Fish Log?

[Terry Dodge]

........and don't anybody try and make some smartalec remark! I know I can't call the logs I catch fish.

 

Does anybody use a fish log? On line fish log?

[BenG]

I tried to do one in the past but got lazy and stopped. On most trips I keep a hand held counter to track my catch. I got several at bass pro. It is fun if you are fishing with one or more people. The brand I have is a mister crappie you need it for that kind of fishing so you don't keep more then your limit. Me and my wife were in everglades and caught 70 bass I'm. Y hours we would have lost track without the counter. Over the years I noticed fishing spots are consistent as long as water temps are the same as the year prior I keep all the best outings and conditions in my memory. You have to be disciplined to keep a fish log but it would probably helpo

[Paul Trybul]

I've kept a fishing log for 10 years now. I find it to be very helpful. It is also enjoyable to go back during the winter and look back through it. It brings back a lot of good memories. Yes good memories of consistent 20-30 smallmouth days on the Kish. Unfortunately distant memories. I could go back and look but I think there was only 2 of those in 2010 on the Kish for me. It has helped me develope patterns and techniques based on time of year, water levels, and temperatures. Most importantly it helped me accumulate trial and error information that helps put me in the right place at the right time with the right pattern. It's still fishing so all this information does not guarantee success. I'm just trying to put some odds in my favor. Rivers change, silt scours from one area and deposits in a new one. A good tree gets washed away while a new one falls in a different prime area. Sometimes its just as simple reminder of I haven't fished that spot or that river in a while. I did pretty good there a few years back around this time of the year.

 

There is a downside. My significant other uses it as exhibit A on how I'm a fishaholic and I need more balance in my life. I don't ice fish so I figure it all balances out after winter.

[Mike Clifford]

There is a downside. My significant other uses it as exhibit A on how I'm a fishaholic and I need more balance in my life. I don't ice fish so I figure it all balances out after winter.

Now that's funny!

 

I also use a hand counter.

My right hand.

By the end of a season, I may make it to the left...for the year.

[Mike Flyrodder Miller]

Now that's funny!

 

I also use a hand counter.

My right hand.

By the end of a season, I may make it to the left...for the year.

 

 

I use a camera and the same hand counter that Mike uses. My problem is the counter resets itself everytime I pick up my flyrod. So I'm perpetually at zero no matter how may fish I catch. Since I practice CPR it makes sense that my tally always ends up zero.

[Terry Dodge]

I only ask because a couple years ago I ran across an on line fishing log. It's called "fishswami" and it is kind of neat.

I used it during the 2009 season and really liked the way it gives you "stats" on the whole year of which pattern worked best during what month @ what water level and what part of day and so on and so on.

Here's a link if anyone is interested in checking it out over the winter.

 

http://fishswami.com/

 

I liked it but like BenG said "I got lazy" and stopped doing it. Should probably make it a goal to use it more often.

[Gary L]

I bought one and still have it above me but never used it. I guess I just got lazy and never wanted to take the time to keep the info.

[Mike G]

I know that a lot of people swear that a log has made them much better fishermen. One of the first fishing websites in Chicagoland had a bunch of guys that religiously posted their annual tally of fish in December. Literally like "78 Largemouth bass, 57 smallmouth bass, x Crappies, x bluegills, etc., etc. and a partridge in a pear tree totaling 451." I tried this keeping track several times, but I could not get motivated to keep it up. Maybe it is too much like golf where you have to write something down after each hole. Then you go out the next week and play the same holes and write something down again. Then you can tell your friends that you broke 90. My problem is that keeping score makes fishing too much like the rat race of life where your teachers grade you, your coaches rate you, your bosses evaluate you, and your pastor helps you calculate your chances at the pearly gates. Fishing has always been my escape from the rat race.

 

I do count where there is a risk that I could get fined for being over the limit. That is about it for me.

[Terry Dodge]

If any of you get a chance check out that "Fishswami" site. It reads as a fly fishing site but it is set up for all the

spin-gear heads also. As far as writing crap down every time I go out fishing, I never did that. Maybe that's why I got lazy and stopped. No, that's not the reason. I hit a bad dry spell on the Kish and just didn't have anything to log for a long while.

I think I'll give it another shot starting now, as I plan to chase the smallmouth during the winter months.

[Mike G]

Terry,

 

It is an impressive looking site-better than some of the other log sites I have looked at. I was surprised how little advertising there was. In that regard it was like this site. In my short look at the site, I did see some bias toward fly fishing and also a bias toward western trout and salmon fishing. It may need some contributions to represent the Smallmouth Bass better. Since there is not a lot of advertising, I wonder what the gimmick might be. Now that I signed up, we will see if my eMail box gets flooded.

[ronk]

I print all my fish pix in lieu of an actual log.They tell the date & time of day.Below each I jot down the fish size & the location on the river where he was caught.

[Jonn Graham]

I made my own log up on the computer. Cannot say I record all my trips, but I have recorded, in detail, every single guide trip I have done since the beginning. I am a numbers/figures guy when it comes to my guiding. Normally, throughout the year I like to look back and figure out the average number of fish caught per trip.

[Norm M]

I try to remember the how and why I caught fish but that is mentally recorded, not on paper.

 

I kept track of how many fish I caught on rattlebaits in fast water this year until I decided that once you get to a thousand fish on a particular pattern it's well past the point of validating that pattern, so I quit counting. Actually very far past the point.

[TimU]

I try keep an excel spreadsheet for each of my river trips. I am more interested in recording water levels, flow and weather for the day then actual numbers of fish. I do usually enter the number of fish and approximate location/hole the fish came out of. This is only the first year I have been keeping it, but I am hoping that it will help decide which river and location I hit during certain water levels and times of the year. With most rivers being an hour drive for me it is a real bummer to drive an hour just to have a river too high or too low to be fishable. I also photograph the first fish of each outing,(just in case it's the only fish caught)and any other fish that would be a keeper depending on species. I practice C&R 99% percent of the time, usually only keeping panfish once or twice a year.

[Terry Dodge]

This "fishswami" site does all of that and more automatically. You don't have to do it at all.

Just fill out the fishing log sheet each time and when you want all that info it's just one click away.

Best lure, best time of day, water level, sunny,cloudy,rainy,so on and so on. just one click away.

I'm probably the most advertisement you'll get on the site. I've been on it for almost three years now

and I just received an email telling me that someone had made a comment on one of my fishing holes.

Now, with that being said, you can set up your account to be private so only you can see it.

The email I got a couple days ago reminded me that I was on the fishswami fish log site. I totally forgot about it

so I don't think there's a problem with getting flooded with emails.

I just thought some of you guys might be interested in it. Personally I think it's a real good site and it

gets my stamp of approval.

[Scott Ferguson]

I try keep an excel spreadsheet for each of my river trips. I am more interested in recording water levels, flow and weather for the day then actual numbers of fish. I do usually enter the number of fish and approximate location/hole the fish came out of. This is only the first year I have been keeping it, but I am hoping that it will help decide which river and location I hit during certain water levels and times of the year. With most rivers being an hour drive for me it is a real bummer to drive an hour just to have a river too high or too low to be fishable. I also photograph the first fish of each outing,(just in case it's the only fish caught)and any other fish that would be a keeper depending on species. I practice C&R 99% percent of the time, usually only keeping panfish once or twice a year.

 

Tim, are you aware of the USGS web pages that show water levels and flow rates for most of the rivers in the state? A few of the sites even show water temperature.You can view the water levels going back 120 days. You can see average levels for the dates as well. Here is the page for the entire state of Illinois. You can click on your river at different locations and bookmark them for future use.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/il/nwis/rt

[Norm M]

I've made it a point for years to check the guages before I go out to fish. After you do that enough times for a particular flow, you can pretty much know where you should be fishing for that flow rate on that river at that time of the year.

 

I've never found it to be to high or to low to find a place to fish. The fish adapt and so do I. The biggest concern in high water is safety. In low water, you can expect the fish to hold any where they want to, high water concentrates them in much more predictable areas. Of course knowing where they are and catching some can be completely different creatues altogether.

[Bterrill]

Logs are a useful tool if you are inclined to obsess about such things in an enjoyable way. They bring back a lot of fond memories with friends and alone.

 

I use Google Documents Spreadsheet which is a free online tool attached to your google Gmail account. You can even choose to give access to friends with a Gmail account. Works just like Excel only it is stored online.

 

2010 has been a good year for me for numbers and fish per hour (stream names removed and all the data wouldn't fit in the screen capture):

 

 

I have been keeping an Indiana only fishing log with individual entries for each of the 51 Indiana streams I fish since 2007. Some interesting trends appear.

 

I keep track of stream, date, CFS, weather that day, air temps, hours fished, bass caught (99% smallmouth bass), other fish caught, #'s of 16-16.99", 17-17.99", 18-18.99", 19-19.99", 20"+. Some interesting data. You definately start to see trends and can analyze the data for peak times etc...

 

I think of it as tracking data the DNR doesn't for my own use. All anecdotal observations because I'm not a trained scientist. No one else is going to study our streams like we the fisherman, can.

[TimU]

Bterril,

I keep a similar spread sheet, except yours is much more detailed. Are you using the color coding for different streams? I currently separate my data via tabs in excel...each stream will have it's own tab, but I would like to bring them on to the same tab, I think color coding each line may accomplish that. I guess it might become a problem if/when I fish more than the 4 streams I currently fish. Also, I don't understand what you have under the water temp column on your sheet. 3-15"??? Is this a code that I am just not aware of?

 

 

Scott F,

I pull my data from the USGS site, I just record it on a spreadsheet for quick reference and comparison. I check the gauge before I go out, and then again when I get back. I fish the Fox often and depending with what they are doing with the locks coming out of the Chain that day this lets me record if the water was rising or declining during my trip.

[Terry Dodge]

I'm telli' ya, fishswami does all that and more. It's worth a look.

[Scott Ferguson]

I think we should start calling Terry Dodge, "Swami".

[jude]

Uh oh.....I sense a "Swami" video in our future.

[Terry Dodge]

 

 

 

I can take a hint.

I will not say another word about fishswami after this post but if Bterrill were to take an hour or so and *punch in the information above into fishswami my guess is he would be impressed with fishswami's abilities and stop using the above log sheet.

 

*punch - My new video in the works co-staring Jude - as the man who gets PUNCHED.

 

See ya Saturday morning buddy.

[Norm M]

will it be you and Jude dancing under the stars?

[Terry Dodge]

Well when you concider how much Jude likes to eat breakfast, either before or after a river outing, I suppose I could choreograph

some type of dance involving the two of us dancing to this tune.......