Another year has come and gone.

This is the time of year when I like to reflect on the year that has passed and begin making plans for the year that is coming up.

For many sportsmen the year has proven to be one of the strangest in recent memory.

Other than the ling cod and halibut seasons being fair, fishing was probably the most frustrating in years.

The salmon seasons were disappointing and it seemed the fish never showed up in the numbers many had predicted.

The early blackmouth season was decent enough. I managed to get a few on the punch card, but it quickly tapered off until many of us were getting frustrated with even our most secret spots.

Silvers never showed up in any numbers at all. Many anglers were left with blank spots on their punch cards where most expected to fill them.

Yes, there were a few caught, but considering the numbers the state fish forecasters expected, nothing even close was ever reported.

As far as hunting goes, the season started warm and dry and finished windy and wet, and in some cases, a good amount of snow fell. Hunting deer in the Okanogan in a T-shirt in October was nothing I expected to be doing.

The weather turned quickly in November. That did water fowlers good but made some of the late hunts extremely difficult.

Rivers flooded and made fishing impossible.

Now what can we do? Let’s try to focus on the upcoming year. I say almost every year to try something new every chance you get. What are you going to do next year?

I decided this year I was going to try my hand at making myself a custom fishing rod. I have also planned on giving shrimping a try.

This is an odd year too and that means humpy fishing this summer. I haven’t seen any predictions but I sincerely hope that this year’s run is spectacular. The 2005 run seemed to fly right by as if the salmon did a drive-by at night when we were all in bed.

I hope this year does not turn into a repeat of what happened two years ago.

Bottom fishing is usually a safe bet and on most occasions, fishermen will meet with success.

I am looking forward to the halibut season and after that is my favorite season, ling cod. Some of my friends assure me they have found some untouched areas and I am eager to give them a try.

Hunting has so many more variables for us to think about.

I hope the severe winter storms did not have a devastating effect on deer and elk herds.

I’m sure it did and this will surely have an effect on hunting a few years from now.

Kill rates of deer fawns and elk calves are sure to be higher than normal but hopefully the adults fared much better.

This New Year’s Eve, be sure to give the outdoors some thoughts.

Thanks for the opportunities we had last year and thanks for the year to come.

Until next time, please feel free to send me an e-mail at whidbey_fff@yahoo.com and I wish you and your family the best.

Happy New Year!