Do you Keep Records of your Fishing Trips?

Who keeps records of the fishing trips you make? If so what vital information do you write down? Also does record keeping of your trips pay off on your future trips?

I have a log, I keep. water temp , water level,, date , fish caught and where.

I keep records on all of my trips. Weather conditions, total fish caught, water conditions, depth fish caught, types of fish caught, quality of fish caught, and evident fishing pressure. This has really paid off for me especially comparing past trips over the years. I can simply look up my reports and make a pretty good decision on where I want to fish. Most of the times I can catch some good fish. !




Side Note: I also note the bait I used to catch fish. Yes it is usually the "Bait of Champions" Worms.

Yep...Date/Hours fished w/start-stop time/Weather conditions/Water Temp/How many caught/Species Caught/ Specifis Areas-Spots fished with details like depth & baits used.

Keeping good records on your trips is a great tool to keep catching fish everyday. The more you know the better the chances.



Side Note: GPS works wonders also !

Do not keep records. I do however keep plenty of pictures of the total catch made at the end of every trip!

I keep records all day at work, so I do not keep fishing records on a regular basis. The only fishing records I keep are for record fish. I do look back on my fishing records to see the time of year I catch certain fish.

I use to when we were fishing for alligator gar, but not anymore.

No log but make a lot of waypoints

Been keeping a log for the last few years. A quick review before heading out always lets me start fishing where the action was good as the same time the previous years.

I used to keep a detailed written log of the various waters fished but found most of the information not useful at a future date. Things change year to year except spawn pattern/ fish locations in particular. But keeping some kind of log IMO should be kept by those that want to have a future reference of certain things that are important as well as reminders of a water's key structure areas. Okay, so what is important to be able to make sure future questions have the right answers based on what was?

First off, I make and test lures - all kinds of lures. Much has been posted as to why to use certain lures and lure colors. In my mind the only truth is in the catching - everything else someone's opinion or a hard sell. As long as a lure catches fish consistently, it rates high given the conditions it was cast. Variations of color, size and action are recorded in order to have an idea of that combination that fish struck.

Different waters have different location patterns regardless the season and knowing the bottom of a lake is key to finding fish as well as shoreline landmarks.

Fish numbers include time of year caught and a water's potential for quantity and quality.

The above are no longer kept using a notepad but instead using a digital camera. On my desktop PC I keep folders: one labeled with the lake's name and separate folders within labeled with the lake's name, date fished and how many fish were caught. Inside each folder are shots of fish with lure stuck to mouths, lure in hand for better detail, sonar shots of depth, weeds, etc. and shoreline landmarks. If a buddy catches fish using different lures, I photograph him, the fish caught and the lure he used. Lure variety keeps me interested or I would only settle for a few to catch fish.

Taking pictures of only nice fish is not in line with record keeping though I do just to show a water's potential for quality. As a lure tester/ designer I take shots of fish and the lures that caught them as a reference of whether to make more. Lure color may be important or not depending on a lot of factors. Very important is labeling a photo of lure and fish with presentation used and at what depth (sonar picture recorded) whether in 3' or 15'.

Memory fails everyone except for a few and more so at my age of 72. Trends vs. the norm for any water is important so as not to take for granted things that are untrue. If anything, a photo log is a quick reference showing the ups and downs of any water fished and proves that assumptions are things that should never be relied totally before fishing a water. The only thing I assume is that there will always be exceptions.

Some good information here!

No. I fish when I can, so records of what times/dates/conditions are useless.

Kinda of, I always record when I go out fishing. I can always go back to the video see what I did what I used and stuff like that.

Fishing different waters yearly reminds me that each is different as far as fish locations. Seasonal pattern locations are narrowed down but summer and fall patterns differ lake to lake. Weed beds and depth changes are for me the best way to rule out where fish are unlikely to be vs flat uniformly weedless bottoms.

Photos of lures that caught fish tell me the pattern-of-the-day - a combination of lure type/speed/depth fished and areas that striking fish were. If I used a float and soft plastic and documented fish caught, that was the pattern for that hour or hours and season. If a jig & trailer did well on mid-lake humps in August two years in a row, photos are proof vs a vivid imagination that those areas actually did well in the middle of the day vs shoreline areas.

Logs are like a personal encyclopedia of everything we've experienced and hopefully retained when it comes to where and how we caught fish. Lure variety in my case dictates photo proof of catches or lures go back in storage when they fail consistently. Even small fish caught on lures are photographed because small lures do catch large fish - some better than others such as this 2lb bass caught on a small soft plastic design:


...and this 14" crappie on the same day:


Again for many fishing is a simple matter: go out, spend some time with buddies, catch a few unless luck/chance dictates better. Having fished tournaments for four years, I found out early that not knowing the waters fished - even a little - put me and my partner at a great disadvantage wasting time trying to find key structure areas and patterns. I chose not to do that again because the feel of the strike is everything!

Awesome thread.