Fishing log - worth the effort? Pics speak a 1000 words

Once upon a time I used to keep a detailed logbook of every outing in order to help me remember certain facts that might be useful and that I would be sure to forget. Entered per body of water was: date, lures used to catch fish, lures that didn't catch fish, fish locations, water temp, depth fish caught, species, weather and a few other bits of info that might come in handy in the future. At the time I started the log, personal computers weren't available and taking photos a bit expensive considering developing cost. So I stopped. The photo's date tells me the season.

Enter the digital age of information storage and cameras. Each outing of photos has its own folder and date. Each picture is dated with time taken. All of the above information is included in the photos. Take these shots for example taken today:

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They tell me it was overcast, the area fish were caught was in the north end, the location caught was a shallow flat per sonar, the water temp had gone down to 67 degrees (per sonar), the lure and jig head weight and the species caught in the area. (Pictures of crappie, sunfish and perch caught weren't entered above.) Fish size is sometimes recorded if a lunker is placed on a ruler such as this 13" perch and the lure that caught it and four other species in the area:

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I make my own lures and this tells me that the soft cone-tail grub, 2" in length (color not important), was one to always take along as confirmed by many other fish caught on the same design recorded all summer long from other lakes.

The folder of this lake has other daily log photos entered and the number of fish caught is included for each folder's title along with water's name and date taken. The folder name looks like this:
Frederic L 9-28-16 37 fish.

A lot more interesting and informative looking at nice shots than reading a bunch of dry facts wondering ,"what did I leave out?" or "never heard of that (written) lure's name!"

Great system ! I just know I will have the digital camera in the lake .....

Good system...I may try to go back and build one myself. I take pictures and they have the date and time with my cell phone so I might be able to go back and build a pretty good log for this year.

My log is in one big Excel spreadsheet. I've got ten years of data in there, and I can sort and filter it any way I want. For me, it's perfect.

Nice thing are some other facts-to-go-by such as health of lake's fish population by species. This lake has few legal size bass, most being 13" or less, but excellent panfish by size. As long as decent numbers are caught, it's worth going back. Seasonality is another. The example tells me late fall had fish all over the place and in water structure related. Some were recorded on the flat; some were under overhangs; some were in shallow water of 3-4'; some related to deep water, vertical rock walls; a few were caught near a long floating dock. The south rip rap dam and west shore held few fish (similar to summer).

The log will tell me that tying directly to a jig without a 6# test leader worked just as well, though still needed when using braid which is more buoyant. (I use 8# test Suffix mono and a light leader so the lure reacts better to rod twitches. Spinning reels have 10# test braid and the leader.)

Lures that are photographed must have caught at least 10 fish to be qualified as favorites. This way I have comparison data between lures and between waters, knowing how universal and reliable each design is. Three in particular out-fished others such as curl tail grubs. A new surface design debuted yesterday and it got slammed by bass in 4', though no hook-ups because of generally smaller bass, no cover on the shallow flat it got hit three separate times and because it was midday. Seasonally it may not be a fall bait though now it will always be kept in the tackle box for use on other waters with pads and cover and water over 70 degrees.

I take shots of my watch when fishing excels, telling me am/pm fishing success as a whole and pre- and post-frontal activity. Most important is to dispel misinformation about a water or lures that haven't been used for quite a long time. Proof is in the catching and in recorded images.

Nice idea!

Phone photos tell the tale ......if one has his or hers phone set up with the geotag on .....then when one saves it to a computer it then provides date time and location of the photo .....when they are put in folders it's easy to go back years and research what the deal was where .
Folks think I am photo crazy , but there is a method to my madness .......lol

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Originally Posted by deathb4disco

My log is in one big Excel spreadsheet. I've got ten years of data in there, and I can sort and filter it any way I want. For me, it's perfect.

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I have been threatening to do this myself. Any chance you could paste in your headers? Curious what all information you keep.

Next project will be depth maps of the lakes I fish most that are over 20' deep. Shallow lakes and ponds are pretty much uniform in depth and remembering mid-lake structure by triangulation is easy. Bing maps online offer beautiful detailed shorelines per satellite imaging and once saved, I can cut out the water part (always in black) and start mapping depth lines. Of course this won't happen until next year after my wife buys me a range finder on-line so I know exact distances from shore.

A map will be copied to each day of photos with marks made to show locations fish were caught as well as to add text comments.

Spoon
I agree with your system....every time I go out, I snap a pic of the weather page on my phone...it tells temp, time, pressure/etc, wind, etc,...then I add the photos of where I fished, fish caught, water depth, conditions, other info, and lures used also!
You can then set up a yearly fish log (CJ Fishing 2016) and have sub folders for Winter, spring, summer, fall.
It is amazing when you go back through the years and see the Patterns that exist!

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Originally Posted by huntinslabs

I have been threatening to do this myself. Any chance you could paste in your headers? Curious what all information you keep.

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I track the following:

Year
Month
Day of the week
Date
Method used (fly, spin, etc.)
Number of fish caught
Species caught
Weather (general conditions, like sunny, overcast, etc.)
Wind conditions
Start time
End time
Duration
Bait used
Bait color
Location
Comments (can be anything that doesn't fit into other categories)

I'm a "numbers guy", and I stare at Excel all day, so this really works for me. As I said before, the power of using a spreadsheet is that you are creating a database that can be searched and sorted in any way.

If I want to know what's my most productive jig color on Lake X ... in May ... on Tuesday ... when it's overcast ... I can have the answer in seconds with just a few keystrokes.

I used to keep a "diary" type of log. It was enjoyable to go back through them, but the spreadsheet if much more informative.

Excel is an invaluable tool, I use it daily as well. Wish I knew how to run excel better than I do, but great tool no less.

I agree I do the same. tale a pic with phone and use notes section to document what I used.

great method!

After over 60 years of fishing the same area, I don't to keep records anymore. However, I was here on Earth way before spreadsheets and computers, so I used a graphite pencil and wrote myself notes in a spiral steno notebook.

Several years ago (or more), I took the collected info (over 20 years) and created a general graph of the Paris, Tn area. This graph gives anyone a fairly good starting point which is the intent of the graph.

If you are lucky, you will find the fish. If you are good, the you will catch the fish. If you are both good and lucky, you will fill your buckets.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z.../fishntemp.gif

Spoon, that's a great system. Much easier than the old school method.

If you wouldn't mind, please send me the fillets from about a dozen of those 13" yellow perch. It would make me so happy. LOL

I wanna see the picture of the 37 fish, not 2. Anybody can catch 2, even my fat neighbor Max.

My log is old school, Date, times, location, tides, weather conditions, pressure, river stage, water temp, species of fish, fishing technique, special notes of interest, all entered on a spread sheet in a folder in the magazine rack by my easy chair/recliner. Been keeping one since I commercial fished 40+ years ago. Just habit but kinda fun to look back 30 years ago and see where I caught a thousand pounds of speckeled trout or ten thousand pounds of roe mullet and remember all the details. Now its 15 or 20 Sac au lait and an odd fish or two.

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If you wouldn't mind, please send me the fillets from about a dozen of those 13" yellow perch. It would make me so happy. LOL

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Be glad to if I knew they would keep en route. LOL

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I wanna see the picture of the 37 fish, not 2. Anybody can catch 2, even my fat neighbor Max.

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LOL
Seriously though, that was a slow day. Two days before, I clicked on the counter over 110 fish - five species. No way did I take shots of anything but lunkers and the lures they were caught on. For ha ha's maybe a few midgets caught on lures half their size. But here are a few more:
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Legal size bass and crappie are scarce due to illegal harvest during past winters and summers. No law and property enforcement invited trespassers over the years to rape the lake. At least now a caretaker lives on the lake and won't hesitate to call the local police. Lunker perch and sunfish are what's left along with big channel cats (I caught four on lures earlier this year (one was over seven pounds).

It does have its advantages checking the log before going out on a particular water. Wouldn't it be nice if we could ask a higher authority information that would save time finding fish, knowing what not to use to catch them and how to use the right lures for each situation?

Granted, much of my search is broad-area casting over large flats that aren't really flat and along weed lines/ in weed pockets, but I always wished I knew where an underwater wall was, where a point extends and ends, where and what direction a narrow hump is, how steep and deep a vertical drop, submerged trees that could snag my lures, etc.

The whole point of a log and a detailed depth map, is being able to cast to something knowing beforehand what I'm casting to so as to not kill the spot with the trolling motor and boat shadow. So many times I float over fish seen on the sonar that are on a stump or at the end of a point, knowing that it's very unlikely those fish can be coaxed into giving me a second chance.

The other importance of keeping a photo log is keeping up on which lures work best, when and where to use them, therefore being able to offer a variety. So many times (strange as it is), if I switch to another lure design in another color and fish respond immediately! Yesterday I switched from my usual catch-all-species & sizes to a medium size, bright white Kalin grub (a wide curl-tail, thick body grub). 5-6" bass were all over it; even a small crappie had the 3" bait all the way in its mouth!! Plus I learned that bright white under an overcast sky can be dynamite! (Haven't used that lure in over a decade.)

Another lesson learned in the last few outings recorded on my PC is that 8# test mono can be tied directly to a 1/16 or 1/8 oz jig with no negative effect. Of course I'll still use 4-6# test leaders for 1/32 oz for best lure action.

So now I know that curl tail grubs have potential and will expand to other rarely used lures collecting dust, though some lures I won't try again after they fail on different waters.

Here is what the written log looked like before personal computers:
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