Fishing Journal

noahq814

noahq814

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Joined
Nov 16, 2022
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Farmington,PA
Hello all,
This year I decided I would track my outings and results with a fishing journal to compare days and start seeing what works or doesn’t on different days. I bought one off Amazon that covers a good bit of stats for the trip.

I was just curious if and how everyone tracks their outings for the year. I will attach some photos of the journal I use in case anyone is interested. Thanks all and good luck.
 

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I started keeping fishing notes way back when. I simply write up a fishing report for each day on my computer. Details include date, location, weather conditions (sky, temp, wind), water conditions (clarity & temp), time fished, and numbers & type of fish caught. The balance of the document describes noteworthy events, specific areas fished, productive vs. unproductive lures/flies, productive & unproductive techniques, plus any other conclusions, observations, funny or not-so-funny occurrences.

I supplement this with a spreadsheet for the entire year that captures date, location, summary stats on weather, fish caught, best flies/lures, and best areas & techniques. The spreadsheet is particularly helpful when looking for trends based on reality rather than memory. The daily logs are for entertainment and additional detail when something catches my eye.

I started doing this when I was primarily focused on chasing river smallmouths with spinning & casting gear from jet boats. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Still is.
 
When I first got serious about fly-fishing I kept a tally sheet - fish caught, flies used, weather conditions, and maybe one other stat. Just found them recently. Gave it up after three or four seasons. I found that weather conditions correlated more with success than any other single stat. Fewer hatches in August and warmer temps of that month sunk the trout fishing, but it was my best month for smallies on the Susky.
 
I tried this at the start of the new year a number of times, but I always failed. This was back before NY changed regs, and the closest year round water to me was the Battenkill. Now I'm sure there are great anglers that can catch fish out of the Batt in January when it's 30 degrees, but I appear to not be one of them. After entering a dozen or so skunks in January/February (if it even got out of the 20s in February), I would inevitably abandon the journal in disgust.

Maybe I need to start in April...
 
Beware of software or app versions unless you are talking about text docs or spreadsheets no matter how enticing they are...!!!

I used a fishing journal program for a few years and even helped the creator with ideas for new functions.

It was an awesome program that had all sorts of features like locations by waypoint so you could record fish caught at a specific pool at a specific stream. It also had graphing of results by any parameter like location, rod used, weather, fly choice, hatches, fish species plus solunar calendars, tide charts, image storage and it wasn't just for fly fishing.

Once you got it front loaded with the data like fish species, flies or lures, rod & reel combos and locations it was a few clicks here and there to record info and add photos. If you wanted a little narrative to go along with that specific trip so you could remember it better you added that in a notes section for that trip. You could even put a photo of a fish you caught and the spot where you caught it right into the fish count for that day!!

However, after awhile it turned out the program wasn't quite up to the task of managing a large database over many years of use without getting sluggish. Later the creator realized he was spending too much time NOT making enough money selling software to quit his day job so he closed up shop and ended support.

Bottom line, hours and hours and hours and hours of wasted time entering info into a program that is now non-usable and the information in it is pretty much unrecoverable and useless... 🙁

These days I can't be bothered keeping a journal because even when I did I rarely looked at it except to waste a ton of time entering data in it until doing that became a bigger chore than fishing.
 
After an outing I just write on lined notebook paper contained in a clasp folder how I did, where I fished, and what the weather and stream conditions were like. I've been doing that since 1968. I occasionally pick up an old folder and read it. I am surprised how my memory makes trout I think I remember bigger than they actually were. Not being a modern tech. wizard, I do not try computer-style programs.
 
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For many years, I wrote up notes in a word processing file on my computer after each fishing trip. I had a file for each stream, titled like "Kettle Cr - Potter," Each time I fished Kettle Creek, I would just add the notes from that trip to the Kettle Creek file. So, it was organized by stream, not by date.

What I wrote was not so much "data points," but instead more descriptive, written in sentences. Going back and reading those notes, brought back memories of the trip, the stream etc. even beyond what I had written down. The notes jogged the memory.

All those notes are on an old Mac which no longer works, and I'm not techie enough to know how to retrieve those files and put them on my new computer.
 
rrt said:
After an outing I just write on lined notebook paper contained in a clasp folder how I did, where I fished, and what the weather and stream conditions were like. I've been doing that since 1968. I occasionally pick up an old folder and read it. I am surprised how my memory makes trout I think I remember bigger than they actually were...
Click to expand...
That's the beauty of NOT keeping a journal; every fish is over 15" and every outing is a 20+ fish day. 😉
 
I've thought about it a few times but just never got the energy to keep a journal of any kind. The only time I keep "score" is when I go up to a lodge in NE Ontario for a week. It gives us an idea of what the fishing was like. Who caught the most fish of each species and the largest. One of the guys I fish with keeps a journal. Conditions, lures used and type and number of fish.
 
This is something I wish I would have started from day one in my fly fishing journey. At this point in time the horse is too far out of the barn to worry about it. I always wanted to do a handwritten journal over an electronic version. For no reason other than handwriting in a journal provides a sense of personalization and really helps to make it unique. There are some guys in the fire department I work with who keep handwritten shift journals (calls, activities, notable notes, etc.).

I suppose in any case, a journal provides an opportunity to reflect back on days gone by and refresh one's memories. Similarly, a fly fishing journal could be used as a starting point for how a stream behaved at a very particular point in time, which may help to ensure future success.
 
I tracked my fishing trip dates, locations, species, my catches as well as those of my fishing partners, and hours fished for a few years in a small fishing diary that I was given. I particularly like to occasionally (seasonally) check it for earliest and latest dates when we had big catches of Delaware Estuary (Pa) and Ocean (NJ) striped bass in spring and fall, respectively, and to reference some odd sightings or funny occurrences on the water that happened during some trips. Going around in a large circle in the suddenly very dense fog on Raritan Bay when searching for the boat ramp comes to mind. I knew we were in trouble when we crossed our own wake. It is also a measure of past catch rates (gear used and trout or other fish per hour fished). That journal became much more valuable to me after my best fishing friend was suddenly killed in a cycling accident. Now it’s a memory of more than just fish; it’s a journal of good times in the water, on the water, and on the ice.
 
I've been keeping a fishing journal for 14 years now. I just keep basic info like, stream name, date, weather, stream conditions (flow/temp/clarity), fish caught, and "comments". I'll mention any notable sightings/happenings.

A lot of folks say they've kept a journal, but hardly ever actually looked back on it. I often view old fishing trip specifics to refresh my memory, because there's no way I'd recall them all without record. I spend a lot of time/money traveling to my streams, minimum hour and twenty mins, to a six hour drive. So, these trips deserve documentation. It's not like I'm fishing locally. To each their own.
 
I have a bound binder that I just write pertinent information - stream, location, hatches, time of day, water and air temp, approx number of fish, etc. Have kept it for several years now and it’s helpful to see when hatches were observed. I do enjoy looking back and reflecting on days afield.
 
Since he was the man who brought me, my boys, and many others into flyfishing, we bought a paper journal for my father-in-law several years ago (just before he qualified for a lifetime PA fishing license). Since he's forgotten more than most people know about the subject, he isn't very exacting in his details about water/weather/hatch conditions, but the info is enough for a cold reader to know what's going on. The details are reserved more for who he fishes with (and how they did), who he meets along the way (and how they did), how many eagles and other wildlife he sees, trees and rocks that weren't there last time, and other anecdotal stuff. We'll need to make copies for distribution when he stops fishing - to avoid the scramble for possession.
 
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