Fishing Journal?

[Matt_Geiman]

Has anyone had success using a fishing journal? I have done a few entries documenting conditions, locations, successes, failures, etc but haven't been very consistent. Curious how others do it. I've been doing it on my Notes app on my phone. Thanks!

 

[JeffP]

I never have, but I really wish I had. For me, it would be more about the experience rather than the fishing. It's weird looking back over the last 40 years or so and realizing how much time has passed. But it is kind of fun when someone recalls something the rest of us have forgotten. So many memories of trips, experiences, and fishing.

 

[wildtrout2]

I started a thread about this a while back. I keep records of every fishing trip I make, as they always involve a lengthy road trip to either the Poconos, NC Pa, or western Pa. I keep it fairly simple, with just a single page for each trip that looks like this.

2022 Wild Trout

Stream:

Date:

Weather:

Conditions:

Fish caught:

Comments:
. . . .
I've been doing this for about ten years now, and it allows me to compare results with given weather and stream conditions. It also refreshes my memory of trips that I would have otherwise forgotten about. As we get older (I'm 65), our memories don't serve as well as they once did.

 

[rrt]

I have kept one since 1968, just notebook pages with five or six lines about most outings, including # of fish caught and released, water and weather conditions, and unusual sightings. It is nice to go back over a notebook or two during the winter and reminisce. However, the down side is that some of the fish I recall as being 18 or 19" shrink to something smaller in numerous entries. am glad I have done this.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

I keep a simple blog. I don't name streams most of the time unless they are a big waterway or a destination, but I can tell by pics or process of elimination where I was (at least until my mind starts going). Before 2015, I kept something similar to what wildtrout2 shared.

 

[coyoterahn]

I keep a log. It’s virtually the same info as wildtrout keeps. If I encounter anything really interesting, I’ll record that also.

 

[wildtrout2]

If I encounter anything really interesting, I’ll record that also.

That's what my Comments section is for. Like, if I see a bear, a rattlesnake, or anything else that deserves specific notation.
I was just recently going through some of my records, and I saw a Comment regarding a BIG 10pt buck in velvet that I saw up in NC Pa a number of years ago. I had totally forgotten about that sighting.

 

[rustbeltwilds]

yeah water temps,, location species like wild trout2 mentioned,,,anything deserving specific notation i like to review these things every time i get a biggun in the same spot many repeat catches over the years

 

[JGR]

I've kept one since 1994 much like the others described above. It's very useful to me.

 

[Acristickid]

Success - no.

I’ve tried to journal a couple of times, I might’ve made it through 3/4 of a year once. It’s sort of became too much of a labor, I would forgot to write an entry and then a day or week goes by and then….

I’d probably get more out of the memories than super useful info. Case in point, few years ago I fished a stream right when it rounded into shape from the winter. There was a beautiful blue wing olive hatch for an hour or two and I caught many good size browns. It was so good that I stayed overnight fished another stream came back the next day at the same time with the same exact conditions and absolutely nothing happened. Got to go to know.

 

[lestrout]

Yo Mat - yah - for decades I carried a mini-tape recorder on the water and taped lots of comments. It was great to hear the buzz of the reel on a good running fish. I would often pick up clues many years later as I went back through the tapes when getting ready for a trip. That's how I realized how important Yellow Sallies were in the Poconos, which I didn't recognize at the time. No question reliving the sounds of the moment would stir up a lot of remembrances.

But going back through dozens of minitapes got to be a chore, since I had to forward wind and rewind trying to find specific sections. Later, as the digital devices came along, random access became easier.

I had always Excelled (formerly Lotus 1-2-3) a bare bones summary of my trips, listing date, times, gear, catch numbers. Later I added temps, both air and water. Now I have added columns for hatches, rise activity, ffishing notes, incidental observations like snapper turtles and snakes, and comments on the gear setup (I have a LOT of sticks and lines, and I rarely ffish the same combo twice).

 

[afishinado]

Yo Mat - yah - for decades I carried a mini-tape recorder on the water and taped lots of comments. It was great to hear the buzz of the reel on a good running fish. I would often pick up clues many years later as I went back through the tapes when getting ready for a trip. That's how I realized how important Yellow Sallies were in the Poconos, which I didn't recognize at the time. No question reliving the sounds of the moment would stir up a lot of remembrances.

But going back through dozens of minitapes got to be a chore, since I had to forward wind and rewind trying to find specific sections. Later, as the digital devices came along, random access became easier.

I had always Excelled (formerly Lotus 1-2-3) a bare bones summary of my trips, listing date, times, gear, catch numbers. Later I added temps, both air and water. Now I have added columns for hatches, rise activity, ffishing notes, incidental observations like snapper turtles and snakes, and comments on the gear setup (I have a LOT of sticks and lines, and I rarely ffish the same combo twice).

When I first met Les and started to fish with him, I was a little wary of the guy since he talked to himself while fishing. Later I realized he was talking into his tape recorder, so he wasn't a little "touched" (well maybe a little, but in other ways).

 

[troutbert]

For many years I made voluminous notes on the computer for every trip. Now those are on an old Mac computer that doesn't work.

How do you find someone who can rescue files from old computers, at a reasonable price?

My notes weren't so much "data" as observations, ideas etc.

When the computer was still working, I would read notes from trips 10 or 15 years earlier, and often that brought back memories that included a lot more than what I'd written down.

 

[wildtrout2]

How do you find someone who can rescue files from old computers, at a reasonable price?

If you have a BestBuy near you, they have the Geek Squad techs that can come to your home and do that for you. You could call them regarding the cost.

 

[JimKennedy]

My dad kept one from the time he retired until he couldn't fish anymore (which I'm convinced is what killed him). Predictably, it showed that he caught the most fish in the places where he fished most. Surprisingly, it showed that we don't catch as many as we think we do (if we're honest with ourselves). In those years, he fished four to five days a week, from the first warm day in February until it got too cold around Christmastime. Late morning to early afternoon when the days are short. First light until sun on the water when the days are long. I've never seen anyone who could catch fish like him, no disrespect intended to anyone else, professional or otherwise. Typically he'd land eight to a dozen trout on the Big Gunpowder, then pack it in for the day and take care of stuff around the house. A few excursions to the Salmon River would cut into his numbers, but the size more than made up for it. By that time, he had all but stopped fishing for stocked fish, mainly to avoid crowds.
His main findings: He landed about 800 to 900 trout per year (he may have hit the 1,000 mark one year). He didn't count anything under 7 inches (simply referenced as a few "dinks" or "YOY"). All but a few dozen fish each year were brown trout. Most of the rest were salmon and steelhead. A few brook trout were mixed in and every once in a while, he would hit a wild or unexpected rainbow.
The main value: He concluded if he wanted to catch big trout, to fish somewhere other than Big Gunpowder, but if he wanted to catch a lot of trout and have beautiful surroundings, the Gunpowder was just fine.
Also, reviewing the log in the dead of winter is fun.

Myself, I started to keep a log a few years back, but became depressed when I realized I wasn't fishing as much as I wanted to. Kids are grown and work isn't so consuming these days, so I'll probably start keeping records in a year or three.

 

[jeffroey]

I have an Alltrails subscription and whenever I hike in to a stream, I'll have it running to record my track. The app collects distance, route, elevation, etc and is pretty accurate. It allows me to set waypoints w comments, add photos before and after the excursion, has preloaded "characteristics" i can choose like buggy, muddy, cloudy, cool, etc. Most importantly (relto this thread) is it contains a notes section that I fill out with most of the info already discussed here. A lot of times I'll jot down what I was fishing with (a 16 Adams Para... ) so I know where to start (or not) if I make it back.

The app let's you mark the locations/activities you dont want shared as "Private".

Works for me.

 

[Letort]

I have for several years and enjoy looking back and find it useful. Same Information as listed by others, but will also record any hatches I see, so that I can track time of year. Plus any unusual stuff that I can look back and remember.

 

[DanLu]

I keep a little black book in my vehicle, diary sized, and jot notes after every trip. Just stream name, access point, air Temps, water temp, what I caught, what flies, and what bug activity I see. So far I've kept it going since I started fly fishing again in 2016.

It also leads to aggravation though because I can quickly tell at the end of the year that I did not fish enough!!!

 

[BruceC2C]

Years ago, I created a simple spreadsheet itemizing various details from my day on water.
Never really used/ referred to it after initial entry.
As cleaning my fly line and simple one drop of oil to my reel became more of post fishing priority...the journal entry kinda faded away.

 

[Sylvaneous]

I used to, but found it not very useful. I know what the bugs are and when they emerge. Knowing that the grannoms came out 4 days earlier than usual in 1017 doesn't do me much good. Days are good. Days are bad. No helpful trends found.
Syl