Are You Ready for 2025 Fishing Travel?
Because we are incessant planners, the Robbins crew has already filled out our calendar for 2025 (and, in some cases, 2026), leaving a little room for new opportunities to pop up. Nevertheless, there are always little travel-related issues that crop up and create mini-crises each year.
We try to minimize the number and severity of those problems with a decent amount of pre-planning. Here are a dozen tasks you can undertake in the coming weeks to make your travel as seamless as possible.
Real ID – As of May 7, 2025, your ID will need to be Real ID compliant to board domestic flights and access certain federal facilities. Typically it’s your driver’s license – you’ll see a star in the upper right corner.
Passport – Last summer’s passport delays made clear that renewal will sometimes be slower than expected. Check the expiration date on yours today and start the process if it’ll be coming up for renewal soon.
Frequent Flyer Plans – Sit down on a rainy or snowy day and sign up for all of the frequent flyer programs that you might possibly use. Save your logins and passwords somewhere safe.
Credit Cards – Figure out if your particular lifestyle and spending habits justify adding a premium credit card, or at least one tied to a mileage program. If so, figure out which one is best for you and your future travel.
Tackle Needs – Assess where you’ll be traveling in the coming year and start making a list of the tackle you’ll need (clothing and luggage, too) and then wait for sales to stockpile everything.
Back to the Gym – If you let your physical fitness slide, or never got it started in the first place, get going asap. General fitness is a fine goal, but if you’ll be hiking across the Alaskan tundra or fighting 250-pound yellowfin tuna on standup gear, tailor your workouts to those needs.
Save $$$ -- Resolve to spend your money wisely, and if you’re taking a trip or two that’ll stretch the budget, find a way to save the money up front. It’ll make the whole experience more enjoyable if you’re not pinching pennies on gear or worrying about finances while you’re on a bucket list trip.
New Travelers – Think about taking someone new – either a non-angler or a non-traveler – on one of your trips. Figure out the one that’ll fit them best (not just one where you need a partner). One of the highlights of 2024 was hosting my brother and his friends in Guatemala in November.
New Location – To keep your own fishing fresh, think about going somewhere altogether new. Ideally it’ll be for a new species. If your budget, schedule or mindset limits you to going back to the “same old places,” consider going at a different time of year to keep the experience fresh.
Foreign Language Skills – Work on being a better communicator on foreign travel. I’ve let whatever Spanish I once knew dwindle substantially. I feel like I’d catch more fish, travel more easily, and have an overall better time if I could communicate with people in their native language.
Annual Leave – Anyone who’s read my writing knows that one of my passions is maximizing my time off from work – building trips around holidays or other days off whenever possible. If your work or family obligations limit when you can go places and how much time off you get, look at the calendar to optimize your trips and get the most bang for your buck.
Lesser Footprint – Overall, I want to be a less negatively impactful traveler, keeping the fisheries I love sustainable and beautiful. We are fortunate to often fish with people who’ve lived their whole life on the waters we visit only occasionally, and we owe them a hefty amount of respect.
