fishing journal

[terminal tackle]

just wondering how many fellow anglers/fishermen,and women keep a jorunal of there daliy catches,tackle selection,water temps and so on..........

[Spearing Machine]

I do....date times, depths, lures, baits, lake (duh), # of fish, biggest fish, exciting moment, ice thickness Data for the last 5 years Its nice to look through and see how patterns are occuring year after year. I love it!

[Flooringuy]

I do. Dates,Weather,Lake,Depths,times. What I caught or didn't and lures or baits used.

[GRH]

I was doing it. It's fun, I have to start doing it again and keep doing it.

[Nick Kuhn]

I usually can keep track pretty well in my head. I have a very good memory, and if you give me a visual reminder (ie you put me on the lake) I can probably tell you where, when, and what conditions/presentation I've caught every worthwhile fish under. And for muskie fishing I could tell you where every fish was, what they followed/struck, and the relative size of the fish, as well as the time of year and conditions.

I guess you could say I keep a mental journal. The benefit is there's no time spent looking up what happened last time. Although there are times when I wished my dad kept one, I hate arguing with him about where we've fished and where we haven't...

[shizzy]

I just started this year. I write down all the mentioned info. since I fish lots of lakes and fish all year its a great thing to flip open the notebook and be reminded what you did right.

I would say my fishing success has grown by leaps and bounds this year because of it.

[FinsandFeathers]

I do as well, mine also include barometer readings, water temps, winds and gps cord's. I have found that we all become Pro's with to much information

[Neighbor_guy]

This is how I do it/typical entry. I am guessing my notes are different than others. This is a typical entry though. The Number indicates the "body of water count", just something I try to keep track of year to year. I set up my log to relect what I would consider to be a "year" of fishing. I start in open water and carry the log all the way until the end of the Ice fishing season. You can realy start to tell when you are on a consistant patern, or get stuck in a rut. Especially when you start to see lots of entries, but no new numbers.

1. Blue Lake (Isanti County)

Date:5/28/09

Time: Morning 5:30 – 11:00am, Clear Calm and 75 degrees.

Conditions: Clear and Calm; 75 degrees. Weather=stable.

Target: Largemouth Bass

Results: Curly leaf pond weed beds were thick in some areas and sparse/poisoned in

others. Several Bass caught, average size 2lbs. The best locations were inside

weed lines and thin weeds to sand transition areas. Most consistent action was

on the south end of the lake. Best Baits were Swim jigs and Chatterbaits in

blue and black with a large red shad beast trailer.

[MuskieJunkie]

I do for muskie fishing. I use an Excel Spreadsheet. Unfortunetley I can easily calculate fish per hour.

[bemidjibasser]

I have been doing this for the past 8 years or so. A daily Planner works very well for me. I can fit in 15 or so different cattegories per entry.

Date

Lake

Air

Wind

Water temp

Sky Conditions(clouds)

Barometer

Area

Depth

Cover

Bottom Content

Retrieve

Strike= how the fish took the bait(s)

Time of Day

Water Clarity

Number and Species of fish caught with any big fish noted as well as average size...

It looks like a lot, but it really only takes a few minutes to do when I get off teh water. Catch rates have increased form year to year, and patterns are easier to predict from day to day or year to year.

[solbes]

I got a bound journal from my wife a few years back that's made for this type of thing. Keep it up at our lake place. My number of entries has tailed off some, but it's still fun to look back at what was working 5 years ago until now.

If you fish the same body of water over time you can really start to see some patterns develop. Some years have warmer temps and one type of pattern, usually perch on my lake. The cooler temps usually mean the predators are keying off the deep running cisco which would require a change in tactics. Anyway I think the journal really helps. You can start to predict when water temps warm up, cool down, trolling turns on, etc.

One other thing to keep track of is some of the changing things going on around you: various flower blooms, insect hatches, lake weed growth, etc.

[BobbyK]

I have one of those bound fishing journals also and I keep it upto date religiously. It has all the usual pertinent information like date, place, weather, conditions, etc. and a place to summarize the trip. As mostly a shore fisherman, I paste in copies of maps from Google or the DNR Lakefinder with the locations marked where I was catching (or not catching) them on that day. I also keep a spreadsheet summary of dates, lakes and catches that I will paste in the book once the season ends - hopefully not too soon!!!!

Personal best bass from shore this year - this morning at 21 1/2".

Personal best bass from a canoe this year - 22"

It is fun to read and remember more of the details and use the data to remind myself what worked and what didn't.

I highly recommend it.

Bob K