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| I've decided I've been lazy long enough and I'm planning on keeping a journal this year. What types of info do you keep in yours and what's the most convient way to do it? |
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Posts: 55
Location: Coon Rapids, MN | I have an excel spread sheet set up for recording my outings.
It includes:
Date
Lake
Weather (as detailed as possible including wind speed and direction)
Water temp
Fish Moved
Fish Caught
Then there is a note section that I record more details. (baits, presentation, Structure & anything that I feel will be nice to know later down the road.) |
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Posts: 32
| my fishing logs usually contain the notes, "no fish caught. why do i persevere?"
A few things I can add to the above list, would be
-current atm. pres.
-is the pressure on the fall or rise [not necessary, overly detailed maybe.]
-time
-color of bait [people tend to focus on this]
-throwing towards shore, parallel to rock line, throwing deep retrieving shallow, etc... add stuff like this to notes if you care too
just a few ideas 
Edited by adamsnez 3/3/2011 12:30 PM
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Posts: 32
| Blake - 3/3/2011 11:43 AM
I have an excel spread sheet set up for recording my outings.
It includes:
Date
Lake
Weather (as detailed as possible including wind speed and direction)
Water temp
Fish Moved
Fish Caught
Then there is a note section that I record more details. (baits, presentation, Structure & anything that I feel will be nice to know later down the road.)
No harm in asking, but would you care to share that excel sheet as an attachment to the forum?
Would like to see how you've set yours up
-Adam |
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Posts: 994
Location: Minnesota: where it's tough to be a sportsfan! | I used to log fish, spots and details. After years of it I ended up logging lake information. I had more good data on this lake or that one when the algae bloomed and what the fish response was and when this bay seemed to turn on etc...bait patterns also from catches. At first I was trying to pattern the fish, that was a waste of time, then focus shifted on knowing the waters. When to be where is key |
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Posts: 8835
| I use an excel spreadsheet too.
Date
Time
Weather
Wind
Moon Phase
Moon Rise
Moon Set
Major(s)
Minor(s)
Sun Rise
Sun Set
Air Temp
Water Temp
Water Clarity
Depth
Structure
Length
Girth
Weight
Lure type
Lure Color
Presentation
Lake
Location
Notes |
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Posts: 829
Location: Maple Grove, MN | Gosh, that sounds like a lot of work. I have a hard time just remembering what my wife said ten minutes ago. To come off the water and remember all that? Wow! That is something.
What was I talking about?  |
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Posts: 1901
Location: MN | Anonymous - no need to be a harda$$. I'm sure he's not asking how to use an excel spreadsheet, he's probably asking what order he puts those things in, how much space, and what kind of comments he makes. |
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Posts: 8835
| Herb_b - 3/3/2011 2:25 PM
Gosh, that sounds like a lot of work. I have a hard time just remembering what my wife said ten minutes ago. To come off the water and remember all that? Wow! That is something.
What was I talking about? ;)
I ususally write most of it down between when the fish is released and when my hands stop shaking. The moon/sun/etc stuff you can always look up later and fill in the blanks. Putting what i write into the actual long? Yeah, well... |
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Posts: 1247
Location: On the Niagara River in Buffalo, NY | I have been collecting data on every fish caught since 1990.I can pull up by time of year,by lure,by color,by weather conditions,depth etc.. I use FISHbase!
http://www.pvisuals.com/fishing/fishbase/fishbase.html
Capt. Larry D. Jones
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Posts: 464
| Seriously, your writing in your journal when you should be fishing. Catching a fish means the fish are eating, and they are eating now. Don't waste your time writing notes till your done fishing. |
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Posts: 55
Location: Coon Rapids, MN | My excel log isn't anything special. If I get a chance/remember when I'm on my computer instead of my phone I'll try to attach a copy. I think the best bet would be just to make something simple so you will be more likely to enter info into it. I have formulas set up to calculate total time on the water, fish moved and caught for the season which isn't really needed. It's kind of fun to look back on though to compare season to season. |
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Posts: 682
Location: Sycamore, IL | I started using one of the free calenders I get at the fishing shows. I don't get real detailed but record time on the water, what lake and # of fish caught/ bait caught on. Pretty simple, but cool to look back on when the year is done. Even though I suffer from C.R.S. I can usually remember these details until I get home to write them down! Have fun...
Matt |
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Posts: 1247
Location: On the Niagara River in Buffalo, NY | My cell phone allows me to leave myself voice messages and then I enter the data after the days fishing is over!
Capt. Larry |
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Posts: 56
Location: Southern MN | LarryJones - 3/3/2011 5:32 PM
My cell phone allows me to leave myself voice messages and then I enter the data after the days fishing is over!
Capt. Larry
Never thought of that, might have to use that one, thanks Larry! I've got an old fashioned notebook where I've written down details, haven't muskie fished or caught enough to outgrow that method yet. |
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Posts: 222
Location: c.wis | i use an oversized calander with the moon phase on it already things i record:
air and water temp
warming or cooling trend
high or low water
color of the water
where i see bait
obviously I keep record of fish boated, follows, strikes ect..
a pattern if i found one
baits used on sucsesful days
structure type i saw active fish on
pressure that day barometric and other fishing pressure
times i saw active fish
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Posts: 143
Location: Kentucky | Iphone has an awesome App.. iFishJournal-Fishermans Journal & Fishing Log.. $8 but it sure beats the old school way... |
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Posts: 16
| http://team-fishigan.com/FT/Muskie_v1.pdf
If I missed something, let me know can I can add it. THX
Edited by mrymar 3/4/2011 12:03 PM
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Location: SE Wisconsin | I've got a great Excel spreadsheet log. Is there a way to submit it as a downloadable template, Steve?
Here's an example of my 2009 log. I was lazy and didn't record in 2010, but I didn't fish half as much, either... 
Edited by Sam Ubl 3/4/2011 1:01 PM
Attachments
----------------
 My Musky Log.jpg (133KB - 213 downloads)
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Posts: 774
Location: South East Wisconsin | Iphone also has an app called (dragon dictation). You can speak directly into your phone and leave your quick notes. Free as well. |
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Posts: 416
Location: Madtown, WI | I too keep a log in excel, have data going back to 2003. Not sure if others are doing it, but I set it up to automatically calculate statistics for follows, hits, fish boated, fish caught, average size, broken down by hour, months, years, lakes, anglers, boat position (front or back), etc. etc....
In the log, my columns are Month, Day, Lake, Start Time, End Time, Sky Conditions, Barometer trend, wind direction, wind speed, air temp, water temp, angler, # of follows, hits, fish boated, fish lost, and then some general remarks my approach and what was working. Usually I just remember # of active fish and then use weatherunderground to fill in the weather conditions, relatively painless process. |
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Posts: 378
Location: Michigan | I too created a log in excel. I used to keep a lot more data than I do today. Just the basics for me now. You can get analysis paralysis when you have too much data. I like haveing enough data to generate stats, and to serve as a memory jogger on locations, temps, etc. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | I have kept a log, the last 4 yrs or so, last year I didn't keep it up as well ...it does seem to help on where your time is best spent on certain lakes and regions. always find it interesting to look at the total fish contacted per season with the last 4 yrs running about 750-850 fish per season...the numbers that put things in perspective are hours per fish in the net, and hours per 50"er in the net...on trips I write down the daily activity after I'm off the water, or sometimes I use the notepad feature in my phone tho I like the idea above about the voice memo...might be much quicker and easier ..thanks for the tip |
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Posts: 95
| Something like the Dragon Dictation App might work well because I tried a season of voice memo recording and with a busy guide schedule (or work schedule) it became very difficult to write down all the info after season was over. And I found that recording voice memos was much less accurate compared to just plain forcing myself to take the time to write the details down, no matter how tired I am. I have been using the note pad feature on my phone and then emailing the data and posting it in a word doc. I will usually use the note pad during actual fishing - writing down the just the basic info (time etc) once it gets too difficult to remember/keep track of - on good days and then adding details to it during the evening or whenever done fishing for the day.
Chas Martin
http://www.muskymastery.com |
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Posts: 8835
| I just carry a few blank log sheets with me. Takes 30 seconds to fill in the blanks between spots. |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | As a member of MI, I log all of my fish on theri website. With that said, I need to finger out a method of charting/graphing trends and occurances. I like Sams log above, though I would have a row for each fish caught instead of a row for each day on the water. Having a row for each fish would allow one to graph the data for multiple criteria points over time, so one can locate trends etc. Anyone have any luck tinkering with MI's log? I suppose I could copy and paste the entries to a spreadsheet set up with coinciding headings, but I haven't found a way to get all of the data for all fish to show up on the yearly MI fish lists. Perhaps I need a bit of direction on this. |
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Posts: 59
Location: WI | Date of Catch:
Exact Time Caught:
Length (Inches):
Girth (Inches):
Lake Name:
Area:
State:
Lure Type:
Lure Name:
Lure Color:
Presentation:
Bottom Type:
Depth:
Weather:
Wind Direction:
Air Temp:
Water Temp:
Moon Phase:
Comments:
In the comments I add a picture, and if anyone fell out of the boat. |
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Posts: 186
Location: Waconia, MN | I too am planning on starting a log this year. I used a word format with all the info listed above. I also added a half-page-sized map of the lake I fish most frequently to the bottom of the page. Not sure if this will help but I figure it can't hurt. I'll report back in a couple years. |
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