Journaling....

[CrappieJohn]

Growing up we probably all have heard things said like "wind in the east, fish bite the least" or , as we hear a lot of right now, " fish the shallow bays with a good northern exposure". What we are looking at here are generalities....not all bad, not always a good rule to follow. But as we fished our way to where we are today, we have loaded up on these general "rules", follow them closely, and have moderately good success. To me though, the only generality that I find holds much consistancy is that of the fishs' physiology-they live in water and extract oxygen thru their gills.
How many times have you gone to the lake one day, hammered the craps, and gone back the next only to go home empty handed? Everything , you thought, appeared to be the same. But was it? Sure, you can chock it up to the fish moved or even that they got fished out of that area. Don't count on that philosophy. Craps do not make long distance moves overnight. And the resident school will be onto your wiles long before they are all fished out. So what happened? Let's take a look-see.
Most of us are not notorious for memorizing the little things that go on during a day of fishing. We can recall what we did that was working. We can come up with the same bait. We can go back to the same area and even the same depth. All of these things can be done with reasonable certainty because of the tools we use. So lets just chuck this stuff....too general. Now...what was the wind doing yesterday-did it change directions at all? Did it go from partly cloudy to sunny? What was the water temp? These are but a few of the many influences that control those fish. I'll go out on a limb and say that better than 90% of what steers fish is above the water, not in it.Now, how can you remember all of these other indicators?.....you journal.
I start with a list of things that I want to record. Then I make a chart that lists these items. Mine consists of the following data:
1.Date
2.Temp before leaving
3.Temp at return
4.Barom. at leaving
5.Barom. at return
6.Sky cond. arriving and leaving
7. water clarity
8.Water temp...surface/eight feet arriving and leaving
9. other water influences (ie. rising,turn-over, etc)
10.wind direction, arriving and leaving
11.lures/baits, color combos
12.depths fished with success
13.the general weather conditions
14.the total number of fish in black and white crappies taken.
and of those taken home for the pan:
15.the length
16.the sex
17.black or white
Sounds like a big nut to crack ,huh? It really isn't as imposing as it looks. Thing bet pretty simple. The water temp is measured with my onboard electronics and a remote thermometer tethered on a cord of eight feet.Simple. To keep count you just buy yourself a gate counter at a sporting goods store that deals in reffing equipment.Much of the observational stuff goes into a small notebook, the remainder off the computer. I print up a hundred sheets at a pop, punch holes, and toss it all into a three ring binder. I also store this on the computer. So now what? Go fishing for about two years, recording this stuff as you go. Word of advice: pick A SINGLE species and concentrate all of your data gathering on it! This is NOT for multi-species studies. After you have gathered info for a couple years you will be surprised at what you can find by going back over this stuff. Instead of seeing support for the generalities, you will become very aware of many CONTRADICTIONS to those generalities! The longer you do this the seemingly "out-of-place" characteristics now appear to be the generality. After having done this for some twenty odd years myself, I tend to do a lot of smiling when I get into shops and stores and overhear what some people offer up for advice as to how to fish these fish or those fish....the old tried and true(?) generalities.
The generalities that guide me today are basically unpublished. They are guided by water temperature and the correlation between it and issues such as profile, action, and color combinations. Do I fish the deep water or do I fished transition water? I let the information gathered for over those two decades direct me, not which way the wind is blowing. Fronts may exist, but they do not determine whether or not I will fish...the fish have to eat and I only need find them and tease them a bit.
Journaling can be perhaps the greatest educator in the sport of fishing, simply because it is you that gathers the data. It is you who has to dedicate the time to doing it. You do it , most likely, because you WANT to do better at fishing. It becomes your own personal study and when it is personal you tend to pay far more attention to what is buried within it. You will start to see how one aspect of a weather change can indeed put off your fishing for a day or two...if, you hadn't gone out of your way to journal and learned that to get those "post frontal" fish you you down size and go into the deepest water, get right up tight in the thickest of snarls and tease them out with a do-nothing approach. Journaling pays rich rewards. Journaling can take you from the school of mediocrity and put you at the head of the class using your own generalizations. Journaling...try it, you'll like what it does.

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom
[email protected]

[huskiesplayer15]

Crappie Tom-
That was very informative, I have one question for you: Why do you measure the water depth at eight feet? Why wouldnt you go until you found the thermocline, or where you were successful. Please dont take it as critisizing or anything against youI was just wondering why you would measure at 8 feet. Thank You very much.
Best Fishes
Chris

[CrappieJohn]

In the very ealy open water...even with ice on the water nearby, the surface temp will only represent a few inches of the water column. The fish are still deeper than that. I take that second temp reading at that depth to follow the warmering trend of the lake at a deeper level. Eight feet is a depth governed by the shallowest deep water I fish. What I am looking for is a water temp of 58 degrees at the 8 foot depth. For a good reason I might add. When the water has warmed to that specific temp, then I can assume that the fish are no longer boundered by "cold" water and I switch into a different type of plastic and my presentation will change somewhat. My target fish are different as well. I put little stock in surface temps other than to follow where the warmer top water "might" be an influence. On days with strong daylight, little wind and a normal water, surface temp can be a tool in, say, shallow bays where the warm can penetrate fairly deep unfettered. Wind, current, and cold spring rains will screw up what surface water may or may not do for you worse than anything will. A cold front may affect the fish, but they still need to eat. And they are still findable. Put some real cold rain in the equation and you will have a totally different situation to deal with. By taking the water temp at these two depths, I am looking for some equilibrium in the water column.I am guided by this stability to some extent. The real krux to this kind of fishing is that every year will present it's own twists and shortcomings. One has to be prepared to fish like a wild man for maybe four or five days to capitalize on the rewards to be garnered by method of fishing. This period may last the four days and be done, or, if the weather is a bit slower, it may last ten days. And this 58 dgrees is not necessarily the spawn, which typically happens at about 64-66 degrees, but when I find very large fish in specific waters.

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom
[email protected]

[2dalake]

So 58 degrees is the magic number you have found, I wonder if it's any coincidence that I have noticed in most lakes that leeches start getting more active at about that temp? And I don't think it's any more of a coincidence that walleyes really strap on the feedbag right about then? On south-central MN prairie lakes I catch crappie and walleye on alternate casts at times.

[Matt Johnson]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...CrappieTom, you're the man!

I keep a journal but not nearly as detailed as Tom's, I just keep track of a lot of the basics with a few added details. Pays-off in the long run and will help you pattern fish.

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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[can it be luck?]

Tom, Your post answers many questions to finding the answers to what make fish "click". The answers, although not "set in stone" and clearly defined are there if a fisherman is willing to take the time to see them.
Fish are influenced by many factors, weather, time of year, time of day, water conditions and temps, forage, and the list goes on! In the end, fish make the final decision to bite or not to bite, however it's the other factors that have more control over the fish's choice than the choice itself. Some factors can be scientificly proven, but for the most part, time spent on the water observing the "whys and hows" of successful and even the unsuccessful days will consistantly put fish in the boat.
Nobody can pick up a rod and become a good fisherman from the get go. Experience is the best teacher. Remembering all the little things that take place in a day of fishing and recording them for later referance is a great idea! I personally do not keep a journal, though I wish I would've many times. Sort of like, why didn't I keep all those sports cards and comic books when I was a kid? They'd be worth a fortune now!....As would my journal. I do have a good memory and have fished enough that I can referance that with pretty good results. However, a journal will help you see consistancies and corelations in patterns, helping you to unlock the answers that all fisherman want.....Why aren't the fish biting today, and what do I need to do to get them to bite?

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[CrappieJohn]

Look at fishing as a pair of binoulars. Many people own them and use them only where things are very apparent, ie and open field,or a bird on a branch. They don't try to "look through" a maze of sticks and twigs to find that telltale patch of white or eyeball on a deer or that sublt patch of red which is a cardinal.Its too confusing too them and they are content with what they can see without having to invest in study. Many fishermen, like those binoculars, are used far under their true potential.

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom
[email protected]

[MuleSkinner]

Crappie Tom, thanks for the info. Questions though: When you began journaling info, did you journal mostly data when you did not catch fish? I mean, you must have started out less knowledgeable/successful. Was 'not-catching fish' data just as useful in the beginning as 'good catch' data? Did you mostly improve by ruling out ways that did not work? Did you limit yourself to one body of water? Also, one species: Do you always just crappie fish?

I have enjoyed reading many of your posts. One suggestion though: Because they are very informative, and thus long, maybe you could highlight your paragraphs, indent or put in a blank line or something. Just to make them easier to read. I don't mean you should shorten them. They are great.

[CrappieJohn]

Mule....The conditions regarding weather and water are all relevant and need to be recorded, even if the fish didn't play fair. I set out a bunch of criteria originally that I thought was needed to really see a pattern. The weather and water conditions are what I felt to be core issues and have always been a part of the journaling. When I began this, I had a sheet for the trip regarding the water/weather, another for the total of fish and yet another to show the fish kept. That last sheet also included scale sampling and staining to determine the age of the fish. I no longer do the scales and all data goes to one sheet.

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom
[email protected]