Outdoors with Don Q: Some personal resolutions for 2014

Happy New Year. This is the first day of January and this is also a good time for all of us (including me) to make some personal resolutions for the year 2014.

Most importantly, remember that if you do make any resolutions, be sure to follow through with what you resolve to do in this new year. Resolutions are easy to make, but sometimes hard to accomplish.
I have a number of things I would like to accomplish this year, so without any further ado, here are my 2014 resolutions:

I RESOLVE TO:
Catch a fish larger than Elaine's:
Whenever and wherever we go fishing, Elaine consistently outfishes me, especially in Alaska where she has caught some really big fish.
Through the years, she has outfished me at all kinds of locations such as Pyramid Lake in Nevada, Davis and Frog Lakes and Kinney Reservoir in California, Finlayson Creek in the Yukon, Sitka Alaska (three times), Lake Tahoe (four straight times), and even Walker Lake in the old days.
I am beginning to get an inferiority complex, plus it doesn’t help that my other fishing partners slyly remind me of being outfished by my wife.

Catch a Lahontan Cutthroat Trout that weighs 10+ pounds:
Pyramid Lake, 30 miles north of Reno-Sparks, is currently producing some very impressive Cutthroats that are up into the 15-20+ pound class.
When we fish there, Elaine and I spincast with various lures while standing waist deep in the chilly water in our chest waders.
I would love to catch and release a double digit (10+ pound Cutthroat) on my 6-pound test fishing line, while standing in the water in my waders! It would be a tussle to long remember, with all the accompanying photos.

Eat Ravioli at Bruno's Restaurant in Gerlach:
The tiny Town of Gerlach is located at the edge of the Black Rock Desert, about 100 miles north of Reno, and it has been made world-famous by the nearby, annual Burning Man Celebration. It is also the location of Bruno's Restaurant which features giant-sized, homemade raviolis, made daily.
A dinner of those tasty ravioli with meat sauce, together with French bread and a glass of red wine, followed by staying overnight in Bruno's nearby motel is well worth the long drive from Carson City.

Make more homemade horseradish:
Last fall, we were invited to help make homemade horseradish from roots dug up from Chuck and Barbara Van Hise's garden, here in Carson City.
We cleaned and diced the roots, put them in a blender with vinegar, sour cream and salt, and stood back from the fumes emanating from that blender.
That unholy mixture made all of us cry, it would take the paint off the walls of your home, but it is awesome (in moderation) with a Prime Rib dinner.
You just have to remember to use a tiny bit or you're going to cry again.

Photograph wildlife in the general area of our cabin:
The cabin is located on a steep hillside near Davis Lake, Calif. and that general area contains a variety of wildlife, including black bear, bobcats, coyotes, mountain lion, mule deer, raccoons and even wild turkeys.
We have photographed bear, coyotes, deer, raccoons and turkeys, but would like to be able to get photos of the elusive bobcats and mountain lions.
Our all-time favorite photo op (to date) is the doe deer with her triplet fawns that were frequent summer-long visitors to the cabin, several years ago.

Return to fish at Valdez, Alaska:
Elaine and I plan to return to Valdez this year to fish for salmon and halibut, together with our good friends Barry and Susan Drury of Watson Lake. Our vacation trip there, several years ago, was a "Ton of Fun."
We flew from Reno to Anchorage and then drove a rental car to Valdez, while the Drury's drove there in their camper pickup.
This time, I plan to out-fish everyone else for the sheer joy of doing so. And, of course, Elaine will need to take photos of my accomplishments.

Troll from my raft at Winnemucca Lake:
That large, crystal-clear, high altitude lake (9,000') is an easy two-mile hike from the top of Kit Carson Pass on California S.R. 88.
Winnemucca contains very nice-sized Eastern Brook and Kamloop Trout.
Fishing is usually slow from shore, but very good when you fish from either a float tube or a raft in the area between the islands and the back shoreline.
The last six times that I backpacked my small two-man inflatable raft into Winnemucca, the wind has been blowing so hard that we could not use it.

Visit the Ely, Nevada area:
We try to make an annual pilgrimage to Ely in northeastern Nevada and its nearby Great Basin National Park each May.

That trip includes: Staying at the Bristlecone Motel in Ely; fishing at Illipah Reservoir (Rainbow Trout), Cumins Lake (Northern Pike), Cave Lake (Brown Trout) and Steptoe Creek (Brook Trout); driving to the end of the road at 10,000+ feet at the Park to take photos of Mt. Wheeler (the second highest peak in Nevada), and taking the underground tour of Lehman Caves.

Finally:
Why not make one or more of your own resolutions and then just be sure to follow through with them for 2014.
Good Luck and Happy New Year!

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon which of the above resolutions will be the hardest to achieve in 2014.
If he grins and says, “Heck, that’s easy – Don will have a hard time trying to outfish Elaine,” he could be one of our regular fishing partners.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com