What fishing/outdoor/etc stuff are you most looking forward to in 2025?

Josh

Josh

Dead in the water
Staff member
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As is probably unsurprising, I'm looking forward to bass fishing. I've got a new Echo eight-four that I'm excited to try on some more topwater bass. And my younger son is at least pretending to be interested in fishing this spring/summer with me. Since it's probably his last summer before he gets his drivers license, I'm going to try and have as many outdoor adventures with him as I can.

Also may try to put some more effort into doing some backcountry creek/lake hike-in fishing. Perhaps up hwy 20. That's a gorgeous area that I just don't spend enough time in.

And with any luck, I'll get down and fish for salmon with @Evan B again. Heck, maybe the stars will align and @Billy, Evan, and I will finally fish for bass together!
 
I am of course looking forward to my local industrial waterway teeming with acres upon acres of wild fish--humpies--and I'm not ashamed!

But a little further afield, I'm planning a trip to fish for giant tarpon out of Homossassa, Florida in late May. I am planning a week down there with my FIL. I'll meet him in ATL and we will drive down to fish and stay with his friend who lives and fishes Central FL, has a nice flats boat, and from the pictures I've seen and the stories I've heard, knows how to get it done. Super stoked for that. Giant tarpon have been on the list for a while.
 
In May I am taking a co worker up to merlin reservoir to try to get him a Tiger on a fly. More his adventure than mine but my boat.


Montana in July.. no nymphs
Lors of Smallie fishing on the Columbia be cool to see what works and what doesn't hoping for lots of 4 lbers

Hope there are some summer runs this year and lots of cool August temps.
 
Scheduling. Now I remember why I hike and fish alone so much. So far, March and first half of April have no conflicts. But Mrs. Salmo tells me the trip I want to do the last week of April and first week of May includes a timing conflict for her. OK, but she's the one who wanted to do one of these trips with me, and hiking in the desert has a narrow timing window. Middle May and middle June have trout fishing trips that overlap with a fishing group well enough to mostly work out. Late June to 4th of July is Montana trout fishing. I have 2 or maybe 3 things I want to do in July, one of them includes my middle daughter's family. But she probably won't decide on when until the week before, meaning I don't plan anything else until she and her husband decide, or I make my July plans and maybe go on their trip or maybe not. Early August has one get together nailed down, meaning I could join a BC trip in mid-August - still fluid but just might work out. Sept. and Oct. are still wide open, but that won't last, as I'd like to join a Grand Canyon rafting trip in early Oct. We'll see. Oh, and stuffed in between everything is trying to grow a garden again. One thing retirement has taught me is that I don't have all the time in the world. And true as ever, "he who fishes alone goes when he damn well pleases."
 
April is the start of springers worth going for (which I'm terrible at)

May kicks of halibut season. Also shad.

June is when I start my carping on the Columbia

July I do some Columbia steelhead and start tuna watch.

August / September I'm out every chance I get for local salmon, or if conditions allow, ocean runs for tuna, salmon and halibut.
 
Josh said:
hahahaha, holy moses! Totally forgot that it was an odd year. I'll have to add pinks to my list too. Would be good to get the kid into a few of those.
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We’ll get the forecasts for Puget Sound near the end of this month or around the 1st of March.
I’m hoping for at least 750k coho again.
SF
 
Italy for 23 days (April/ May).
Hitting the slopes until the season ends.
Fishing whenever the granddaughter wants to go.
2 out of state golf trips this year.
Pickleball on weeknights.
Maybe a mnt bike ride with Daniel Ocean.

Etc etc.
 
I want to fish some Central Washington Lakes this spring. Do solo camping trips.

Once July rolls around, I'll probably be hitting the local sound a lot looking for SRC, Coho, and Pinks. Love to take Stonefish out for Pinks LOL. Away from the seaplanes, and urban fish environment. Seriously, I'll take what bites.

Fall, back over to the OP for coho in the rivers. Had a blast last year.
 
Winter South Eastern Rockies 5.5 day road trip with son, Start in El Paso, end in Denver. Along the way, Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands NP, Great Sand Dune NP, maybe some Indian ruins around Taos/Santa Fe. Part of our ongoing study of decline of Pueblo/Anasazi civilization, with me interested in aforementioned big picture and son completely not.

Any must sees on that route please feel free to shoot me a message...

So with that said, there are concessions for him- waffle-maker hotels with like a 50% chance of open-in-winter indoor pools, gas station food, lots of snacks, channel surfing on TV.

And for the both of us, just a near constant of music playing in vehicle

Maybe the weather cooperates, maybe it does not. At some point hamburgers will be eaten, fried chicken too.

Eastern limits Rocks and Sand tour
 
4 night/ 5 day OP trip in 4 weeks. Swinging in the snow?

Humpies in August, 20 minutes away at local beach, a bit of combat fishing, parking can be tight, and the window is usually short.

Oregon and Montana on the radar but nothing confirmed. Montana (where we have gone) has been a bit shaky last two years with water flows/emergency closures. Trip canceled last year and the year before (23') we were lucky and able to make alternate plans on the spot. (Big Hole, Bitterroot, Beaverhead)....Looking at Rock Creek now. We'll see if we can make it a go in the fall of 25'.
 
I have been dreaming for weeks now! I have been making improvements to the Casa that will make it better suited for a weeks long road trip across Montana and into Wyoming with a visit to Islander along the way. Freestone and I will be camping in our rigs and looking for small streams that we can Tenkara fish along with the usual river fishing and if it looks promising I'll take a small trailer with a couple of inflatables for lake fishing.

Locally and semi-locally Krusty and I will hit all of the usual suspects and some new ones that we haven't visited before. We try to fish together every week and have our eye on some lakes that should fish exceptionally well this year. We will try some crappie fishing together at a location that has a good population of big crappie, beer battered fillets and buttermilk cornbread to follow!

In May the wife of one of my decades long engineering buddies is coming up for a few days of lake fishing. Having only fly fished streams before, she came up last year to learn to fish lakes. I gave her a new Super Fat Cat, some fins and a Chinook fishing PFD and turned her loose. She is a fast learner and did extremely well, out fishing me in a very difficult lake.

A spring trip to Crow Butte State Park is being organized with my long time friends from Vancouver. In addition to the usual barbeque and beer we will be fishing smallmouth and crappie. I have caught crappie over 16'' there that make some wonderful fillets.

Early season will find us on our favorite big fish lakes trying for the elusive 24'' rainbows. Krusty and I each got one in October last year and hope to do better this year. A trip to the North Fork Coeur D'Alene is likely and Freestone and I will be fishing our favorite 'secret' mountain creek. Fall is too far out to plan for just now but a trip to the NF Flathead during fall colors might be nice and it's not too far. I did quite well there last year.

Camping should be better than ever this year with improvements to the Casa. It now has 2500W of power, 240W of solar, a DC to DC charger, all running an induction plate, a new small air fryer, a compressor refrigerator, an electric blanket, a new single slice toaster, an electric tea kettle, etc,etc. It was very comfortable on a 14 day trip last year, I'm hoping for even better now. Now in my 74th year of owning a fly rod it never gets old. But I sure as hell do!
 
iveofione said:
I have been dreaming for weeks now! I have been making improvements to the Casa that will make it better suited for a weeks long road trip across Montana and into Wyoming with a visit to Islander along the way. Freestone and I will be camping in our rigs and looking for small streams that we can Tenkara fish along with the usual river fishing and if it looks promising I'll take a small trailer with a couple of inflatables for lake fishing.

Locally and semi-locally Krusty and I will hit all of the usual suspects and some new ones that we haven't visited before. We try to fish together every week and have our eye on some lakes that should fish exceptionally well this year. We will try some crappie fishing together at a location that has a good population of big crappie, beer battered fillets and buttermilk cornbread to follow!

In May the wife of one of my decades long engineering buddies is coming up for a few days of lake fishing. Having only fly fished streams before, she came up last year to learn to fish lakes. I gave her a new Super Fat Cat, some fins and a Chinook fishing PFD and turned her loose. She is a fast learner and did extremely well, out fishing me in a very difficult lake.

A spring trip to Crow Butte State Park is being organized with my long time friends from Vancouver. In addition to the usual barbeque and beer we will be fishing smallmouth and crappie. I have caught crappie over 16'' there that make some wonderful fillets.

Early season will find us on our favorite big fish lakes trying for the elusive 24'' rainbows. Krusty and I each got one in October last year and hope to do better this year. A trip to the North Fork Coeur D'Alene is likely and Freestone and I will be fishing our favorite 'secret' mountain creek. Fall is too far out to plan for just now but a trip to the NF Flathead during fall colors might be nice and it's not too far. I did quite well there last year.

Camping should be better than ever this year with improvements to the Casa. It now has 2500W of power, 240W of solar, a DC to DC charger, all running an induction plate, a new small air fryer, a compressor refrigerator, an electric blanket, a new single slice toaster, an electric tea kettle, etc,etc. It was very comfortable on a 14 day trip last year, I'm hoping for even better now. Now in my 74th year of owning a fly rod it never gets old. But I sure as hell do!
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as our resident Old Man, long may you run!
 
Wadin' Boot said:
Winter South Eastern Rockies 5.5 day road trip with son, Start in El Paso, end in Denver. Along the way, Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands NP, Great Sand Dune NP, maybe some Indian ruins around Taos/Santa Fe. Part of our ongoing study of decline of Pueblo/Anasazi civilization, with me interested in aforementioned big picture and son completely not.

Any must sees on that route please feel free to shoot me a message...

So with that said, there are concessions for him- waffle-maker hotels with like a 50% chance of open-in-winter indoor pools, gas station food, lots of snacks, channel surfing on TV.

And for the both of us, just a near constant of music playing in vehicle

Maybe the weather cooperates, maybe it does not. At some point hamburgers will be eaten, fried chicken too.

Eastern limits Rocks and Sand tour
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Sounds like a fun trip! Long ago I did a mid-March road trip through Taos, 4 Corners, Mesa Verde, Black Canyon, San Juans. Very interesting archeology along the route with fantastic scenery. Unfortunately we got hit with nasty blizzards once we crossed into New Mexico, but the sun always returns when it blows past. Winter lasts through April in that part of the country.
 
With multiple major projects on the property, I'm trying not to plan too much.

Already have 3 tuna trips booked. Hoping for a repeat of late August, early Sept rain which means bright hatchery chinook in a local trib. Usual late Sept, early Oct rain means lots of dark fish. Tons of fun but nothing I'd load the smoker with. Coho a few weeks later in the same trib are always a priority. Other than that I need to start exploring this.

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