| I use a regular composition book - those bound, black and white books you can get at any office-products store.
For every entry I include the following information: lake, who I fished with, date, time of day on the water, moon phase (day 1-28), all the weather-related information I know for that day (temp, wind speed and direction, barometer, precip.), and the sunrise/set, moonrise/set and major periods all at the top of the page.
In the main part of the entry I go into a description of the places I fished (location, depth, type of structure, etc.) and how I fished them (lures, presentation, fast or slow, etc.). This part also includes the results from each spot (fish caught, follows).
The third part, and probably the most important, is a retrospective analysis. What worked, what didn't, why? Also, no matter how things turned out, even if it was a really good day, I enter some suggestions of what I could have done differently to make the day even better. This is important, as it challenges yourself to really be thoughtful and analytical about the day on the water. Pushing yourself to do better, even on a good day, will make you more able to quickly make the right adjustments on the water in the future. Also, thinking of what to do different will help keep you from ever getting in the type of rut where you just go out and do the same things over and over and over.
Keeping a good log is the #1 way to improve, in my opinion. In the short term it will make you a more thoughtful angler. In the long term you'll build history and patterns will emerge you wouldn't have otherwise determined without the log. Sitting at the kitchen table, or on the can, during the off-season with og books is a great way to pass the off-season and it will make you a better fisherman. Yes, keepin up the book can be a boring pain in the butt at times but it will make you better. Period. One other thing I do is make a bunch of entries at the end of the season to document things to try the following season. Maybe it's working on a skill you know needs improvement (jig fishing, for example) or maybe it's a certain lake or section of a lake that needs more time. I enter about 10-15 of these in the book at the end of the season. It's important to do this at the end of the season while the year's fishing is still fresh in you mind.
I've kept a log for a looooooooong time and it has absolutly made me way better than I'd have been without it. Also, it's fun to dust off an old books and read.
This year, start that log book and keep at it.
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