I do.

Numbers have always been a part of my life - from the time my aunt took the time to write down simple math problems for me as a young child, through my formal education where math was always my highest aptitude and favorite subject, through my professional life where dealing with numbers as in budgets and workloads and production was a constant, through my retirement years where getting by on a modest income necessitates a sense of economy and thrift.

It carries over into all of my activities, just because it is a part of who I am.

So when I fish, I count. It is real easy when I get skunked. I can usually remember pretty accurately the first five or ten or fifteen fish on a given outing. The higher the number of fish caught, the less accurate my estimate.

I keep a log of all my fishing outings. When I enter the number of fish caught, it is the low end of the guestimated number of fish caught that day. I include the species caught with a comment about which was more prevalent that day, and the size of the fish caught, noting the average size and the largest.

That is just part of who I am. It does serve as a ready reference when I am thinking about where I will fish today or tomorrow, or when someone asks about my experience on a given piece of water.

When someone asks about one of my days out, or about a particular place, I describe my experience in terms of species, number of fish, average size of fish, and largest fish caught. I don't do it to boast, or be elitist, or be competitive - I do it because that is just part of who I am.

When someone asks me about fishing a given stream or a particular section of a river, I like to describe it in specific / objective terms rather than subjective terms. What is a "good" day fishing for one person may not be a "good" day for another. The information that you have a chance to catch certain species, how many and how big, if that is important to you, is more helpful, I think - especially when talking about places that sometimes entail a full day for the outing, driving a hundred or two hundred or more miles, etc.

Some times people have a negative reaction to my describing my experiences that way. Most people who get to know me better, know it is just part of who I am, and that I am trying to be helpful in my own way.

They also know I don't care if the number of fish caught on a given day is 0 or 100 or if the size is 6" or 16" or 26". They know that if it isn't a beautiful and mostly likely a remote place, I won't fish there, and they get tired of telling me about the places where you can catch large numbers of big fish because they know I don't like the look or feel of the place.

Just thought I would speak up for those of us who count, to give another perspective about something that some people might interpret as boasting, elitism, or competitiveness.

John