Fish Logs

[Tele'ndaboat]

Who does it? Who logs the fish they catch and what do you log? Fly? Temp? Weather?

Do you use one on your phone or old school paper? If you use an app, what do you like and dislike about it?

I haven't logged fish since I was a newbie to the sport, but thinking of starting up again. Mostly, I've fished the same water for fifteen years and at this point I have a damn good idea of what is going on, but I thought it might be fun to have the facts to back it up... Also, i now have the skills to make my own app for it, so I thought that might be fun.

[skifishbum]

to quote hdt and a mags sig

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after -H.D. Thoreau

log it

[Happy Fun Ball]

I did it for one season and it damn near ruined it for me. Started by tracking fish, time of day, weather, and fly/lure. I started bailing out on days that didn't line up with what my "statistics" told me was a good day. The only useful information I gathered was there's just too many variables to worry about and my days on the water get less and less each year. I'm more in line with SFB.....just go fish!

[schwerty]

I did it about 20years ago when I lived in MT. Got too cumbersome and took away from fishing to record while actually fishing. It's helpful to have some of the water temp info from yr to year and match to life stages of the bugs in your area. But, recording the fish you catch does really do much.

[teleee]

I have started to keep a fishing journal just to remember my days on the water. Nothing to complicated, date, weather, who with and how the fishing was. More so in 3 years when Schwert says when was that we fished the Snake with J I can look it up... Cause my memory is the suck!

[MakersTeleMark]

Dear Diary:

Today I caught some trout on the river.

Dear Diary:

Today I caught some more trout on the river.

Dear Diary:

Today I caught some more trout on the river.

Dear Diary:

Today I caught some more trout on the river.

Dear Diary:

Today I caught some more trout on the river.

Dear Diary:

Today I caught some more trout on the river.

Dear Diary:

Today I caught some more trout on the river.

Dear Diary:

Today I caught some more trout on the river.

Dear Diary:

Today I caught some more trout on the river.

Dear Diary:

Today I caught some more trout on the river.

Dear Diary:

Today I did not catch any trout on the river.

Dear Diary:

Today I caught some more trout on the river.

[teleee]

You forgot, dear diary today all I caught were motherfuckin white fish and this wicked whiskey hangover.

[Mr. Samurai]

i don't understand what do you mean with this

[plugboots]

I did this way back when I fished hard a lot over one summer, and I even drew little diagrams of spots. I didn't take temps. cuz I never do anyway, but flies and hatches, and anything out of the ordinary. I looked at it recently, and I'm glad I did, I forgot a bunch of stuff, and it helped when I went back to some rivers I hadn't fished since.

[AlderBash]

I just started back up logging this season, but used to do it as a kid. Primarily did it to be able to look back on when major events happened in previous seasons (ie fry fall out, water levels, when fish arrived). Not so focused on what I catch, but more observations to put myself in a good position for next season in hopes of similar luck.

And maybe I'll get back here again next April---->

[plugboots]

^^^Exactly.

2 logbook stories:

1) I heliskied with Whistler heli 20? years ago, and the heli was ferrying 8 groups. We were the "Got yourself some big American fellahs there do ya Hank?" group, with 7 other groups ALL on company-won trips, ALL from Japan, ALL wearing matching fartbags, (mostly from Asics), and ALL of them smoked during lunch while sitting in circles.

We had one non-friend in our group who was from Japan, and he barely spoke English but he had a detailed logbook of every ski run he had ever taken. He had never been on a chairlift. He learned to ski using the heli. I've never heard of anything like this before or since.


2) I fished in Maine this last April, and the guide logged every fish caught on his boat. He compiled it, and then sent an end-of-year newsletter to his customers. I thought that was pretty fucking cool.

[JayPowHound]

I did this way back when I fished hard a lot over one summer, and I even drew little diagrams of spots. I didn't take temps. cuz I never do anyway, but flies and hatches, and anything out of the ordinary. I looked at it recently, and I'm glad I did, I forgot a bunch of stuff, and it helped when I went back to some rivers I hadn't fished since.

Seems to me like this would be the point.

I don't get out enough to need a memory system, but if I did I can certainly see the value.

[skipowpow]

I worked on my Excel Fishing log this weekend. I used to use an app called Flybook, but last phone upgrade wiped the log. I log days skiing, floating, and fishing.

I track the who, what , where, and when as a memory backup.

I use the data to demonstrate to the wife when she says, "you go all the time" and I can say, "No I don't" with real data