New year, new fishing goals

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 In my first ever post I mentioned my goal of catching a 20" Ozark Smallmouth. I want to make a more concerted effort to accomplish this goal in 2023. I know what you're thinking, "Joel, haven't you been trying to catch a 20 inch Ozark Smallmouth this whole time?". The answer to that question is yes, but when I say "concerted effort" I mean trying (and sticking to) a strategy. I will discuss this strategy shortly. First, I want to shout out my wonderful girlfriend, Gillian. She got me my first ever fishing journal as a Christmas gift. After reading through this journal, I realized its about time I go even deeper into the "nitty gritty" of fishing. Maybe being more focused on the details will yield better fishing results.

Here are what the pages of the journal look like:



I'll fill out these pages as best as I can for each float I go on. Depending on how significant fishing is on any given trip, I'll make a blog post about it. Most of my posts are dedicated to new floats but another goal for the new year is to add more posts that just address fishing. When I make a post about a float that I've already done, my plan is to use the journal as a way of writing down my fishing observations. I'm very curious to track how the bite changes from January to May and what lures are most effective at each stage of the spawn.

The aforementioned "strategy" directly applies to the bite from January to May. In a nutshell, I plan to start the day with the intention of using one primary lure. This lure will be intended to catch big fish. Of course, any lure can catch big fish but my goal is to use a lure that can catch THE big fish. A component of my posts from now on will feature the lure I'm using and how effective it was throughout the day. After a plan has been made to use a specific lure, I will not deviate from using it for a whole float. The logic of this plan is that I might get less bites, but will hopefully result in at least one big fish and MAYBE my personal best. This plan will inevitably be very difficult for me to stick to but I will try my best!

My next post will be an example of what I plan to post in 2023. Hopefully, focusing on the details will result in more consistent fish catching... and a 20 inch Ozark smallmouth!

Thanks for reading, now get to fishing!

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