Fishing Log/Diary

I wish I had started keeping a log when I first started kayaking.  All the trips start to blend together in my mind...  hard to differentiate one day from another sometimes, looking back.

Before the PIF Paddle I got a chance to check out PISCEAN's journal and it was very cool seeing sketches, pics, names, dates, conditions, etc carefully logged.

So those of you who haven't, I urge you to start.  I'm gonna start with Albion this year.

Thats a great idea Eric, I haven't done that with Yaking, but thought about it. I spent about 6 years living in tahoe snowboarding and being a bum when i was in my 20's, i did just what you mentioned for every single day, its a lot of fun to open it every few years and remember the best days ever!

great idea! See you OTW, and I owe you breakfast !

Jonathan

ive got fishing diaries for 12 years of flyfishing in the rockies averaging 200+ days a year and a few 300+ days, cataloging weather, water temp, hatches, etc. but i have not done a kayak fishing one, probably since im not on the water as much, but have been thinking about one now that i am seeing patterns of things on the water, over the last 2 plus years, thanks for the reminder, they do make good reading in the cold of winter, cameron

check out this log/diary.
http://surf-perch.net/Fishing/index.html

your idea got me startin to blog again- my last post was in Dec. 2007 I noticed...

I know Chris / kingfisher had a diary ...or should I say a striper fishing log in the Bay. He recorded date,time,tide and location of all his catch from way back when. We just talked about it on our last boat trip together. He's bummed that he can't find it 

Once my first boy was born I started a log of all my hunting/fishing trips, figure it would make some entertaining reading years down the road.  I've been slacking lately, haven't put anything in all year...will have to go back through the photo uploads on my PC for dates and to jog the memory.

-beenfishin

One of my best friends has a Surf Journal & we constantly talk about our logs, as we are often OTW on the same days.
We both feel that while the posting/blogging is fun too, there's just something special about old school, handwritten logs-the kind that can only be read when you pick them up and open the pages. It's like a secret treasure map.

I put all kinds of stuff in mine, each years' license (y'know so you can see how much they raise the price each year ), drawings, photos, stickers. I always put the dates & as much about the conditions as I remember.

My father & I did this starting when I was 10, back in 1980. We fished surf & pier mostly, and although we didn't catch much very often, the ritual of logging the trip stuck with me. Other than a day or two I've logged every trip I've taken kayak fishing. I'm on volume 2 now.

I've been meaning to do this too, although it might just depress me when I see how few entries I make each year.    The guy who made me kayak logo has a very nice journal that his buddy designed and produced...has lines to input the number and type of fish caught, bait/lures used, conditions, GPS location, et cetera.  He was supposed to get his pal to make one for me but it never panned out...maybe it's time to pester him again. 

I just use a tide table book and add in the location, fish, weather, etc...

works decent-- i'm better at keeping it for my striper trips, and have sucked more-or-less for my other trips

It's like a secret treasure map.

I put all kinds of stuff in mine, each years' license (y'know so you can see how much they raise the price each year ), drawings, photos, stickers. I always put the dates & as much about the conditions as I remember.

Exactly...  what impressed me was not the numbers so much as the entertainment value.  Your journals would be interesting even to someone who doesn't fish.

Very cool to think of future generations discovering it.

Imagine how cool it would be to have a look at one from 30, or 100 years ago!

Thanks again for the inspiration, Sean.

I get so shitfaced after fishing with the boys I cant remember who was there let alone how fishing went!

I get so shitfaced after fishing with the boys I cant remember who was there let alone how fishing went!

that's why I have to write the stuff down! I sometimes bring a little divers slate so I can write down the fish (for high fish count days). I do appreciate the "live in the moment" aspect though, not everything needs to be recorded!

Very cool to think of future generations discovering it.

Imagine how cool it would be to have a look at one from 30, or 100 years ago!

I can't claim to have thought of it. My own inspiration was a book my parents got me when I was just beginning to fish, called "Muriel Foster's Fishing Diary". Muriel was an amazing watercolor artist & fisherwoman, and the little book is filled with amazing artwork, as well as fish counts & weather from the early 1900's. I still have it in my library.

Back in the day when I was an avid scuba dude, I kept a log book of every dive. I too drew elaborate sketchs of the dive spot, the temps, visibility, depths I hit, etc.... It was THE best way to relive the trip.

I'll always remember the greatest log I ever did, finding a pinnacle coming out of 300' fow  to 70'. I got to do the site checkout, followed the anchor down to the bottom. I'm standing there staring at a forest of purple coral and the most huge schools of Sheepshead,and I follow a wall for about 30 feet and as I reach the end of the wall I turn left and am looking at a Black Sea Bass that must have been more than 400lbs, it was much bigger than me, and it was about 5 feet  away. I then sucked in all the air of my 72, and backed out... Made it to the surface, and 25 divers had the most incredible dive of their lives...

I miss those days..

Rich

I have since i began YakFishing. In the fancy type tide book. That's how i know those silly moon phases are for real_!