I can’t believe the year is almost drawing to a close. 2009 has flown by in double quick time and I guess for many anglers it will be a year that will pass with little feeling of loss.

Looking back the weather was, for the most part, truly awful in many regions being consistently wet and windy, and especially windy pretty much from April on with just the odd short period of better weather. Looking back through my diaries, which go back some 40-years, it’s my worst year ever for lost boat trips. I managed less than one in four that I had scheduled which are pretty poor odds!

My shore fishing was also hit, again frequently by bad weather, but also by limited free time, though the latter was my choice so carries no reflection. I know many of you have also suffered a year with fewer trips and had to contend with awful conditions when trying to wet a line.

On the plus side it’s been a good year for species with many anglers achieving 30 plus and even 40 plus for the first time. Some lads have done even better. I only fished 30 odd times over the year but still managed 41 species! I think the high species count also reflects the large numbers of anglers that choose to fish for species now rather than fish matches as was the case a decade or more ago. Friends who match fish regularly tell me general match fishing is rapidly declining to minimum numbers and fear long term it will virtually disappear, save for the big money, high entry fee opens, taking the smaller angling clubs still left with it.

What has also been encouraging are the increased numbers of sizeable cod being caught from some areas, and better still the huge numbers of juvenile codling present this past year. Whether these get the chance to return as adult fish in good numbers next year is in the lap of the Gods, but at no time in the past decade have we enjoyed such good overall numbers of cod, so things are looking up.

It’s also interesting to see a shift for the better in commercial fishing politics with intentions to reduce discards of juvenile fish likely to be introduced, adjust quotas more logically, protect endangered species, and vitally important to police commercial fishing better. It seems as a nation, and as a European community people in power are beginning to realise you cannot just take, take and take some more without thoughtful management!

I guess we’ll all be looking back on our own personal highlights of 2009 too. My own are pretty meagre this year with so few trips possible, but I was well chuffed managing to add three new species to my all time tally. First off was a 3-spined stickleback back in June, and I also caught my first ever tommy ruffe in October. The main highlight was a short trip for golden grey mullet down to Llangennith in South Wales with my old mate Colin Albert from Cardiff. We were both flat out with work through the summer but had put a day in our diaries some three months before and for once it came off and we caught GG’s to over 2lbs on ultra light tackle. I’m now just 3 species away from 100 caught in the UK and Ireland.

I also enjoyed a great week in Cobh, Co Cork in August fishing for bass on lures, also catching some good mullet, blonde ray and conger, plus witnessed another old mate, Mike Hennessey from Kenmare, catch a superb 11lb specimen bass on a plug and a 13lb plus small-eyed ray, again an Irish specimen, both within a couple of days.

So what of 2010? A new decade brings new hopes, dreams and aspirations. Me, my main aim is to get back to fishing twice a week, every week. My main target will be to try and get those remaining three species for my 100, then I’m going back to specimen hunting which will almost bring me full circle. I keep promising myself I’ll do more saltwater fly fishing too. My first big trip of the year will be in late February when I’m heading up for a couple of days fishing out of Oban with Ronnie Campbell for common skate, but I’ll also have one eye on dinking out a black-mouthed dogfish which would get me one of my three remaining species, so fingers crossed on that one.

My final blog of 2009 though is mainly to thank some very important people. Firstly to everyone who contributes to WSF, be it via the forum boards, the features pages or the shop. Its become quite a family now and everywhere I go I get people coming up to me for a chat who are members or visit the site to find out what’s happening, plus I see loads of anglers proudly wearing their WSF shirts, hats and with stickers on the tackle boxes on both shore and boat. I’ve had some great conversations with so many of you and I realise just how much a part of people’s lives it’s become. I know there are occasionally problems with different opinions voiced that get way out of control, but generally speaking 99% of people gain massively from the content and contributions of everyone and that was always the main aim of the site.

I’d also like to say a massive thanks as always to the WSF moderators. They do a terrific job and don’t always get due respect from some of the people they try to defend, protect, help and advise, but they make a massive contribution to WSF and it’s very much appreciated! Thank you!

And I think everyone would chip in and pay special thanks to Mike Jr. He’s been incredibly busy with WSF this year and again his own fishing time has been virtually non-existent as a consequence. The time he puts in, and more often time late in to the night, sorting problems and making sure everything is running smoothly is immeasurable. Without him there would be no WSF!

My last paragraph is to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, my best wishes to each and everyone of you for the New Year, and of course to anglers across the world as always “Tightlines!”