Somewhere around the middle of December I lost steam on a “2011: The Year In Pictures” post, the problems being I didn’t have any time, and once I did, I realized I had damn few good pictures from 2011 (in the image department, it was nowhere near as good as 2009).

Still, perspective adds a layer of meaning to even mediocre photographs, so I plowed ahead, and this is what I got.

The Year’s Real Story

For us, 2011 revolved around the record snowpack, which topped out at 170% of normal, and was bolstered by a lot of late snow:

Late snows pushed the snowpack to record levels

The winter fly fishing wasn’t stellar, though it seemed to hang on far into spring; temperatures in “spring” were about 15 degrees cooler than normal, so despite all the snow, we never had a giant runoff event. Instead, the water was just… high. For a very long time. In fact, everything was a good month behind “normal.”

The snow -- and cold spring -- were the stories in 2011.

It's high, so instead of catching trout, we got all arty and pretentious...

Still, I found time in the fall to catch a few fish...

The Small Stream Thang

The last couple years have been all about small streams; I often found myself driving past closer, bigger trout in search of a more distant, smaller trout, and in truth I can’t wholly explain the attraction.

Neither am I ready to stop:

Wayne Eng on a high -- but fishable -- small stream.

A new stream for both me and Older Bro -- that was cold and over its banks. I'll be back...

The point of the whole exercise...

Wayne Eng (about to hook a brown trout)

Do I feel like a putz, or what?

To a fly fisherman, this suggests a good day ahead...

The beauty of Humpies is the more they're eaten, the better they get...

Older Bro on one of his favorite Brookie streams

Hey, that's me! (A rare Underground sighting)

The last small stream trout of the year...

Wayne Eng in the spring

Mosquitoes are not our friends...

Wally the Wonderdog on a hot day; he keeps wandering right into my fishable water.

They're so much prettier than they have to be...

A late fall trip to a new (to me) small stream.

The Maine Thang

We made it Maine again in the summer of 2011; the place has a solid, built-to-last permanence about I simply haven’t seen out west, and there are times you can catch a smallmouth bass every cast,

We pulled up on this island, and started catching a bass every cast...

We got over 1.5 inches of rain in just the morning...

The Grand Lake Canoes are still gorgeous.

A West Grand Lake sunset.

Industry People, Places & Gear

The Orvis folks proved they had a sense of humor after I made sport of them in a blog post:

Orvis poked fun at me after I made sport of their blog...

Later, I crafted a revolutionary new IFTD show format that would allow manufacturers to sell their gear via the power of interpretive dance, but the industry — inexplicably — failed to listen. They’re the poorer for it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It was also The Year Of The Interview: I neatly questioned a couple writers and a photographer, including John Gierach, falconer Rebecca O’Connor, biologist Anders Halverson, and even uber-fly-fishing photographer Val Atkinson.

Falconer Rebecca O'Connor

I interviewed Val Atkinson for CalTrout.

I even revealed a Forbidden Love:

The Ultimate Fly Fishing Snack Food

And also dealt with a bear who tried to peel up my garage door (and was largely successful):

This guy was way too close to the house...

Let’s Hope For More in 2012

I admit to shooting far fewer pictures on my 2011 trips than in prior years — a symptom of someone who wasn’t fishing enough, and didn’t want to give up as much of his fishing time to taking pictures.

Of course, there’s a pretty good reason I didn’t fish as much:

“”

2012 is going to be interesting; we’re making two round trips to Ethiopia, and once M2 (my clever code name for Little M’s little sister) comes home, I suspect fishing time will be hard to come by.

It’s what it is, though I have uncovered some interesting small streams not all that far from home, and there’s still hope for a quick escape to another state.

I think every new year comes with a healthy set of expectations, most of which are just waiting to be dashed by weather, sickness, work and other surprises.

Still, I hope to see you on the river in 2012, Tom Chandler.