Do you keep a journal?

[ROBZILLA]

How many guys keep a fishing journal.

I have ones I use for certain lakes I fish on.

1) water temp
2) weather condition
3) Type of lure
4) Water clarity
5) size of catch
6) color selection (lure)
7) time of day/ and outside temp
8) wind direction and speed
9) try to estimate the depth hit at

Any one else keep these kind of records? I find it useful when going back to lake on later dates.

[WallStreetAmigo]

I have kept a half-a$$ed journal. One of my goals this year is to keep a good journal as it does help develop patterns and places to start.

[BigBassin144]

I am going to start keeping a fishing log, for my dad and me. I used Microsoft Excel spreadsheet thingy to make it. One for my dad, one for me, one for all our bass, and one for Musky.

I included: DATE, TIME, LOCATION, LENGTH, GIRTH, WEIGHT, LURE TYPE, LURE BRAND, LURE, COLOR, RETRIEVE, WEATHER, WIND, WIND STRENGTH, AIR TEMP, WATER TEMP, STRUCTURE, AND OTHER.

The first one I made barely had anything, but as I've been looking at them online, I've added more and more info I think is important.

BB

[carolina-rig-01]

i started one last spring. i did real good keeping it up for a few trips, pre-fishing days, and tournaments. then i got lazy, but this year i am gonna do a lot better because now i am wishing i had information from last year to look at for this year.

[tntitans21399]

I don't really keep a journal, but I do have a fishing map of local lakes I go to. And I copied the pages of the map, and I'll mark a spot (and put a number next to it) and on the back of the page I right down all that info, time of day, date, weather, how I caught it, what I used, etc... That way I can see what areas I might be catching more. I also recently started to do the same thing using google maps.

Another thing I also do is look at my fishing map and copy the area I want to try to fish that day or coming day, and the copied page I'll highlight certain areas to try. Then when I'm out there I'm not spending time looking to spots and I can go to 1-2-3-4- and so on.

[Rebbasser]

Yep. Use a program called Fishinsight. Has a lot of great features and I can print out the reports and keep them in a binder.

One thing I started to do that makes it a whole lot easier: take a small tape/voice recorder on the water with you. When you catch one record the info you want, and then you have a record and don't have to try to remember what/when etc.

[WallStreetAmigo]

That's a great tip Reb. I started doing that the last few times I went out and it makes it a lot easier to maintain the discipline!