Although I’ve been fishing for over five decades, I didn’t start keeping a fishing log until the summer of 2004. At this point in my life, I was seriously devoted to fly fishing. Being an autodidact, I reckoned that I’d learn more, quicker, and retain more if I could journal and reference my outings. I wasn’t wrong.
Since then, I have logged every fishing trip and every lesson I’ve given. I’ve filled six 192-page books with all kinds of data: place, time, date, water and air conditions, and then a journal-style description of the outing: what worked, what didn’t, what I think I could have done better, etc. What were the hatches/bait, and how strong were they? How were other people doing? What did I do well?
About 10 years ago, when life seemed to get exponentially busier, I got into a good/bad habit: voice recording my outings, then transcribing them into the journal. It was good because I didn’t have to write it all down immediately; the recording was made minutes after getting off the water, so everything was fresh in my memory. Later, during transcription, I might remember additional details. The bad habit part began when I would get lazy and not fill the pages with reports for weeks. I beg to report that my sloth has gotten so profound that I am now two years — you read that right — behind on my transcriptions. I’ll be getting to that shortly after I post this.
Some of you may wonder why, with today’s e-tech, I even bother handwriting it. Fair point. But I’m an analog guy at heart, and there’s something about my own script that adds humanity to what would otherwise be a cold, antiseptic printed document. Besides, I like my leather-bound hardcover books.
These books are more than a nostalgic preservation of memories. They’re a detailed roadmap to success. I can watch my progression as a fly fisher. I can observe how my best practices evolve. Not everyone’s a writer, but my journals were an invaluable resource when I was writing my Farmington River book. And these journals serve as a bittersweet reminder of what we’ve lost: the epic blitzes on Block Island, the prodigious power of the W/S Caddis hatch, the 50 smallmouth nights on the Housatonic. I still have it all at my fingertips.
I like to say during a lesson or a presentation that I’m not right. But I’ll stand by this statement: if you want to become a better angler — and catch more fish — you should be keeping a log.
currentseams.com 
My journaling for fly fishing also started late. My first one was a paper journal, but wanting to put my photos in the journal I now use Evernote.
Frank, I’m glad you’re doing it in a format that works for you!
found my old running training log, a binder full of calendar pages filled in with details of the run, pace, perceived exertion, mileage for the week, month, etc etc.
My sons were amazed.. no Garmin watch, no Strava for social networking/bragging..
fish logging started in 2000 and it’s astonishing how much and many things are completely different by now.. can’t say the logs have helped me catch more fish (cf those changes) but they are interesting reading.
I’ll still stand by my thesis that if you study your logs and identify and maintain the best practices, and make adjustments as needed, you’ll catch more fish. 🙂
and fish enough, to have enough data, to make those adjustments..
missing data is a problem because I don’t fish enough, seldom go fishing at the same time and place over the years.
And then there’s that philosophical problem,
Heraclitus, I believe, says that all things pass and nothing stays, and comparing existing things to the flow of a river, he says you could not step twice into the same river. (Plato Cratylus)
It took me near a decade of fishing a bit but not enough, to figure out the local reservoir and where to find smallmouth bass at various times of the year. A few years of drought invalidated all my knowledge. Then they raised the water level by 10′ and I find I know nothing again.
Carp fly fishing – there is a week or two, a week or two after the spawn finishes, when the fishing can be terrific. The timing of that week varies by a month or more each year, depending on the winter snows, summer rains winds and temperature. The only way to find the week is to fish every week and check..
I’m not in fact arguing 😉
agree completely that logs are both necessary to better fishing and fun to keep and read, just that in order for the log to work there has to be an unusual commitment both to getting out fishing and to the log.
🙂