Welcome to the my annual end-of-the-year review. 

It's been another active year here at WashingtonLakes.com. Thanks to the readers we once again set new records in both reports posted (1371) and readership numbers. The number of visits to this site grew from last year's 358,607 to this year's estimated 457,992 . Our total readership numbers since I began keeping track broke through 1,000,000 visits! I am thankful to the anglers that are logging in and making this site as popular as it is. 

I added a few new things this year. We added two new regular writers to our web site. David Graybill AKA "The Fishin' Magician" has been contributing monthly articles to the site. If you haven't clicked into his articles you don't know what you're missing. The man is a wealth of information. Also joining us is "The Frugal Flyfisherman", Mike Wilson. Mike is sharing articles on flyfishing done frugally, something we can all benefit from. We also say goodbye to James Cummings, our author of "From the Desk of the Troutfisherman". James decided to focus more on his first love, photography. Thanks Jim and I look forward to posting your great pictures on the site!

 The front page has been graced this year by dozens of pictures submitted from readers. I hope you've enjoyed viewing these front page pictures as much as I have. It's great to be able to give readers their "five minutes of fame". I wish I could post everyone's pictures on the front page. If you've visited the photo gallery you've seen a lot of great catches this year.

The Alpine Lake section received an overhaul at the end of the year. It's gotten too big for one page so I broke it into it's own counties. I also have been working on adding a number of topo maps for Alpine lakes to the site. You can expect to see many more in the coming months. These maps and articles are from old WDFW surveys and are truly historical gems. It's great to be able to make them available to anglers online. Thanks to Stacie Kelsey for sending them to me. Finally, when you visit the Alpine Lakes section I hope you'll read John Kruse's article on Alpine Lake Fishing. Nice job, John!

You may have noticed this year the addition of front page banner advertising. Because of the growth of this web site, the costs to maintain it have grown immensely from even two years ago. Fortunately I have been able to find several sponsors willing to advertise on the site and also willing to give items away in various contests we've run again this year. I really enjoy giving away fishing gear as another way of saying "thanks" to everyone that contribute so freely to this site. I hope you'll show your further support to WL.com by patronizing our sponsors. Without them the cost of running this web page would become excessive. I don't mind the time I put into the site but I can't afford the cost! So thank you sponsors for helping us out. 

I know that there are dozens of readers who have contributed extra articles, pictures, and other information to this site. More than I can single out without forgetting or missing someone. So let me just give a thank you to those of you who have stepped forward and done more than just read the site or send in an occasional report. Your support of WL.com is valued beyond words.

To sum things up, it's been another busy and productive year. The site continues to grow. Reports, the primary reason for this site, keep going up. I'm having a lot of fun running WashingtonLakes.com and I hope you're having fun visiting and that you're getting something out of it. I once again look forward to the new year as we share with each other our passion for fishing. It's still exciting to come home at the end of my workday and see what new reports, pictures, and other goodies Washington anglers have sent in to share with each other. Keep it up! I remain your faithful webmaster.

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

Thanks Mike for a great site! I know that I have benefitted this last year from the many reports and from the forum. Your hard work is appreciated!!

I just got into fishing two years or so ago. I learned more on this site then anywhere else. I went from staying out all day with nothing, to bringing home my limit almost every time from the lake down the road.

Thanks Mike for letting us use this forum, I really appreciate all the work you do with it.

Mike,

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!!

Thanx Mike! Does this mean that you'll get a larger booth at the Sportsman Show?? jk. Always enjoyed your site and have gotten a wealth of info and it doesn't matter if a person had been fishin for 3 or 30 years, something new to learn and more. We even get some drama here with Carls boat and all, better than a novel or the tube without the sex and violence.

Robert

Thank you All.

I will be at TWO shows this year - Feb in Yakima and also the show in Seattle (I think thats March). I may also hang around Anton Jone's booth (Darrell and Dads Guide Service) in Puyallup if he can put up with me.
And yes, you will have a chance to buy the WL.com license plate frame for the unbelievably LOW LOW PRICE of $2! Show your pride, stop advertising for that dealership that tried to make you pay too much for your truck (but you beat them anyway, right?).

Hey Mike!

As I mentioned before - Thanks for continuing to produce this labor of love (which means that alot of us love it)!

You'll be happy to know that my wife purchased not one........but two, that's right, two.....of your fine license plate frames as a Christmas present that will be gracing our cars in the very near future!

I'll be looking forward to seeing you again at the Sportsman's Show!

John Kruse

Merry Christmas John!