I wonder how many fishers actually keep a diary ? Making an entry every time one has been fsihing ? I was looking through my bookshelf and came across my old diary on fishing, the red letter days and the fishless days, mornings, evenings. The last entry being 5 years ago. I found how inacurate my actual memory is in comparison to what really happened on the information written in my diary. I did find a common theme though, that out of all the flies I have, only about 6 of em were genuinely effective at catching; that fewer were effective on still water than running water.

Also, a method I haven't used since and that was on a specific wild trout lake, where I used a 25ft leader with a heavily weighted point fly on a floating line from the bank where the line was allowed to drift with the flow and the fly just catching or just off the bottom, allowing the wind to drift the line and how effective it was at catching on certain days.

I realise now, how important it is to keep a fishing diary, so I can get a really good idea on how to start fishing at a given water.

Looking at it, I am going to start with the diaiy again this season.

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I can't kill fish ohhhhh.

Absolutely essential if you belong to a club which requires catch returns!
I use the fly fishing logs available for a few quid from e-bay.
GD

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We come from dust; we return to dust. I'm going to fish

Never before, however as I'm relatively new to fly fishing I intend on keeping one this season.

I know I'll start doing it for the first three months of the season then it will either go for a swim or i'll forget about it completely

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Coolest Radio

Used to write up in one of those books available from Sportfish but I belonged to a club at the time and didn't really fish elsewhere that often so the entries became boring to read. Actually the whole log could be considered boring.
Last year I experimented with just recording different or really interesting days - places I hadn't been to, new guys I had met and different techniques and these are now catalogued in a file. But it is not every day that is recorded. Seems to be working so far.

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[COLOR="Blue"]"A fish seen is a fish nearly caught"[/COLOR]

I just used a hard backed A four writing book to do my diary and I found it interesting reading cos it not only gives you information about fishing, but also brings back memories of the fishing times I had with special people and my dog, the birds and the countryside. I started using an extensive diary in 1992, with the weather conditions, water colour, wind directions etc. It's a cameo from the past and interesting. It also gives an incite into how different each water is and how methods that work at one place, bomb at another.

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I can't kill fish ohhhhh.

Just started last season actually and so far it is already showing how few flies i actually use and is making me wonder why i spend most ovenings tying all these different patterns lol.

I do not use a log book but have made myself a spreadsheet to record all the information on, how 21st century of me lol.

Dan

Hi,

I used to keep a diary until I discovered Blogs. This is now my way of keeping my fishing memories alive and sharing information. A great community from which I have made some cracking fishing mates.

Phils Fishing Diary

If you are running it for a club then you can allow members to contribute. To set one up is really easy. At the top of my blog page you will see link 'Create Blog'. Its that simple.

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APGAI Single Handed Casting Instructor




Phil Ratcliffe Fly Fishing

Game Angling Instructors Association

I have the Fishermans record book from Sportfish. It a really nice fishing diary and ive entered every trip since 1997. Great to look back on.

I use a spreadsheet to record all the relevant detail, much like a diary, but the great thing is you can search through it.
e.g Search for 10 degress, wind from the east, cloudy, water clear, and the result is a record that shows, 4 fish, floating line, Montana, Hares Ear, so you try that and surprise it's not the same, ah well that's fishing.

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Eddie
"We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation."
Voltaire

I like actually writing and its easier to take to show friends instead of carting the base unit lol. Anyways, I dont have microsoft office, got taken for a ride when I bought my computer. However, I do tend to add some piccies too to my diary this time.

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I can't kill fish ohhhhh.