Dear Diary!

Dear Diary. It is one month since my last fishing trip. I think I am going insane. In fact, I think we both are! (Geddit???)

I’ve been through one of the periods we all go through at some point. Work, weather and a series of random events have prevented me from getting out and throwing a line. I could add weak excuses in there but it’s never my fault, honest.

So the last for the last few weeks my fishing has been of the ‘virtual’ kind. Reading the various forums, drooling over new shiny things often with obscure Japanese names that can’t be pronounced but generally reflecting on what constructive effort I could make in these downtimes to keep my enthusiasm up and contribute to my goals for the coming tournament season (there is a plan you know!!)

It was when a mate rang me one morning to tell me how well his snapper fishing was going that I realised there was something I had never done that perhaps I should be doing. Not only did said mate tell me about his previous days success, he also told me how well he did on the 18^th of August, the 6^th of June and so on. On one of the days he also noted the ‘slight spike in the barometer that may have brought about the bite’!

Knowing said mate has a memory like a sieve I questioned him further and discovered every fishing trip was documented, going back years. Yep…a diary. And the detail was amazing. Locations, tides, moons, pressure, temperatures, fish, baits, rods and reels…it was all in there. Not just for him either. Any fishing partners particulars were taken down also.

All this information provided such a great picture that a common thread could be drawn out pretty quickly and planning for future trips starts to become much easier. The Diary would show that Spot X never fished well until the bottom of the tide and really fished well if that tide coincided rain the day before and so on. It seemed such an obvious thing to do but I guess like many people a misguided confidence in my own memory and well, lets call it laziness has intervened.

So here’s this month’s homework. And you can do it regardless of the type of fishing you do, it’s all of value. Get a Diary started. If you think that sounds too girly call it a Fishing Log if you want!

It can be as simple a small notebook from the $2 shop or as swish as an Excel spreadsheet. If you want to get really flashy there are several programs on the net that incorporate all your info and tie it in to real time data from the web. I’ve started off mine a simple Word document that an angler on one of the forums knocked up and generously let others work with. It records all the location and condition basics and has provision for the real detail such a lure, leader for each fish etc.

Put details of every trip in there, no matter how brief or bad it was. If you’ve followed Nigel Webster’s recent advice here and taken then kids out for a fish, put that info in your log. It all helps. Here’s a little tip too. Record the time of your catches, particularly if you get a hot bite happening. Then by going on to a website like www.weatherzone.com.au you can find the graphs that will show you the exact temperature and barometer reading for that time, as well the pattern of those conditions. It is updated every ten minutes and really gives you some finely tuned conditions data to tie into the time of your catches. There are several web sites that will also give you tide and moon info at a point in time too.

Once you’ve established the format its done and if like me you have never been able to keep a dairy try to make it part of a routine. I reckon just when you sit down to have that first beer after a fishing trip is an ideal time. Sit, sip, reflect and write. How hard is that!

And as a postscript to my recent “From the Outside” posting in which I outlined my discovery about being more organised for my bream tournaments, last weekend in a ‘bored’ moment I decided to re-organise my hard-bodied lure box. I re-jigged the compartments so my small collection of lures was sitting in depth order, and marked the compartments as such. Now when I need something that runs at about a metre say, all my options are there, I just have to pick a colour or pattern I fancy.

This did create a problem however. There was an empty compartment and everyone knows that an empty section of a tackle box is just plain bad luck. No matter what I did the space remained. And then, as if an angel had heard me, I got a text message from a friend. “Berkley Bigeye Blades are out”. Problem solved!

Take a look at one of my new friends. Matty Fraser has done it again. Look at that big eye. Listen to that rattle. Lime Tiger/Mango Ripple type paintjob. 1/6 of an ounce. Whats not to love! Its all good and I can’t wait to give them whirl. I’d show you the other colours but why ruin the surprise. Get to a tackle shop and grab a handful. Remember, an empty space in a tackle box is a baaaddd space!

Until next time, good fishing.

Gatesy

Ps. Just so’s ya know’s…I have no agreement or affiliation with Berkley or Pure Fishing other than a love of their products. The good folks at Berkley let me post here and it gives me someone to share my thoughts with other than the dog. He means well but sometimes his feedback just isn’t that constructive!