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Old 04-09-14, 10:41 PM   #1
senkosam
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Default Fishing log - final analysis from all that record keeping

For two decades I kept a running log and then a few years ago started categorizing information into seasonal catches and then waters fished. Included were the following:
date and am or pm when fish were caught / air and water temp./ sky (cloudy, blue bird)/ front (if any)/ areas of lake or fish caught and depth/ general fish activity (numbers caught - great, good, fair, sucked), /specific lures that caught fish (including size,weight and color) / fish size, length, weight (but only if over 3 lbs.)/ water level (normal, high, low)/ partner's fish info


What did I learn and why don't I find the need to keep logs? :
1. There are only a few patterns one can count on where the odds of catching fish are high. Spring, obviously. At other times, patterns may come easy or not regardless of month. August seem so have been a good month for size over all behind late April, May and early June.

2. So many lure types and names, colors and sizes and presentations, different times of year can be summed up as: it won't catch fish unless I cast it and I'll never know unless I do! Predicting what bass will strike can be as much of a challenge as finding locations bass are holding in and the same thing applies to the fact I've discovered that: bass locations vary from year to year to a great extent, making logs unreliable to a great extent.

3. Large bass hit small lures and small fish hit large lures at times, totally unexpected;
school bass hit many lure types when active in one or more areas;
the best lure retrieve may be medium fast to dead stick/ swimming horizontal or bottom dragging (though rarely vertical) and; a few lures and retrieves may hold for different areas all day long.

4. Lure color was rarely important and depending on lure design, I caught bass on at least three colors per each lure type in a nine hour period. This has allowed me to count on only a few colors per lure type rather than buy the latest fad colors. Some of the ugliest lures with the strangest actions caught fish at times.

5. Days I expected to be slow were pleasant surprises and vice versa.

6. Post severe, seasonal events (drought/heat, thick ice, heavy rains creating flooding conditions) many times turned out to produce bonanza fishing experiences. Fish locations and activity changed significantly.

7. Just because a clown cut me off along a shore line or on a large hump didn't mean I couldn't catch bass behind him, especially if he or his partner wasn't catching fish. (It pays to know the water and much of the above....). Of course it always came as a surprise when someone followed from behind, from a distance, and caught nice fish.

8. Various presentations have a time and place and can be depended on depending on structure and cover in certain shallow lakes averaging under 15'.

9. The log also contained reminders such as what lures to bring next time to the same water; tackle improvements (changing line on a reel, oil the gears), improve or bring this or that in the boat that I had forgotten or replace an anchor lost to a bad knot - a yearly event ).

10. The most important thing logs have show me are that action (lure and presentation) speaks louder than trying to figure out what a fish thinks a lure might be.

Having caught many bass in a days time or even in an hours time on various lure types, has supported this proposition year after year. I may have caught fish on topwater in a fog at 7am but by the time the fog cleared, caught bass on crankbaits and spinnerbaits before twelve, only to start doing well again on jigs and worms. More important was that at times, I went back to my starting point a mile or two along the same shore and caught more fish, altering depth and presentation.

11. Rarely do fish stay in the same areas post spawn and rarely do they do as well in the same areas in following years unless extreme weather produces changes in water conditions, such as average depth, temperature, clarity, oxygen levels, etc.

12. Never can I count on a log to know when, where or how I'll catch fish five pounds or more. It happened unexpectedly in odd areas I could not have predicted and usually on the reflex strike or on medium to slow presentations.

13. Did a lure work extremely well on the day logged because it was a good lure or did everything come together at that moment in time that made it seem the lure was the greatest thing since the barbed hook? Most evidence logged years later support the latter.
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Old 04-09-14, 11:38 PM   #2
mikechell
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Well written summation, SenkoSam. I have never kept a log ... mostly because I'd forget to keep up with one. I can't even remember to take a pill when i am supposed to.
But I do have a fairly good memory from one trip to the next, and I agree with most of your statements. I think fishing is all about movement.
Movement of the lure matching what the fish will chase.
Movement of the water giving the fish a chance to sit and wait for food to come to it.
Movement of the angler. If you ain't catchin' at THAT spot ... go to ANOTHER spot. Move that boat just ten feet farther along the bank and keep casting.
Sorry, bank fishers, if you're not catching fish, go home or try somewhere else.
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Old 04-10-14, 08:42 AM   #3
lilmule
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I take a collection of the colors that work and have a bait created to specs.
Some appear pretty some do not but noone generally has one just like it in their box.


These two bellator lures out of clarksville paints as a pattern but close in nature to desired so purchased them he has painted some to exact specs and is reasonable.
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Old 04-10-14, 01:09 PM   #4
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Sam, well done!

Pros prefishing and finding the 'spot' just to find out on tournament day....they are no where to be found.....or are they just not biting and still there.
Backs your research!
Thanks again!

Knowledge can be just AS DANGEROUS as HELPFULL.

THATS WHY US DUMBIES ARE ALWAYS smiling!
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Old 04-10-14, 06:27 PM   #5
Dave63
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I wish I would consistently keep a journal, but I doubt my results would be much different

The best advice that I've ever received (from a man who's won I don't know how many tournaments and a couple of boats):

"They'll be where they want to be and they'll eat what they want to eat"

Oh, and "Don't leave fish to find fish"
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Last edited by Dave63; 04-10-14 at 06:28 PM. Reason: Forgot something...
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Old 04-11-14, 06:57 AM   #6
kennethdaysale
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I understand your feelings about your log. I've been logging trips for a long long time, not a detailed spread sheet type like Dean does, just a never ending word document that's pretty detailed in it's own way.

After so many years of studying it the night before every trip I've arrived at some conclusions of my own.

1. Like any statistical analysis the bigger the sample the more reliable the results.

2. Even though the old saying "a bass is a bass wherever you find him" is true to some extent, I have found that that very often the bass in lake X behave way different from the ones in lake Y.

3. Tracking water temps and bait movement can be more impactive than lure types, colors or actions.

If a young beginner was to ask me if he should begin keeping a log of trips, my answer would be a definate yes.

*note* since men don't typically keep diaries and since I often make notes in my "log" of personal feelings, life events and funny or interesting things that often happen on the water, reading back through logs of many years past is good.
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