by Mike Carey, December 31, 2001

The Year in Review - 2001



Here we are, another year gone and staring at the new one. My yearly tradition of taking a look at how things went on WashingtonLakes.com is here.

As always, I must begin by thanking the many readers who have taken the time to submit reports, pictures, stories and other useful information that has made this site one of the best for lake fishing information here in Washington. You readers make this site what it is. Without your support it would be a waste of my time. I'm grateful to everyone that contributes and even to those that just log on to read.

Speaking of reading we are once again setting new records for both monthly visitors and reports posted. We are going to end up around 320,000 visits for 2001, compared to 294,000 last year. Reports increased from 976 to 1165. Wow!

I added a few things again this year. The most notable was moving the Reader's Forum from Bravenet to Piscatorial Pursuits. Although we lost some posters we gained in having a better quality Forum and pretty much eliminated trash talking, vulgar posts, and other garbage that was taking up time better spent on improving the site. I was particularly pleased to become closer affiliated with Bob Ball. Bob is very dedicated to maintaining a quality site and I am honored that he thought enough of WashingtonLakes.com to become closely linked. I added several new sections. Fishing Tips allows readers to share favorite techniques with one another. A recipes section was added to give some ideas on how to cook up all those fish you learned how to catch. A Warm Water Fish section and Washington Fish Species section were added at readers requests. But the most exciting (to me anyway) section added was started up in October. I'm referring to the Salt Water Reports section. For those that know me, you know I enjoy all types of fishing. For years NWFishing.com was handling saltwater and river reports. This year, the site was being updated less frequently until finally a notice was posted that the site was not being updated anymore. Well, I need my saltwater reports! So I figured "why not do it myself?". The only problem is maybe I'll have to change the WashingtonLakes.com name. As readers become aware of the saltwater section I expect to post many more reports. I look forward to providing readers with a place to submit and view timely saltwater reports as well as lake reports. I have also had some readers request that I add river reports. At this time I have no plans to do so. Bob Ball has a good river report section and an active river forum so I'll leave that area of NW fishing to him. Finally, as 2001 came to an end I was contacted by James Cummings, an outdoor writer. He will be posting regular stories "From the desk of the Troutfisherman". So welcome James and I look forward to your stories and articles.

To sum things up, it's been a busy and productive year. The site has grown in several positive directions. I'm confident that I'm providing the kind of site readers want as indicated by the increase in readership and reports coming in. I'm looking forward to 2002. I think it will be a great year for fishing and I'm pumped to see your reports and stories come in. I encourage you to send me comments on ways to make the site more valuable to you. I can't promise I'll always be able to make the changes you suggest but I will keep them in mind.

Thank you all for being a part of WashingtonLakes.com!

Mike

P.S. How could I forget the Lake Cavanaugh Cleanup we did this spring? Thanks to my fellow garbage collectors! We have a lot of power when we come together for a purpose. My hope is to have some type of group event in 2002 as well.