Alright, it's now 4 days into winter break and I haven't fished!!! Dang flu!!! I thought I'd occupy myself by puttin together some of the events/memories of this year, and I definitely want to hear the same from you guys.

This year was probably the most significant in my fishing career thus far. I learned more this year and met more people than any previous year. The "discovery" of the fastrac minnow earlier this year was a definite event. I couldn't even tell you how many halibut and white seabass that thing produced this year. I started fishing Lake Los Carneros this year which was really fun. I remember I used to get home from school, dump my backpack in the house, grab the rods, float tube etc. and rush over to carneros before it got dark, almost everyday of the week. It was a welcome break from the school week. -oooohhhhh my stomach, hold on...-ok, I'm good- I met a bunch of people this year who have definitely influenced my fishing in a positive way. Brian #2, Daniel, leapin bass, Pete (wilderness outfitters, I might have met him last year, but I don't remember), Paul (harbor tackle), all the guys at the sportfishing club... I fished the pro/teen up at the delta in July. That was really cool. My first real experience in tournament fishing besides bass-n-tubes. Really fun, caught senko fish (my favorite kind of soft plastic fishin...) and buzzbait fish (my favorite kind of topwater fishin...). Then we all remember the white seabass in the harbor this year. Need I say more??? Hoo nelly, that was a belly scratchin good time. Not only in the harbor though, the white seabass seemed to make a really good showing this year. As for sportboat trips this year, I had an awesome year. The best was probably that trip with Brian Kettler, and Rob on the Seahawk, dominating the white seabass. I got a 23lber, and a few other legals (limit was 3 so I only kept 3 and the rest went to other people for their limits, which is what #2 and Rob also did, I think I had like 5 legals). That 23lber is my biggest wsb to date. The number two best trip would have to be the 3/4 day Seahawk ventura madness trip. Merit heard about a wsb bite off of ventura, so we ran all the way down there on the 3/4 day boat. Not only that, but we couldn't get em to bite on livebait, so Merit bought live squid for us from another boat, and that set em off. Some of the biggest sandbass I've ever seen coming over the rail, along with white seabass. We got the squid late in the day so we couldn't fish long. This was with Daniel, #2, and Daniel's dad. I got like 2 legal wsb and one short. Daniel's dad got a TOAD sandie, like a 5 or 6lber. Merit let us fish well past our alotted time, and we had to pull into the ventura harbor to get gas/bait for the next day's albie run, so we ended up back in SB at like midnight or some ridiculous hour. Unbelievable effort by Merit to get us the fish. 3rd best trip this year had to be on Merit's boat once again. I think I went solo on this one, to San Miguel. Pretty $hitty conditions, and it was blowin pretty good on the frontside (surprise, surprise...) but the last stop of the day, we hammered the johnny bass on plastic. Every cast was a solid 3, 4lb johnny. Most of the folks who couldn't fish plastic were either sick, in their bunks, in the bow, or done fishing, so it was just guys throwin plastic in the stern. We had a rotation going, so that by the time you got from one corner to the next, you'd catch a fish, throw it in your sack (or toss it back) and start again in the rotation, it was great. Let's see, what else...fishin the pipe in my skiff, bringing only plastics and catchin calicos like everytime, goleta beach halibut in the surf, Frank's angel shark (and his mystery fishes...) that wouldn't fit in my net, chasing dolphins in my skiff at goleta beach... Man, this was a bitchin year. Your turn!!!
-Brian