Northwest Fishing Reports

Now that the new year is here, I thought I might start keeping a fishing log. Those of you that keep fishing logs, do you use paper, a spreadsheet, fishing log software, or maybe an online site? Any recommendations?

I keep one for steelhead fishing. I use a spread sheet and copy and paste the hydrolodgy graphs. Other comments are date, time, weather, water conditions, amount of fish that were caught, what jigs I was using etc.

I went for awhile doing basically what kzoo said, just using an excel spreadsheet. My problem is keeping with it. by the time I get home, put stuff away, apologize for being late, clean fish, apologize for being late, shower, grovel a little more to the wife, play with the kid.. etc.. the log kind of falls by the wayside.

I haven't picked one up yet, but this year I plan to pick up a calendar with big squares that I can hang on the wall in my garage behind my rod rack. That way I can log the outing right on the calendar while I put my gear away. Then either just save the calendar or at the end of the year, put the whole works into a file of some type. Ask me in a year how that worked for me

Toni wrote:I keep mine on washingtonlakes.com

BINGO! IF a person doesn't mind having it avaialble to the public it's a great way to organize all your trips in one place. Just check out my reports page:

http://www.washingtonlakes.com/MemberReports.aspx It's even search-able so when you have 1,000 reports posted you can just type in the name of the location and only those results will get posted (try typing in Cottage in the search box). Aaron created an amazing database tool!

If you want to keep some of the trips hush hush there is the Blog space which you can make your posts be private to just yourself and whatever friends you chose to share with.

Course, I am biased.

Gringo Pescador wrote:I went for awhile doing basically what kzoo said, just using an excel spreadsheet. My problem is keeping with it. by the time I get home, put stuff away, apologize for being late, clean fish, apologize for being late, shower, grovel a little more to the wife, play with the kid.. etc.. the log kind of falls by the wayside.

I haven't picked one up yet, but this year I plan to pick up a calendar with big squares that I can hang on the wall in my garage behind my rod rack. That way I can log the outing right on the calendar while I put my gear away. Then either just save the calendar or at the end of the year, put the whole works into a file of some type. Ask me in a year how that worked for me

That's how I always roll, so the time immediately after fishing is spent with the wife, cooking dinner, cleaning fish watching movies and stuff. Before I go to bed though I set aside a little time to unwind, maybe with a glass of Maker's or an old fashioned, re-organize my gear and write in my journal. We have always kept a fishing journal, ever since I was a kid. It's really kinda cool. The one we started out with was just a little leather journal with ruled paper. We put the date, water quality, fish caught and the story in it. It's really fun to go back and read through it, since we've had it for so many years. My dad has to old one, but I've started my own for my outings. I just have a moleskin, which is very nice and durable. I like the idea of using an electronic format, but for me personally (no offense mike ) it doesn't hold the significance that a physical, leatherbound, time spent journal. Hard drives crash, clicking through a history is well and good, but my grandkids will be able to hold my journal and read it. My grandad did the same thing, and although he is long since passed, it's really neat to read his journal from fishing in the 50's and even earlier. We have all his old photos inserted into it and it's in his handwriting, so it's like we've got a little piece of him with us when we're fishing. And when you've got a big expensive journal to write in, it gives you more incentive to actually do the journaling.

Although sometimes I've though that it might be neat to have one that was designed, with forms and fishing specific content. I'm actually playing around with some design ideas right now for a journal that I could have printed. If I finish it, I'll post it on here for you guys to see. But just cause you have a journal doesn't mean you shouldn't post reports! I still post reports and would blog, but I don't have that anymore, I've got to work on that.

I do agree with you on the leather-bound journal, that's a piece of tangible history you can hold on too.

I use my reports on here for the most part, but there are some times I do not post reports for one reason or another. Writing? Longhand? With Pen and Paper?? Sounds too much like homework to me, I never was good at homework

I kept a hand written log for about 35 years of every fishing trip - skunks and all. This, of course, was long before computers. Since I have gotten a computer, I have kept a log on a floppy disk or a USB unit and printed them out at the end of each year. They are quite interesting to read after so many years - old fishing buddies and so many different places. I would recommend it to all anglers. On trips taking several days, take your note pad with you to insure retaining interesting small details -- And, a camera is a must!

I have fishing logs that go back to 1964.
Hand written log books were all we had in those days.
A few years ago I sat down and put them on a CD.
Now all I have to do is type in the name of the lake .

Gringo Pescador wrote:I use my reports on here for the most part, but there are some times I do not post reports for one reason or another. Writing? Longhand? With Pen and Paper?? Sounds too much like homework to me, I never was good at homework

Hahahaha, you sound like the kids I went to school with. I feel like writing is becoming a lost art. But when you actually do it you'll find that you put more thought into it, and that it will hold more significance to you down the road. IT definitely is a discipline.

I'm going to start a log this year. years before I may have wrote a few notes here and there but nothing organized. This year the plan is to make an excel spreadsheet with all my info like Date, lake, fish caught, lengths, weights, water temp, air temp, etc. I'll be printing out these report sheets and putting them in a binder and filling them out long hand while on the water or in the mountains