A couple articles in the new issue this week mention journals and that got me thinking of a couple questions:
This one’s the obvious one: How many of us really keep a detailed journal of our fishing experiences?
The one that really interests me: What do each of you consider the most important details you log in your journal?
I’ve kept a fishing journal for a couple years now. When I started I went whole hog and wrote down everything, bugs observed, temps (air and water) flies used, equipment, and so on. As my journal has grown, I’ve found myself concentrating more on who I fished with, interesting discussions and/or events, weather, fish caught (types rather than numbers and size), and I’ll often include a memorable snashot if one is available. I still note the little things if they are new, different, or offer some insight for future fishing, but I worry less about the details and more about the memories these days.
I look forward to hearing everyone elses take on this!
Evey year TU sends me a free calander
I’ve found it’s the perfect place to jot down a couple of items about a day out
Where I went, the weather, and any hatches is pretty much all that fits
It’s not really a journal, more of a reminder.
I have done it on three occasions, and swore at the end of all three stints I would never again do so. Even for a bottle of Sheep Dip. As a planning tool, I can see some merit, but my memory is still good enough to know when the PMDs are going to hatch, and it doesn’t really matter if I caught 32 trout (lengths and fly taken documented) or a couple dozen on mostly BWOs, including a few nice ones…
I’ve been keeping a journal of sorts to keep track of the fishing time my son and I have spent together. Mainly, I’ve tried to capture my thoughts and what our time together has meant to me. I plan to someday print it out with photos I’ve taken and give it to him when he’s a little older and can appreciate it.
I haven’t kept track of what we were using or “honey holes” etc. I’ve mainly kept track of the emotions and our time.
I keep a calendar/diary book in my fishing jacket. Whenever I go out, I jot down where I was fishing, what fish I caught and on what fly type (dry, wet, softhackle, nymph, etc) and specific pattern, brief weather details (i.e. sunny, overcast, wind, rain, etc), and what type of water (i.e. pool, riffle, glide, lake). I try and keep track of hook ups and strikes as well. When I get home, I enter these details into a program I’ve written which compiles the information so if I wanted to see what flies I’ve had success with in Dec. on the Waihou Stream, etc, I can have my program spit out the numbers and details (say, 6 on dry, 10 on wets, 18 on softhackles, etc).
I’ve had fish grab my fly as it was dangling in the water while I was busy entering the details from the previous fish just caught! A friend was watching me and had a good laugh as I struggled with a fish on the line and the rod under my arm while I’m mid-stream trying to put the book and pen away so I can get the rod into hand and play the fish!
I admire people who keep journals. Some of you even make some of us feel badly (for awhile) for not recording the memorable times spent on stream. But like my wife’s occasional nagging, I’ll soon get over it, forget about it and go on the way I have for the past 57 years…undocumented and insensitive (her word).
I also use a PC based program to keep a journal and keep track of all pertinent details of every fishing trip. I jot down brief notes while fishing and update the PC when I get home. It is a LOT of work but I consider it part of the overall fishing experience.
I can graph or filter any data and can keep track of all kinds of details like what was hatching, how many fish or what species I caught, what the water levels were, weather, what rod I used, tippet size, photos, waypoints; you name it.
Its value to me is having something to go back to and remember a particular trip. I really enjoy going back in time and reliving some trips. The details may seem unimportant but it is nice to be able to KNOW what conditions were in the past.
I’ve kept fishing journals for more years than I’ll admit to. Since I’ve been “39” for almost 18 years, now, I’ve got journals going back a few days!!
But at times it’s saved me tying up the wrong fly for a trip somewhere I have planned or reminds me of what, exactly, TO TAKE with me, when I go.
More, importantly, it’s the memories with my 3 boys, a trip with a great friend, whatever… that makes my journal worth all the hassle some say they are. With photos to go along with many entries, on cold winter nights I can “go fishing” all over again and not leave the fire.
Personally, I have to admit, I haven’t done much with this site yet, but for anyone interested in “keeping or starting a journal”, there’s a free fishing journal site I ran across that seems like it’s pretty complete. You can add pictures, read other’s journals, or keep things to yourself if you prefer.
The site is: http://www.flyfishingnotebook.com/journals/index.php
I’ve been keeping a fishing journal for 29 years and wish I’d started earlier. I haven’t missed a single trip. What I choose to record changes over the years. What’s important to me is that I will have something to look back on when I get too old to fish and if I need to check something, I will be able to go back and look it up. I have a pretty good memory, but I still suprise myself from time to time when I go to am old journal entry and find that I’ve remembered something incorrectly.
Yes, I keep a journal. I write a snail mail letter to my mother each week, she is near 90 and doesn’t want to get on-line, and emails to my brother and nephew (both fishermen) to share with them my fishing exploits and keep them up to date with what my kids are doing. My mom was a great fisherman and almost always caught more fish than my dad, who complained that he was busy adjusting the engine speed and driving the boat when mom caught the first and most fish, ha! I make a copy of the fishing tale in my letter and put it in my fishing log (a MS Word table) that also includes a few other pertinent pieces of information in columns: when and where I went fishing, weather conditions (sun, temp, etc.), water conditions (level, temp, clear/cloudy, etc.), hatch, flies used, fish caught (I don?t keep an accurate count) etc. so I can compare information over time. All in all very painless to keep up and it is interesting to read back to see when the streams were most and least productive. Experts say you should fish when the conditions are best but most of us working stiffs (and family men) go fishing whenever they can break free. So even when conditions aren?t the best at least I?m still out there enjoying myself and it validates what the ?best? and poorest fishing conditions are and sometimes I catch fish when the experts say it isn?t worth going fishing, although the older I get the more of a fair weather fisherman I become.
If your boots dry out you?re not fishing enough. Unfortunately my boots are dry again!
John
I recently read an article about barometric pressure and its effect on fishing. I then went to my journal/log and looked at all of the lousy fishing days and low and behold; most corresponded with a rising barometer!
Pretty cool info but as John said; I go when I can which isn’t often enough!
My dad always kept notes on the 8.5 by 11"calenders. He also had an orchard and a garden and he kept track of when he planted and sprayed on these calenders. When he fishing which was at least 6 mo a year ( spring and fall and some ice fishing) he wrote down a few notes of the better days where He fished maybe a note about the weather where he was and of coarse the fish. He kept these calenders for many years in a drawer in his travel trailer along with his fishing maps. The current calender was always on the wall, but he referred to the older ones often
Truth is, the only fishing journal I keep is the Salmon / Steelhead harvest log the state of Oregon gives,
er, sells me each year with my license…ModocDan :lol:
Exactly the sort of comments I was hoping for, as usual. Thank you everybody! It never ceases to amaze me how different each of us can be in what aspects of the sport are important to us, yet we can all still find common ground and share what brings us so much joy.
Thought I’d throw in a sample of my current journal just for kicks:
I kept a journal for about 5 years of the 3 creeks and Okanagan river near my home when I was a teenager. I moved away for 14 years while I was in the coast guard. When I moved back to the Okanagan I found that they had dammed the river. Then took its 8 mile length and made it into a three mile long canal straight from one lake to the other. They put in several drop dams 20 miles south of here that prevented 100% of any returning salmon. No fish ladders. We had all five types of pacific salmon in our rivers and creeks. Now there are none.
One of the local creeks which had meandered thru town now was a 25 foot deep ditch 4 miles long straight as an arrow. It made road making and bridge building easier but killed the creek . To this day 45 or so years later there are no trees for shade or any fish left in the creek for much of its length thru the industrial area. Every year it silts up when the local rock quarry starts up . It never did before.
30 years ago I read over my old journal written with such hope. I then tossed it in the garbage.
Sorry to be such a wet blanket. :?
I don’t log every outing, but I do keep a journal of the more interesting events and notes for specific sites. In general, I note the site, weather conditions, equipment I used and any fish I caught. I also keep track of the new things that I learned about the specific rod I was using or way I fished a fly. These things are important to me since I am still fairly new to fly fishing. For example, after reviewing several entries about certain types of flys, I realized that even though I fished two different areas during August, I had to fish the same fly a different way based on the geographic location for where I was fishing (Canada vs. mid-western U.S.) It is also fun to review the more memorable events.
I, thought, that ((I)) kept a “too intricate fishing journal”!?! Until, today… I was fishing with Henry Hoffman, on his private water and during conversation, asked him about “Keeping a fishing journal, do you, or, don’t you, Henry?”.
Oh man! We stopped by his house, on the way home and he showed me just a “part” of his “personal fishing log”…that he’s kept since 1957! EVERY, detail was written down… day of the week, barometric pressure, when he started fishing and what it was when he quit, that day. The temp, of the water he was fishing, taken at 3 hour intervals. And, of course, flies, rod, line weight, times and reasons he’d change a fly, etc.
I’d roughly, guess, that if not hand written and instead, typed out, just one of his “daily entries” would fill a single spaced, typed, page of print!!
WAYYYYY, more info than I’D ever want to remember! But, to each his own, I suppose!?!
Paul
