Shortest day of the year behind us, we can start to dream about summer fishing

I celebrate each year when the shortest day passes, which means from that point on every fishing day gets longer! You do what you gotta do.

I’ve written about this personal phenomenon in the past, but realizing once again that Dec 21 has passed, I can take a deep breathe and congratulate myself on surviving another dark chapter of the fishing year. My disdain for winter is not so much because of the cold (but being a Florida native certainly started me on that path). Worse is the thought that it’s dark so darn early. Just about the time I get my fishing pattern figured out, the sun is setting.

On the other hand I love it when it’s late afternoon – like 4 p.m. – and there is still almost four hours left to fish. Hello, summer! It’s like having two whole fishing days in one trip. Longer days mean more casts and a better chance of landing more fish in most cases for me.

Knowing that every day from Dec. 21 gains a minute on each sunset is a very little change in reality but a mentally important improvement in my overall fishing world. Gaining back a half-hour of fishing time by late January really gets me rolling for the coming spring.

Yes, I hate the fall-back time change, too! But I love my spring-forward adjustment. I feel like I can breathe again.

Like a lot of us, I’m a creature of habit and most of my best early outdoor experiences and memories took place on warmer , longer summer days. That picture is my “happy place.” I’m certainly not a candidate for moving to Minnesota.

My last highly prejudiced point is that I’ve always felt that when you finally get to longer, warmer days, there is always some part of the day that’s nice – the cooling evening period in the summer, for instance. In my world there isn’t any time during freezing cold weather when it’s nice outside.

We gained nearly a minute today and I can feel that the overall fishing “Gestalt” is improving. No doubt I’m definitely “winter challenged.” For some reason the “voices” are, too!

Cold … but not giving up!

Merry Christmas!

This story was originally published December 24, 2019 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Shortest day of the year behind us, we can start to dream about summer fishing."