Crowdsourcing: Predicting a Fly Fishing Theme for 2013

Last year, I said that 2012 would be "The Year of the Carp."  That was meant to be more of a personal New Year's resolution than a fishy twist on the Chinese New Year tradition.

Indeed, this was a carp-filled year for me. I visited a number of destination hotspots with the unique bent of chasing trash fish. For example, I went to Idaho's Snake River to fish for carp instead of trout. I went to San Diego to hang out with my buddy Conway Bowman, but we didn't chase mako sharks. We went carp fishing. I went to Michigan and caught carp... but I also caught pike, panfish and trout because you can always fish for just about anything in Michigan.

I think in a broader context, the fly-fishing world did indeed place more collective attention on carp fishing last year than in the recent past. I expect that to continue next year too.

But I wonder if we were to predict a "theme" for fly fishing in 2013, what would it be? I said in last year's post that 2013 would be "The Year of the Bonefish," but truthfully, that's only because I wanted to go to the Bahamas. I think next year is more in line to be The Year of the Brown Trout for me.

I could easily see the fish pictured above (can you guess what it is?) being the theme for 2013. Then again, smart fly anglers have already been all over this species for decades. It may, in fact, be the most worthy all-around target for fly anglers.

I keep hoping that some year soon will be the "Year of the Female Angler" or the "Year of the Child Angler," but I don't know if I've seen enough collective resolve from within the industry yet to make that claim.  There are definitely reasons for optimism though.

How about the Year of Bamboo, or the Year of Tenkara? I bet clinchfu is all about the latter.

Maybe next year will be the Year of the Salmon. It would be nice if the Pebble Mine project finally got iced in favor of Bristol Bay's wild salmon.  And there is reason for optimism in places like California and Maine that native Pacific and Atlantic salmon populations could start rebounding.

The Year of the Streamer? The Year of the Redfish? The Year of the Spey Rod?

I can't make the call myself. You chime in, and we'll decide by committee. Click here to tell us what you think.