This has been an interesting time of year to write in this column. The challenge comes from the idea that the reader will be reading it after Thanksgiving but weeks before Christmas. I want to make it relevant and timely. I get confused though. Don’t believe me? Last year I wrote about being thankful for gifts. Was I focused on Thanksgiving or Christmas? I couldn’t decide apparently. The moment I wrote about in December 2024 was about what I consider an almost unworldly gift. Those aren’t on a calendar.

In my professional career you are only as effective as the time you spent reflecting on your craft. Did that math lesson go like I wanted it to? Did I say the wrong thing to that student when I talked with them about how to do better next time with a behavioral issue? Proper reflection is essential because it gives you time to fix something for next time or pat yourself on the back. A hint to the reader here is that if you do too much of the latter, you will not have the brain space for the former. Save that space for change. It is also alright to have a bit of both of those things happening at the same time.

Enough of that. If you have ever fly-casted largish streamers on a sinking fly line into and out of a brisk wind, you know the struggle. I would assume most readers have not, so here is my best explanation or translation I can offer. It is not easy. On a day where searching for pike with this technique may have seemed like a bad idea or even mildly asinine, there I went. I knew this spot held some nice fish in the fall. Water temperature, wind, and cloud cover was almost exactly right down to the day I have recorded in the past. Same fish, same spot, same conditions, different tactics. My reflection from that day was “well that kind of sucked, but not as much as it was fun”. The further you get from those days, you tend to remember them as fantastic and less as something you don’t want to do again. Catching fish helps of course. If you haven’t learned anything from my columns, or don’t plan to, take this one thing from me. Record your fishing trip details. It is easier to reflect when you have a mirror and reflection informs practice.

Last month I wrote about my lack of deer hunting desires. You may be surprised to know I plan to do a little bit of that the weekend before Thanksgiving. On my terms. Spotting and tracking deer through larger expanses of forest than I am able to do locally. Searching. Time spent searching. Of course your better judgement may surmise this is mostly a fishing trip. You would be correct. It doesn’t change the fact that I am going to familiar places during a familiar time of the year. Maybe the weather holds true to the forecast, maybe it doesn’t. The difference will be hunting that area with someone who has not. A reflection I made several years ago that I felt needed to be done in that stretch of land. Will a second hunter be the missing link to that land? If it were not for these plans, I know I would not be deer hunting this year.

As I prepare camping gear, a canoe, and all fly fishing equipment for the main pursuit this weekend, lake-run rainbow trout, I tell myself that it is perfectly fine to not catch any fish. It will be new water, some new strategies, new flies to try, and another new fly angler at my side. I don’t know what I am searching for but I feel sublime with the current plan and look forward to seeing what fails before success is found. It does not hurt to have the river’s beautiful brown trout as a back-up plan!

I know that in all of the searching the premise is lost if I don’t think about all that goes wrong before it goes right. Will this lead to a repeat trip next year? What will I do differently next year if it does happen again? Plan for the failures and rejoice in success. Leave room for reflection. Winter is the season for reflection whether we like it or not. Just like winter itself.