New Anglers: Five Practical New Year’s Resolutions for Fishing

The most common new-year resolutions center on fitness, weight, diet, finances, and the like, but what about your favorite outdoor pursuit? Why not establish some new year’s resolutions for fishing, especially if you’re a new angler or a casual angler ready to become more proficient?

New anglers often jump into the sport with basic equipment and rudimentary skills, eager to start catching. However, it can be beneficial for many neophytes to take a step back and focus on improving fundamentals. Your new year’s resolutions for fishing could entail skill development and equipment mastery as primary fishing goals for next season. This can easily be accomplished over the winter. Here’s what I recommend.

Resolution #1: Up Your Casting Skills

Casting accuracy is often essential to fishing success. To follow through on this resolution, get some different-weight practice-casting plugs, plus targets like buckets or rings, and find an open space where you can take your fishing outfit(s) to practice. Make it somewhere without overhead lines or cables, such as a field in a park, and pace off various distances for target placement. Try casting overhead and sidearm, with one and both hands, and maybe both right- and left-handed if you’re somewhat ambidextrous. Do this on both calm and windy days. Vary distances and direction to targets.

Resolution #2: Learn Foolproof Fishing Knots

A foolproof fishing knot retains 100 percent of the breaking strength of your fishing line and is one that you tie so well that doing it becomes second nature. You must be able to accomplish repeated uniformity and quick tying. There are books, videos, and plenty of information on knots from fishing line manufacturers. I recommend learning the Improved Clinch, Terminal-tie Uni, and Line-to-Line Uni to start. Tie these over and over at home.

Resolution #3: Master Techniques One At a Time

If you’re a lure user, it’s hard to become proficient when you’re switching from a spinner to a crankbait to a surface plug trying to figure out what the fish want and how to work the lure. A great new year’s resolution for fishing would be focusing on one aspect at a time and mastering it. For example, one late spring or summer day(s) resolve to only fish with plastic worms - nothing else. Don’t even bring other lures with you. Try different rigs and lure presentations so you develop confidence in when, where, and how you’re using these items. The same can be done, when appropriate, for other types of lures until you’re confident with all of them.

Resolution #4: Know Your Quarry Better

Assess how much you really know about the life history, habitat, and habits of the fish you seek, be that largemouth bass, walleye, crappie, trout, etc. in freshwater or redfish, striped bass, seatrout, etc. in saltwater. You can probably stand to learn a lot more. Check the websites of state fisheries agencies for species info, and look for guidebooks on recreational fish species.

Resolution #5: Attend a Sport Show with Good Seminars

As someone who got into sportfishing in part due to attending wintertime outdoor sport shows, I think that they’re a good way to learn from exhibitors and instructors, both by talking to experts at booths and by listening to them in seminars. Fishing-only shows are of most interest to anglers as they are more narrowly focused. Seminars that are based on local waters and species are of most value.

If you follow through on these fishing goals, you’ll certainly be more proficient. And then, future new year’s resolutions for fishing can dwell on seeking out new places, catching new species, learning to use other equipment, etc.