Importance of a fishing log

[FishnDave]

I enjoy keeping my yearly Fishing Logs. I like your idea about using Google Documents that are accessible from any computer. I may have to look into that. I've been using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, starting in mid-2005. Before that I used a hand-written "Diary" type log book.
I like the Excel spreadsheets, because I can insert all my fishing pictures in the entries as "comments". This means you don't see the picture until you run your cursor over one of the cells that has a red triangle in the upper right corner, like in the screen shot below:


I started tallying up various metrics from my 2011 Fishing Log.
My overall "feeling" was that 2011 was a fairly mediocre year. But in reviewing my log, I would have to say it was really pretty good.

Here's a few items of interest (to me):
-I made 150 fishing trips (in 126 days...meaning I may have visited more than one body of water on certain days).
-Fished at total of 270.65 hours
-I caught 2107 fish.
-I caught 19 Freshwater Species, and 17 of those species were caught on fly-fishing gear (the only species NOT caught on fly gear this year were Freshwater Drum and Yellow Bass)
-79+% of my fishing trips were Fly-Fishing trips.
-My top 3 months for catching fish (quantity-wise) were May, June & October (in that order). I caught over 300 fish in each of those months.
-I caught over 100 each of 7 species. In order from most to least of those: Bluegills, Crappies, "Sunfish" (lumped Hybrid Sunfish and Green Sunfish together), Walleye, Largemouth Bass, and a tie between Rainbow Trout and White Bass (ARE YOU KIDDING????...this is IOWA!)
-This was my 2nd WORST year ever for White Bass. 2009 was my worst year for those.
-Each of the last 2 years I caught more crappies than bluegills, but that trend did not continue this year.
-I fished 23 different waters this year (22 in Iowa).
-I added 6 new species to my "fly rod life-list", including Walleye, N. Pike, Y. Perch, Brown Trout, Brook Trout, and Redear Sunfish.
-I fished with at least 18 other anglers throughout the year.
-I got new "Fly Rod Personal Bests" for 10 species in 2011.

All that said...Pillcaster..what does your "Pine Squirrel Crayfish" look like?