How many of you Track/Log their fishing outings – How many days do you fish ?

I fish a fair amount each year, Both summer and winter. To be honest I don’t have a clue of how many days a year it is. This year I’ve decided I’m going to track the # of days I get out fishing. I also think If I’m going to track each trip I might as well log the details of the outing. Log Info. such as: Location fished, Hours fished, Weather conditions, Type and # of fish caught, Lures used. Ect. Trying to decide if I just want to create a paper log sheet to use or use a cell App to record the Information. Doing a quick app search it looks like their are a fair amount of app’s created for the purpose of logging fishing outings. For those of you who do log their fishing outings, What method of tracking do you use? If you are using a phone app, What app and how do you like it?

I’ve done a fishing log for the past two seasons. I was surprised to learn that I don’t get up to the number of outings that I thought I would.

I just use xcel since I can format it how I like and then I can crunch the data a bit more and make charts and tables. I track the following info in my log:
Date
Day of week
Barometric Pressure
Moon phase
Weather past 2-3 days (general)
Weather day of
Water Temp
Body of water fished
Water Level reading (NOAA Gauge) since I fish rivers a lot
Site measured at
Flow in CFS
Types of fish caught
Baits/Lures used
# caught
Good/Bad/Neutral rating
Notes & comments – who did I fish with, where did I launch, did I identify any patterns etc.

I tried it one year and it was like a New Year’s resolution, it only lasted a few trips before I forgot to do it or just got lazy. I have my favorite spots and waypoints so I’ve reconciled with myself that I don’t need to do it. I wish that I did on some occasions but it seems like work.

I track rainy river conditions vs success. That’s about it.

SuperDave1959 wrote:

I tried it one year and it was like a New Year’s resolution, it only lasted a few trips before I forgot to do it or just got lazy. I have my favorite spots and waypoints so I’ve reconciled with myself that I don’t need to do it. I wish that I did on some occasions but it seems like work.

Ya. I’m kind of worried about that as well. Like most things it is only as good as the effort you put into it. After a long day of fishing I’m not sure I’d want to take the time and document Info. from the day. I think I’ll at least give it a shot and see how it goes. If nothing else I’d like to keep track of the # of days I fish. Then again if my wife gets a accurate count that may not be good !!!

I will commonly log something although I don’t always enter every outing.

I use an iPhone app called Day One. I never liked the fishing specific apps because I never found them to be general enough. With Day One I will log both hunting and fishing in addition to other outdoor stuff. It’s really a journaling app so it doesn’t automatically import weather data. It does have a calendar and you can attach photos. The single biggest thing I like about it is you can tag any entry with whatever you want and with multiple tags. You can then do a search for that tag. This allows you to look up all your past bass fishing entries, Lake X entries, pheasant hunting entries, food plot entries, etc.

As a side to this post. For those of you who do track the # of days a year that you fish – What is your # ???

Great topic and something I have been thinking about recently as well. I am planning to just use google docs and add to it as I go. In the past I’ve done a really detailed write up with pics as a way to document a trip with buddies, but I think this time around it will be more generic and not so time consuming.

I think the reasons I am more prone to following through with it this year is 3 fold. First, I didn’t fish as much as I wanted to last year due to moving during the summer and a schedule change so I want to set a goal of 50 fishing outings and see if I can get out that much. Second, I plan to experiment a lot more this year with techniques. Lastly, I plan to fish more water that I have never been on before.

I started a few years back when working with the DNR on SMB study on ML and continue today using a simple xls file. I actually use it a quite a bit to look back and see what was working previous years and locations.
I track date, time, location, fish caught, technique, and weather details. I don’t enter the data every day but keep a small notebook in the boat for jotting a few things down and then when convenient enter the data. For keeping track of the weather, I will use National Weather Service 3 Day history so I don’t have to try and remember each days weather.
It is fun to look back over the year/years for which days were fished, methods, etc. Especially in the winter when dreaming about getting out for the next open water fishing season.

I’ve done fishing logs and used log entry information much like Cody has shown.

I did for 22 years on Lake Zumbro, crappie specific. I determined white or black crappie. I went further even by collecting scale samples to determine age from those I caught along with an assigned number. I never kept more than 10 crappies per outing. I determined sex for the assigned number along with it’s length. I recorded the total number of crappies caught….I used a gate clicker to do this and still carry a gate clicker in my fishing bucket. Once I determined at what depth the bulk of the fish were being taken from I measured water temp using a submersible thermometer and recorded the temp for that depth. I also recorded whether the fish preferred shaded, shadowed or sunlit water on bright days. My barometer readings were done at the time of leaving home and the time returning home. I kept track of the lure colors used in each outing and what the preferred color was. I recorded whether the fish were taken using a float or not using a float.

I’ve learned a lot about crappies in general by doing this and as far as Lake Zumbro crappies I have some really interesting observations recorded. One of the most interesting of these is that on Lake Zumbro during the winter the crappies are more than willing to chase and hit what might be considered a “summer” sized plastic fished on a regular ball head jig if actively feeding fish are found. This technique has been taken to the Mississippi River backwaters and used during the winter over the years with similar success. The key has been to look other than at the bottom for actively feeding crappies. Crappies found feeding on the bottom are passive fish. Active crappies will be well off the bottom OR are dialed in to a specific structure away from the masses.

In the 22 years of logging on Lake Zumbro I fished anywhere from 151 days to 213. 99% of my fishing took place between and hour before sunrise to 11 AM. I paid zero attention to moon phase or what the weather forecast was, but of course I fished in some hellish weather a few times too.

I used to but it was irrelevant after a while. I never looked at the history nor was i interested in doing so. I just go fishing.

I made 49 trips in 2019, I do not ice fish so that is all open water. 213 outings is a mountain of fishing. I admire somebody who has the drive to fish that much and keep detailed notes and logs. Kudos.

tegg wrote:

I will commonly log something although I don’t always enter every outing.

I use an iPhone app called Day One. I never liked the fishing specific apps because I never found them to be general enough. With Day One I will log both hunting and fishing in addition to other outdoor stuff. It’s really a journaling app so it doesn’t automatically import weather data. It does have a calendar and you can attach photos. The single biggest thing I like about it is you can tag any entry with whatever you want and with multiple tags. You can then do a search for that tag. This allows you to look up all your past bass fishing entries, Lake X entries, pheasant hunting entries, food plot entries, etc.

Interesting

https://www.aerisweather.com/case-studies/aeris-api-strengthens-day-one-app/

Wonder if there’s an app that pulls in more detailed weather info? Like a weather logging one, or an automated excel sheet or something.

Started keeping a log this year. It is in an actual fish log book, can’t recall name/brand/anything. It has been fun to keep the log, hopefully we look back at the history and actually use the log.

I logged 46 days this year including ice (4 days) and open water. Would have had several more except for the poor conditions on the Mississippi River a lot of 2019.

41 trips in 2019, all open water (I do not ice fish) varying between 2.5 and 5 hours each trip. All within 2 hours of my house and all between April 20 and October 20.

Similar to Capone and his bookkeeping being the downfall, my wife finding a fishing log would not work out very well.

I use an excel spreadsheet.
I track weather and any changes throughout the trip, location, species and general time, lure, moon phase. In winter I will note how deep the snow is to get an idea of light penetration.

Back in the early 2000’s I was averaging 180 days a year. When I got my new job it changed quite a bit. My new job the others in my department all want as much summer time off as possible. So I gladly take the overtime and then get a lot of the winter off. I think I’ll be in office around 20 days from Thanksgiving to Easter. So I still get around 100 a year. Some are more fun trips now because when I travel for work I’ll hire a guide for a Saturday and go fish for something we don’t have here in the midwest, mostly saltwater stuff. I’ve also learned to fly fish now doing rivers.

For the spreadsheet folks, this could be handy for weather import. Add weather data (including historic) automatically. Could sync it up with e.g. fish waypoint exports and really get a ton of data.

https://darksky.net/dev/docs

I use a simple spreadsheet but only track river trips. So many variables on the river I thought it would be a good idea.

Just started this year. We’ll see if I go back to it or not.

I don’t think I would use one but maybe when I retire and fish 300 days a year I might? I can remember there are apps out there that keep track of all that in one tidy application.

I just mark on a calendar what days I fish. I’ll highlight fishing with one color and use a different color for hunting. 55 days for ice/open water for me in 2019. I fish open water way more then ice. Woulda been about 4-5 days more but my boat went back to Lund late September for a beloved new Lund composite transom. So that pretty much eliminated my fall fishing..

Thumper
I started to document my fishing outings in 2012 using simple pen and paper. It started out very basic with minimal data, but then grew into more of a log/story telling book as I went along. I now record date, place, time of day, wind direction and speed, cloud conditions, water temp and pool 4 water level,(when fishing on it). Also included is information on where I caught the fish, presentations used, sketches to explain various things, etc…
I prefer the pen and paper method because technology changes so fast, electronic storage methods come and go, but hand written words will never be lost or accidently deleted. Yes, it takes time and commitment to enter each and every outing, but it’s worth it. I intend to pass all my log books on to my grandchildren after I’m gone.
As far as how many days I fish… I average 60-70 days a year. My 3 year old new boat has over 285 hours on the engine already.
My FW says I have a serious addiction to fishing, I said “no, it’s more important than that”

Good luck
Don

I would but then there would be written documentation of how crappy of a fisherman I am.

I simplify keeping notes using google maps and dropping a pin. Depth, date, temp or what ever else you want and it’s permanently stored. I mostly use it hunting. Simply. Easy. And always there.

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72 different fishing outings in 2019 for me. That’s ice and open water with probably ~20 of the outings being ice fishing and the rest open water.

The only place I have kept records for is the river time of year, flow, river stage, and where I caught fish. 70% of the time with this flow, this stage, this spot will produce fish, unless drastic changes happen to the spot. River fish are controlled mostly by those two things stage and flow.

I blog most trips at my Fishing Log Blog and also kept track of what I catch with Fish Swami since 2011. I fished 180 days last year and I’ve published blogs for 160 of the trips so far. On the water, I use a small notepad to keep track of the time I was out, lure used, and the number of fish along with fish size. Once I get home I will then put info into Fish Swami where I can easily add the weather details, notes about where I specifically fished, and other helpful info to help me remember the trip in case I don’t blog about it right away. Last year I got behind on my blogging more than I ever have. The thing about logging info is that you have to have the motivation and energy to do it. If you overextend yourself on the water those motivation and energy reserves get depleted. In past years I stayed within my limits better. I must be getting old (says the guy who just turned 50).

I found having a journal in my truck was much better than log sheets. Unfortunately some scum bag stole my books and I quit. The advantage for me with a journal was to also track trapping and hunting. Combined, I’ve had over 300 days

I keep a log but it’s basic & I use the “notes” thing on my phone.

Date – place- water temp – weather – what I caught – water level- who I fished with & where I fished – method & bait

Been doing it about 3 yrs and it does help some

We have a club member down here that is very anal about fishing and the log he keeps every year. The pics are one thing and the log is another! Both are kept up to the “TEE”.