Accurate fishing 'journals'...

[Buddy Sanders]

I started thinking about this seeing the 'fish counter' thread....

I know some fishermen keep journals....but wouldn't it be a fantastic resource to be able to read an 'accurate' journal compiled after several years on a particular lake/river/stream? Especially from someone who took the time to carefully document things like water levels/flows, weather, hatches, plus what actually worked on the fish that were caught.

If the compiler fished often over the course of the seasons, then you'd have a pretty valuable tool to help decide what to fish, where to fish, and how to fish.

My own attempts at such things were years ago and for a different genre of fishing....

Be neat if those that had such a thing would think about sharing it....but it's hard won information, and maybe most would prefer to keep it close.

Buddy

[Eric D]

"Be neat if those that had such a thing would think about sharing it....but it's hard won information, and maybe most would prefer to keep it close."

Basically that's how I feel. I write in my journal to record my experiences and things I reflect on while in the field. It isn't really for anyone elses eyes.

[Clay]

This is my third season of keeping a fishing journal. It's tough work to make the entries when the day is done, it's all about the discipline to make it happen EVERY TIME.

My camera helps immensly since with the new digitals they are small and pack along easily but with each shot you can look at the properties and see exactly when the shot was taken.

Last year I started to incorporate photos in my journal. I just opened a Word file and I make an entry for the date and the day, so I want to know if I was fishing on a weekend or during the week. I try to put air temps, weather patterns, water temps and what new revelations that I uncovered in my explorations of the day. I just hit insert and select the photo from the day to enter into the log.

It's all on the computer and I have even recently bought an external hard drive to automatically back up my computer. I had a hard drive crash before and there is nothing like it to make you see the light.

It really is amazing how I and my fishing buddies recall things. Maybe it's because I am getting older, but it reminds me of 4 witnesses of a car accident, a month later they all remember it differently.

I can go back and read what really happened, when and how.

[JohnScott]

I kept fairly detailed logs of all my outings for the first several years that I fly fished. Then I started doing regular reports on the Fishing Reports Forum, which pretty much reflect what I learned, and didn't learn, while compiling the logs.

As long as my reports are available here on FAOL, I can rely on them down the road, if necessary. And the reports are a way of sharing what I've learned about some of the rivers and streams in this area and the good fortune I have to live here and fish the places I do.

John

[Clay]

At the risk of boring everyone, I pulled this off my journal from last year since this date is within a week from now. I make no claims to being any kind of a writer and these are just my notes for me. I did delete the name of the lake and the boat fee.

Tuesday, May 6th: Note that my St Croix, 904.4 came back to me repaired today. Bruce and I left at 4 pm. It cost $xxxx to launch the little boat on this body of water. This was absolutely nuts. It?s early in the season, but today is a very warm day for early May. The air temp is about 83 F. The winds were mild. Bruce has a digital thermometer on his locator and it said that the main body of the lake was about 57 F. We fished the main body of the lake unsuccessfully for a little while. Then we went back into the channel on the lake that I have fished in the past. The water temp was about 2 full degrees warmer in this channel: 59F. The gills were there and we did quite well. The water clarity was very clear and that I attribute to this lake being fairly cool still, as well as the time of year.

I fished with my fly rod only again. The hare?s ear nymph was the hot ticket today. We brought home 34 fish. Bruce caught and kept one walleye. Of the fish we kept, only two of which were crappie, they were all gills. When cleaning these fish none of the gills had eggs in them. Bruce said that the males make the spawning beds. The males were in this shallow water, in a prespawn mode. The two crappies that were caught were full of eggs and they were both female, so the crappies that spawn before the gills have not spawned yet.

There are some treasures in that entry for keys to unlock some successful outting this season. I know what water temps to target as the beginning of the panfish season. I like to think that I practice. "Picking the corn when the corn is ready" In other words when the panfishing is at it's peak, I fish for panfish, when the carp are going crazy, I love to chase them on the fly rod, when the trout season is doing well and the vegitation is not so tall that I can still walk the stream banks, I trout fish.

The bottom line, go and start your own journal, you won't be sorry.

Rick

[DaveP63]

I did once for a season of trouting (complete with diagrams of multi fly rigs that I used) and for two solid years of waterfowling (complete with diagrams of decoy placement). Since then, I have sadly fallen out of the habit. So thanks for brining this up so I can get motivated to take it back up again!

[FishnDave]

I used to write my fishing journals in a diary-type book. But since late 2005, I've been keeping my logs in MS Excel format.
I like this format because its easy to compare subsequent trips in the columnar layout. Plus, you can tally totals or averages, etc. And you can "insert comment" to add additional textual information or fishing trip pictures in each cell.

At the end of each year, I compare everything against previous years.
I can compare how good fishing was in November on certain years, and relatively poor in other years, and how many of each species I've caught each year, and how the prevalent species changes year after year. Might be boring to some, but I find it fascinating.

[Twism86]

Journals can be VERY helpful tools.

I have always failed at keeping mine, ive had to turn my 2007 into an 8 and now white it out for a 9......... While still being in college the one thing i dont want to do after a day fishing is write. Hopefully in the future i will start again.

Another option is a detailed excel spread sheet.

[Mark Griffin]

I've been keeping trout fishing journals for over thirty years now. In '78 and '79 I just logged how many trout I caught from what waters. From '80 to today I have every day I fished for trout logged. So I have 2,240 days of trout fishing hand written in note books, old school style. I have a lotta fun with 'em. I can look back and see where I was fishing on 4/30 last year or ten or twenty years ago.

However, no one is ever getting a look at my journals. Too many little known small streams would be at risk. I do keep a summary of my info online without naming any waters or numbers of trout.

2006 2007 2008 1997-2008 1980-2008