Fishing diaries.

[Mick]

Does anyone keep fishing diaries? If so, what sort of information do you record? I have thought of moon phases, time of tide, amount of run, time of day, water temp, wind speed and direction, weather rain is on the way / approaching storm, just had rain, bait, species caught, overcast, condition of fish, stomach contents, lure type and speed of retrieving / trolling, line class and rig set up.
Is there anything I have missed or do I need to include all this info to keep a detailed log of my fishing?

[Bream_Reaper01]

you've thought of everything by the looks of it,except what you had for breakfast

[Fishin_Dan]

How about "Water Condition"? ie Murky water, Clean water, Floating Debris, etc...

[Lucky_Phill]

Barometric pressure !

[jeffo]

any chance there is a web site with a downloadable (if thats a word ;D) fishing diary? or can one be bought?

[baldyhead]

How about type of bottom eg coral, rubble, sand, mud, snag, etc etc. Also location eg, creek mouth, bend in XYZ river, Zyt reef, etc and lat/lon of spots....cheers baldy

[DR]

have a look at www.fishingdiary.com
you can download a 30 day free trial & if you like can buy for $25

[Mick]

...mmm, yes, forgot location, thanks baldy and i guess water condition may be a good inclusion to dan. Thanks guys, I will check that web page to DR.
Has anyone kept a good log before and if so have you found it to be beneficial to your fishing?
Mick
PS No smarty pants answers about keeping a tree trunk or something in the bottom of the toilet. lol ;D

[Heath]

I just use excel.

Easy to use & easy to pull reports from.

The fields I track are -
date, time out, time in, total time, wind direction, tide, SST, moon phase, moon rise, moon set, current, sky, barometer, maori bite times, location, bait, fish caught, comments, who I fished with.

Have been tracking every trip since Dec 1999. Some interesting trends show up after a while #;)

[devocean]

What about who you take fishing? Thats important

[Daintreeboy]

Yep pressure is a big one to log. Don't forget to hand your results out to all of us lol
Cheers, Mark.

[mon]

What about 'Did I take the camera' seems everytime I have it on board I don't catch a fish!!

MON.

[megan]

I have been writing in a fishing diary since around 1998. I thought it would be good so when I have grandkids one day they can have a read - who knows what type of fish will be around then! I just write in an old thick exercise type book. I list the bait used, location, type of bottom, time of day, wind, current (if any) tide and anything interesting that I might have seen - seals, dolphins, whales etc. It's also good fun to read back and go "remember that day when blah blah blah happened." I also have a fishing photo album so the truth can be seen. ;)

[macdwp01]

you've thought of everything by the looks of it,except what you had for breakfast
That is Gold

[nonibbles]

I've had one going for just over 12months now in Works spreadsheet. I also added things like petrol cost, bait cost, lures lost, food cost, accom cost, other costs, costs redeamed/by whom - and then it works out the actual cost of the trip for me. I placed a large comments section at the end for free text (which has turned out to be most handy eg. filename of where photos are stored etc.)

[Mr.Smog]

Mick,
Been keeping one since the 70's. On and off that is. Problem with me is remembering to make the entries.
Cheers,
Mr.Smog

[dasher]

Try here for a fishing log http://www.idealists.com/fishingbuddy/ It even includes the solunar tables. [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

[DR]

just had a look at Dashers site, heaps better than one i found. like the solunar table [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]
applies to aussies & can be adapted to any area.

[dasher]

Yeah its pretty good for me cos I use the Aus thingy link to get the gps. So u end up with pretty accurate info. :D [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

[dasher]

Just an afterthougth, not sure how much storage for fotos. ??? ???

[Wild_Side]

I used to try an keep a "dairy" of sorts. Found that to much info is not a good thing. :P
Around 1995 I started to keep this diary, and it had everthing that I could think of in it. But in the end I found only a few things that stood out to me- moon phase, sun rise, location(in the creeks) I mainly target barra and these things are the most important things I follow. ;)

[bigal]

dont forget the all important thing... which way you are holding your toungue...

[Mick]

Hey Wild Side, that is my biggest fear. Keeping a diary and then working out a few things that seem to be the most important factors for fishing and then only to find out later that it was a fluke. See, sometimes I think the less you know the better. For example, say I find my next 5 trips to be realy good on a low tide with a half moon setting, I could start to think that this is the only time I will fish. The result of this means I won't go fishing on a new moon rising on a high tide which might be what I exactly have to do because of some other influencing factor that I am unaware of. I guess the way around this is to just always go fishing in all types of conditions and tell my brain to just shut up.