New Year’s Resolution
I think of New Year’s a bit differently than most. While January 1 holds significance for much of the Western world as the “start of the year,” I tend to mark the beginning of mine as the first day of daylight-saving time or, as I think of it, the first unofficial day of spring. Suddenly, the days get longer, and my thoughts turn to spring and summer fishing. It pulls me out of winter gloom, hibernation, and the overall moody attitude that short, cold, overcast days tend to bring. It feels like tangible, real change—a true beginning, not just a date on the calendar.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the coming spring and summer as we’ve experienced the classic early-February “pseudo spring” here in Northern California, with nearly 70-degree days just weeks before daylight-saving time. Around this time of year, I try to set a few resolutions across all fronts of my life: places I want to fish, books I want to read, and things I want to do better or improve upon.
Fly fishers, by nature—and guides in particular—like to complain. The hatch wasn’t what it should have been. The fishing was better yesterday. There are too many boats on the float. Clients can’t cast. We need more rain. We need less rain. I’m as susceptible to the trap of negative thinking and complaining as anyone. In some ways, I think it helps me cope with failures, bad days, stubborn fish, or moments when I simply don’t get it done as a guide or angler.
A few weeks ago, I found myself out on one of my favorite bass lakes, guiding some great clients for spotted bass. Fishing had been solid in a cove off the main lake that morning. By about 11 a.m., it slowed, and my inner dialogue shifted to complaining—about the fish stopping to bite, the sun coming out, and a spot that had fished great the day before suddenly going quiet. I forced myself to pause and collect my thoughts.
I asked myself a simple question: What am I doing to improve the situation for my clients? I’ve guided bass species for nearly two decades, and the days when the same technique, fly, and location work for an entire day are about as rare as a unicorn stopping for a drink on the bank. I could be a salty guide, blame the slowdown on all sorts of things beyond my control, and keep grinding the same water with the same rig and flies that worked yesterday, or I could do something about it.
So I pulled up the trolling motor, changed flies, and moved. I headed to a spot with better shade, one where I’d seen a skilled conventional angler fishing around that time of day a few weeks earlier.
At the end of the day, I’m not sure we caught any more fish than we would have if I had stayed put and just ground it out. But at least I did something. I didn’t just complain and blame the situation on things beyond my control.
That day led me to my New Year’s resolution for the start of spring: If I am not doing anything to address the situation, problem, issue, or complaint, I do not get to complain. It’s a simple, old piece of advice someone once gave me:
If you aren’t doing anything about the problem, don’t complain about it.
I think this is good advice for all anglers in this day and age. In many ways, the start of spring is a perfect time to look in the mirror and ask ourselves: What are we doing to make the sport, our fisheries, and our fly-fishing community better? If there are too many boats at the ramp, what are you doing to explore new, interesting, less crowded places to fish? If there aren’t enough steelhead returning to your river, what are you doing about it? Have you joined a local conservation group? Donated time or money? Or are you simply flogging the water and complaining that there are no fish?
Years ago, I learned in a psychology class at the prestigious Chico State University that complaining breeds a cycle of negativity, chronic dissatisfaction, and helplessness—often rewiring the brain to focus on problems rather than solutions.
This year, let’s all choose to focus on solutions and action—not on complaining.
