The Value of Keeping a Fishing Journal
By: Matt Stone, Pro Staff
Well, it’s finally time to admit it - the arrival of winterlike weather here in the northeast is upon us. The other day I launched for the first time to iced up guides and frozen fingers, and while the tautog bite remains strong in my home state of Connecticut, I’ve already started to look towards winter plans. Those include hiking alongside local creeks in search of winter trout, wading bigger rivers in search of bigger trout…and waiting until the ice disappears in the early spring so I can convince myself it’s time to dust off the kayak and begin the 2022 season.
I’d also recommend one crucial fishing task in addition to whatever cold-weather angling you do during the winter months. While inevitably scrolling back through photos and posts of your most memorable catches from the 2021 open water season, write brief journal entries detailing the tactics, locations, and adjustments that you made in order to land those memorable catches. One of my favorite sayings is, “You’re either catching fish or you’re learning.” Now, admittedly that saying mostly comes to mind on days when I get skunked and need to convince myself I’m not the world’s worst fisherman. Still though, every now and then both parts of that saying, the fishing and the learning, happen together. When the water freezes over and we begin the long countdown to spring 2022, it can be hard to keep fresh all of the small things that went into your most successful days on the water this year. The last thing you’d want to do is have to re-learn all those lessons next year, potentially missing out on a chance to build on your experience and catch more or bigger fish. Here are a couple of examples of my notes on some memorable or noteworthy catches this year.
Striper #1:
Location: Parker Point
Date: July 27th at 6:41 am
Tide: Mid-Incoming
Notes: Flat calm day, topwater getting their attention but they won’t commit. Multiple large fish swirling and following. Changed to 9.5” GT Eel in Shimmer Eel color. Worked quickly with snapping and pauses. Cast down current off the point and worked with the current. First cast with GT Eel this fish bit. Try soft plastics when getting topwater follows.
Albie #1:
Location: Off Blair Beach near large rock
Date: September 16th at 10:05 am
Tide: Outgoing
Notes: Early signs of small schools but inconsistent. Many snapper blues cause misidentification of albies from a distance. Birds all morning. When birds tightened down, I pedaled from a distance to explore. Noted to the west there were larger splashes but fewer fish and fewer birds. Rerouted and found a small pod of albies. Hooked up on electric chicken color Game On Exo Jig. Albies not always under birds, but possibly near. More birds doesn't equal albies. Splash size and bird action are more important!
Striper #2:
Location: Eel Cove
Date: September 25th at 8:14 am
Tide: Start of outgoing, tide just moving
Notes: Fishing high-quality location on a calm morning. Slow bites, lots of bait. Began towards the back of the cove at 6-8’, covered middle at 10-15’, no commitment, but spooking large surface-oriented fish while pedaling. Shifted focus to cast from out of cove mouth in towards cove, then retrieve out of the cove to mimic flushing baitfish. Bone-colored 247 Mully cast far and retrieved quickly. Mimic likely baitfish movements with cast location and retrieve. Note tide and adjust which part of coves to focus on.
Surely, these serve as simple examples, but while I changed the location names, the rest of the information is accurate. If you have a photo on your phone, you’ll be able to get the time you took the picture and then potentially look up the tidal movement if you don’t remember. Re-visiting these journal entries will let you bask in some nostalgia for sure, but will also let you quickly recall scenarios in which you made adjustments that netted memorable catches. Some of the most talented fishermen around, Janet Messineo comes to mind, have spoken extensively about their use of fishing journals. If it helped them, it will absolutely help the rest of us!