Log Books

[bluesdude71]

Maybe you could call me anal but I keep a log of my trips. Keep it in the car otherwise I would not do it or forget.

[dogfish]

Maybe you could call me anal but I keep a log of my trips. Keep it in the car otherwise I would not do it or forget.

Nothing wrong with keeping a log, a lot of the more serious fishermen do. I have beeen keeping one for a few years now, helpful to compare & predict movements of the big girls and different kinds of bait. All in the log, my brain could never hold all that in.

[Monty]

I have kept one. Not detailed enough.
Recently have started adding more details.
Forgetting is a major problem.

Maybe you could call me anal but I keep a log of my trips. Keep it in the car otherwise I would not do it or forget.

[buckethead]

I have kept a log book for years. I can see patterns which me come into fish.

[bababooey]

I keep one on the boat. I find it helps when trying to track spring of fall migration, but you can't treat it as gospel. Nothing is absolute.

[storminsteve]

I just started this year, so i have almost a full year of data. I hope to put it to use next year and after that in trying to predict things and look for patterns.

[CharlieTuna]

IMO one of the best reasons to keep a log is the patterns you may notice, or when the season starts off badly, and the bait you are looking for is not around. Logs can help you to get a better handle on this and test some theories.

[stripermania]

I am interested in starting a log book for my catches. Does anyone have one here and if so what things do you keeped logged? Size, weight, time of day, conditions etc.

[Rip-Plugger]

log book?,,,oh yeah,I keep a half *** one.it is a history of what I caught what tide is not important because I always fish the top of the flood anyway.as far as the moon phase,I don't keep track of that either because worm hatches happen right around that time so the fish seem to key in on them anyway.
I do keep track of the time when the moon is waxing and waning only,full moon is the high point.

sizes/weights I don't keep,if I harvested the fish,a picture with all that is on it.time of day,well,I do only in darkness so thats another thing I can forget about keeping track of.
I do keep track of what size what lure and water temp,,,sometimes

I started back in 05 and still refer to them all from where/when.

R-P
cheers

[ledhead36]

I've kept a log book for years. What I caught, what it was caught on. Time of day, tide, weather, where I got it, I keep it all. That has become like a bible to me. A little anal but it makes me.

[strikezone31]

My mind is my log book.

[porgy75]

I started a book, but it is just a few basic entries. Size, where caught and what was used.

[jimbob]

I spent years trying to keep a log book, I would always start and then just stop. I finally kept at it when I started tagging in 2003. at first it was date, location, fish I caught and tagged. It eventually turned into a record book of locations, fish, time, tide, animals I saw events that happened. I have pictures and comic strips that have to do with fishing, recipes that I have tried. Now that I have been doing it this long I really wish I had kept a log since I started to fish. When I go back and read them I realize how much memory can decieve you. I recomend every fisherman keep some kind of record of thier fishing trips. you will be glad you did.

[VSdreams]

I think you get a general idea of when to be out there. No log is guaranteed. Like the mullet run, they usually spill out of the bays on the fall harvest moon. Does it always happen like that, no. Should you be ready for action during that week, yes.

[finchaser]

Yes to a degree i have an electronic program which I've used for over 10 years. Gives me reports by moon,tide stage, water temp,plug color ,plug type,location,date, time of day or night and so on. Also when fish arrived and left by water temp the main factor in fishing not the date.

As VS said be ready fish and bait move by harvest moon and water temp drops usually created by storms.

Here's the reason there is a fall run, hope this helps you



September’s full harvest moon has a tremendous effect on both weakfish and striped bass which take it as a sign to start their annual southern migration. During this lunar period juvenile species of both predator and prey are driven outward along the shoreline.

[DarkSkies]

Also when fish arrived and left by water temp the main factor in fishing not the date.

I truly believe Fin could catch fish blindfolded, Stripermania, he's just that good. I've seen him pull a keeper bass off the beach in the middle of the day after everyone else called it quits because the bite was "over".

We're truly lucky to have the little tidbits he doles out here. Especially from such an old grouchy basstard.

This advice about a fishing log is on every internet message board, yet few heed it.

Some of ya's think he has a secret weapon. I sometimes add fuel to that fire by insinuating he's rubbing his plugs in bunker oil or a sekrit formula....

I hope ya's know that none of that is true, it's all embellishment for a few laughs to bring the crabby basstard out of his grouchiness....

Realistically speaking, his log does not tell him when to find fish. A lot depends on the water temps and wind patterns, as he has graciously stated here over and over...his logs are the most specific I've ever seen...he can tell you how many bass he got on a black bomber in Oct of 2002, and if he was using mono or braid, what the water temps were, and wind direction that produced most of his big fish, etc, etc.

So instead of letting the log rule him,, he uses it to fish more efficiently.

He won't waste his time fishing in a Noreaster, because (for NJ) size and numbers of bass just aren't there in that murky dirty water,,,he will be out almost every night and false dawn when the weather patterns begin to line up, because his logs show that's a productive time to be out there.

Even West Wind Wally thinks so...
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...est+wind+wally

If you will notice, there were a lot of people bragging that the latest hurricane would create "epic" fishing conditions. For that storm and days after, there were no reports to prove that.

Fishing sucked. plain and simple. The guys boasting of the great "noreaster" fishing have faded back into the crevices of the internet.









Yet, every time there is a break in the weather and a good fishing window, Fin is out there, hitting it hard. Contrary to what people believe, he doesn't always catch. Even the best get skunked at times.

He has learned to use his energy wisely.
After all, he needs to conserve it, at his age, being grouchy takes a lot of that energy...

When he does run into fish,, most often it's because of his skill, enhanced by his meticulous log.

I hope after reading this every fisherman starts keeping a log.
People think that by hiring a famous guide they'll improve their success rate. Sometimes that's true, but if you are willing to do the work, analyze your results, and keep it in line by keeping a good log, IMO it's much more rewarding.

[finchaser]

God DS you do pay attention when I talk. I enjoy helping people,I get a kick out of the look on there face when they hook up.

One correction I fish the day the northeaster hit's and then not usually until a day after it ends and the wind hollows west or Northwest. I never fish during it right SHARK HART.

Yep we had to learn by trial and error we couldn't Goggle how to tie a knot ,how to cast, how to fish and there were no books written by self proclaimed so called pro's. Most of us kept logs in small date books you buy every year ,computors didn't exsist. I guess thats why we still can catch a fish with out snag and drop or blitz's. We learned the hard way and after 50 years myself and others like me are still learning. Well I must go now and enter todays catch in my log, it's because of it, I've had fish the past 2 days.

Tight lines

[DarkSkies]

Bump to the top for VegasVin, who wants to learn how to catch big feesh.

The advice given here is more precious than gold. Lap it up people, it could change your fishing life....

[dogfish]

:

The advice given here is more precious than gold. Lap it up people, it could change your fishing life....

Amen. I know where to be at each specific time every year when the big gurls come in. All due to my log and a lifetime fishing.

[vpass]

I been keeping logs for ever. My friend is holding my log books from when we use to fish back in high school. (I need to make a copy. lot of childhod stuff in it). My problem was: I wasn't consistent on my data entry untill the last 2 years. Now I keep all the nessary information, and I enter the people I meet and how they did, and clues that I might be able to use to put a puzzle together later on. I get a kick out of looking back in history.