Dear 2021, I sincerely hope a season like you never comes around again in the future. You gave me headache, heartache, anger and frustration. The bad days of fishing outnumbered the good. I should never come home from the lake feeling lost and helpless. There aren't too many positives right now. First ice is now happening on smaller ponds and lakes. Winter sucks. The one positive, I don't have to fish anywhere again until April. My year ended on October 31st. Cheers to 2021 and your own winterizations. This last installment of 2021 is a belated report from late October, and a year-end summary. Since my last report and newsletter from second week of October, smallmouth were still in pre-turnover. Now, they are all wintering. This fall, I bass fished more than muskie fished. I come from the philosophy of taking what the weather and conditions are giving you. With the warm water temps, and very slow turnover, everything was favoring smallmouth more than muskies. This was the first autumn of my life I didn't catch a single muskie on live suckers. I made the right decision, as smallmouth were very reliable in October. I'm glad we did a few more bass trips