been able to catch. Really, that's fine. The beginning of the year started out with days of huge numbers (ok, thats an exaguration, when I say huge I mean more like 10 or 12) of small to quite large ones. As it has progressed, the species have become more varied until lately, where I've fallen into a rut gutter hole pattern with smallmouth. Maybe its the inspiration coming from reading two fairly long instructional books written by Lefty Kreh, or maybe its just that it is what I have immediate access to, either way, I've sort of become stagnant with my species list.

I guess I'll list them. I was going to make another post about it, but it seems a little cliche and since I'm talking about them now, it may as well be here.

1. Brown Trout
2. Rainbow Trout
3. Pickerel
4. Black Crappie Link 2
5. Bluegill
6. Pumpkinseed
7. Bluegill/Pumpkinseed Hybrid
   
8. Largemouth Bass
9. Smallmouth Bass Link 2

Man, I really tried to make it 10, but it just wasn't in the cards. I think that's it - most of them were small with a few that most people would consider "ok" and I consider big.

I'm really not going anywhere with this,  I just wanted to lay out, in writing, some goals and achievements as I approach the end of my first year of fly fishing.

After the past week, I'm a little spent, and left feeling groggy after a 2 hour power nap at the end of an early and very hectic day at work.