Dang! I feel like I've been lacking on the stats for 2023 with all these sick breakdowns. I finally broke the 100 species mark on my life list in California, the more notable additions from 2023 (or at least the ones I remember) include salty stripers, a butterfly ray, blue shark, SoCal anadromous steelhead, and some proper native trout from the sierras. Ended up spending as much time catching snakes and reading about herpetology as I did fishing. It was a bit of a change of pace from previous years, but I'm happy to report that I've added 25 native species to my snake life list (out of about 40 native to CA) and 35 total between California, Montana, and Minnesota. It's well below freezing at school right now, so I've got plenty of motivation to get back and add some more this spring! I also fell short on the LBSF side of things, had some epic multi-fish thresher days on the kayak but the 7 gills are calling, it's been too long. I'd also like to finally get my legal WSB from the surf or yak, bastards been eluding me for far too long, 2023 was the year of endless shorts and almosts for me. I'm hoping 2024 will be more fruitful.
