I’ve scratched notes and comments in notebooks for years in a rather unorganized fashon. My wife and I bought a small notebook computer that we can carry with us. I’ve copied my Wyoming fishing notes from this past summer and made a list of things to do this coming summer. I’ve looked at several “Fly Fishing Logbooks” and feel that it would work better for me develop my own.
I would like some input from those of you who use regularly use one as to what you put in to it.
Randall Sale
In mine I put Where, time of day, the catch, method, fly or flies that worked & didn’t, atmospheric conditions & personal observations e.g. “Saw an eagle”, “good to get out” ,“Pelicans (other fisher persons) moved in too close”
It’s your book. Put in it what you want & what you think will be usefull information to refer to.
When I used to religiously make notes, which I got out of the habit of and need to start again, I used to note all the usual stuff and make diagrams of rigs that I used if they were out of the ordinary and locations that there were surprise fish. I could probably take those notes and go there right now and they’d work!
Randall, I used to keep a very detailed and dare I say ‘anal’ fishing journal. After several years of this I found I rarely went back to check the details because my brain seemed to remember what worked when and in what conditions. Since then I discovered FAOL and started giving fishing reports with the info I thought would be interesting, entertaining and important and now I have a nice record, with photos. I have printed the record and it makes a wonderful memento of the year’s events - color pictures and all, plus I’ve been able to share it with all of you!
Kelly
I got real high on the “journal” idea at one time, but came to realize that since I fish when I can, I would just depend upon my observations & information here on FAOL & throughout the “net” to guide me.
Computerization has provided us with an invaluable & virtually unlimited resource that our Forefathers didn’t have. If we are traveling, there is a lot of information available with just a few “clicks”.
No journal for me…just seems redundant.
Mike
I dont keep one (yet) but i would like one so i could remember witch flies worked and witch ones didnt (i make lots of variations of patterns).
I’ve got one of these:
http://riteintherain.com/ItemForm.aspx?item=1732-KIT&Category=288351a9-4140-4fe9-9a0b-b6417564e684
I don’t use it, but not because it won’t work, but because I just never seem to keep track of my fishing expeditions. It looks like it has all the right stuff, though! You might check it out.
Jeff
I kept a journal once. It was interesting to go back and see what I caught and when. What was less interesting was the task of keeping the journal. It just got too much like work and I felt obligated to do it.
Once I got a waterproof digital camera, the journal idea seemed like more work than it was worht. I take a lot of pictures when I fish. Usually stupid stuff, flowers, birds, the lake, a few of fish I catch, my flies on and in the water and once in a while myself at arm’s length. I store all the photos on my computer by year and once a year, I burn the last year’s photos to DVD’s for safekeeping.
Once in a while, I’ll post a fishing report here and once the water turns back to liquid and I can go fishing again, I’ll be posting some on my blog but not in a journal format. I’ll post more about what I experienced than what I caught.
Jeff
Back when I was insane and kept a log, I would put down the date and location I fished, and then for each fish, the species, size, and in some cases the fly (depending on which bout of insanity it was).
I kept field notes in a rite-in-the-rain notebook and transferred it to Excel.
If I ever again make noises about keeping a log, however, I have left instructions with several friends and my family to kill me on the spot. Keeping a log was something that really took a lot of the joy out of fishing, as the log itself became the focus of my day, and not having fun.
I use this and used to write every thing down but I use this now…
It might be easier to show you what I put in my logs. I use a separate Excel file for each year’s Fishing Log. The first 2 pages I update after each fishing outing. The last 2 pages are used for year-end summaries, or whenever I come across a great tip or observation I want to remember.
Here’s some screen captures. Each box that has a red arrow in the upper right corner has a “comment” attached, which is either a text description or a photo I’ve inserted. Hopefully you can “zoom” in on these to read the column headings…Photobucket automatically “resizes” pictures when I upload them. :rolleyes:
If anyone wants the original images, I’d be happy to email them to you.
Thanks for the input. I’m going to be “working” as a campground host in the Shoshone National Forest just outside of Yellowstone this summer. (I know-rough place to work(:>)) Last year, I worked out there for about a month. I started to keep a fishing log- again! in a notebook then found myself later looking at it finding that there was stuff I wanted to remember but forgot to write down . I did not think at that time of some things being as important or was to tired at the end of the day to remember. I just wanted to develop something with some structure to focus my thoughts. Thanks
Randall Sale
the Kytroutbum
“working” as a campground host in the Shoshone National Forest
Would it be wrong to let you know how insanely jealous I am right now? :lol:
Jeff
Jeff- Pm’ed you.
Randall Sale
the Kytroutbum
“I’m going to be “working” as a campground host in the Shoshone National Forest just outside of Yellowstone this summer. (I know-rough place to work(:>))” Kytroutbum
Which camp ground will you be “working” at? I live in Cody,Wy.
Dale “Packrat” Lacey
I took over Hunter Peak and Lake Creek in August and September of last summer, when the Cearns had to leave. I won’t know the specifics on campgrounds and dates for a couple weeks but should be along the Clarks Fork area. The road crew have Fox Creek and Island Lake is being closed for renovations. With those two campgrounds closed, returning hosts, etc. we feel very fortunate to get a campground. We are retired teachers and can’t really afford to spend the summer out there without hosting. We joke about being the most highly educated bathroom cleaners. Really enjoy the different experiences we had last summer, my wife is into scrapbooking and kept a notebook on all the experiences we had and characters we meet. We learned to appreciate the Forest Service, most people don’t realize how much work is done by volunteers and seasonals. I love fishing the CF and the Beartooth, and have even some years have fish the park very little.
Randall Sale
the Kytroutbum