Resolved, Really

Coming up short with ideas for New Year’s resolutions? Better than resolving to eat only uncooked vegetables or drinking less cheap beer or answer every unopened email, here’s a short list of things you might actually accomplish this year:

• Get at least a glimpse of fishable water every single day, regardless of whether you can fish.
• Reorganize your gear and give something you don’t use to someone who’s never even thought about fly fishing.
• Plan a trip, solo or with friends, where no one knows where you are and how to find you for a few days. Get off the grid. Disconnect to re-connect.
• Let a kid or two watch you tie a fly. If they take an interest, leave them alone with the vise, a hook, feathers, thread and an old pair of scissors. You’ll be amazed.
• Have someone shoot a video of you fly fishing, especially if you haven’t yet. See if they can capture you releasing a fish. You’ll be glad you did.
• Eat more wild fish and read Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood as a guide to healthier, more responsible consumption.
• Go somewhere to see a macro-event like a coral reef spawn, a cinder or palolo worm hatch, or a hexagenia or black caddis blizzard. It’s worth the effort.
• Read a book like Edmund O. Wilson’s Biophilia and remember that “The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” (Eden Phillpotts)

There. That should get you started.
Meanwhile, we at MidCurrent hope you have a safe, exhilarating, fish-filled year and remember something that Mark Twain said a long time ago:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”