Keep a Fishing Journal

Driving home today I was thinking about my fishing trips last year to Erie and when I started. Luckily I have this website I can refer back to my past trips but talking to a few anglers some keep data on where they fish in different form factors.

You can keep a log of your fishing trip on paper, notebook or electronically. I googled fishing journals and I found alot of paper forms on the web and also printable templates which are provided below.

Mark general information at the top of a new page before you start fishing that includes: Date, Water Name, Specific Location (“below dam”, “7.3 miles after turnoff”, etc), Start Time, and Fishing Partners.

Make mental notes of each fish caught and how you caught it. This includes: lure or fly used, type of water, water depth, lure depth, retrieval type and retrieve speed, and time caught. Alternatively, you can keep a small notepad in your tackle box or fishing vest and quickly jot down this information after catching each fish.

Below is a list of categories you should target when putting information into your journal:

1. Observe weather conditions while you fish, including air temperature, cloud cover, wind speed, and precipitation.
2. Note the moon phase of full moon, last quarter, new moon and first quarter. Find productive patterns based on the moon phase.
3. Observe water conditions while you fish, including water temperature, water level, and water clarity.
4. Observe insect hatches while you fish.
5. Use a fine mesh net to seine the water for insects or small fish which may be an important food item to imitate.
6. Write down the aforementioned information in your fishing log when you change fishing locations or at the end of the day.
7. Complete the fishing log entry at the end of the fishing day by writing down information such as: End Time, Best Hours Fished, and General Notes from the day. It may also be useful to sketch a map of the area fished and indicate good fishing locations and poor fishing locations.

Here is some links for printable logs:

http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/media/p…ishing-log.pdf

http://www.onlinefishinglog.com/fish…-template.html

Smartphone Fishing Logs

Anglr – https://anglr.com

•  is a great option for tech-savvy fishermen. Check out how it work: https://anglr.com/fishing-app/how-it-works/