There’s no candy left, or at least none without fingerprints, and you sucked down the Egg Nog without thought to waistline or ill effects.

You didn’t get the Sage switch rod you were hoping for, nor does it look like it’ll be in your future any time soon.

For most of us, 2010 appeared to be the culmination of all  maladies started in 2008. It’s still early to give an “all clear” that we’re out of the fiscal morass of the last couple of years, but that combined with one of the wettest years in memory, resulted in damn little fishing and a great deal more handwringing for all of us.

The Wall Street crowd was tiptoeing quietly hoping no one would notice now that the public’s wrath has moved from bonuses to fat civil servants and pension benefits as the root of the entire debacle. For the first time in decades lawyers weren’t the butt of insensitive jokes, what with Big Business and political partisanship ensuring nothing was done quickly other than worse decisions, and the legal community careful to stay out of the camera lens so the bankers, state workers, and hedge fund managers could dance alone…

On paper 2011 seems like more of the same. Predictions for a wetter than average Winter could make the fishing this year poor for us fishermen but a welcome respite for the fish. It may be unwelcome news today as it’ll make a lot of fish untouchable for most of the year, but should pay large returns in the future due to water enough to ensure successful spawn, yet limit our access and less fishing pressure.

Resolutions being a dime a dozen, and with little interest in holy oaths that lack real resolve, I’ll make no great plans for fishing, and be content with finding some rarified topic and learning it, trying some new cast and mastering it, and to hell with slimmer, nicer, more social, or heightened awareness of personal hygiene.

That I’ll leave to those that have inadequate water and too much money, which at last count was paltry few …

Welcome to 2011, emerge a better fisherman.