When I was growing up way back in the 1950s I had an uncle that visited from Virginia every summer. He took me fishing a lot but he also got me started on something else that had lasted all my life. He told me I should keep a log of all my fishing trips, listing not only the fish I caught but the conditions. That would give me a basis for future reference.
I have some old note pads shaped like a snuff can with notes in them like “May 5, 1958 - Harrison pond, three bass on red rubber worms by stumps.” Another note reads “June 11 - Blacks pond five bass, two on Devil Horse, two on black rubber worms, one on Mepps spinner, all near weeds.”
Sometime during high school and college I stopped keeping up with my fishing trips. I did not fish as much for fish during those years, I guess I had something else on my mind most of the time. But then I bought my first bass boat in 1974 and in 1976 I started keeping my logs again.
I would use a calendar with big blocks for each day and write the lake I fished at the top. Then I would list keeper and throwback bass caught and any other fish. I could get a few notes in about weather and water conditions, too. For example, one note from January 24, 1976 reads “Sinclair, 2 keepers, chrome Hellbender on dam riprap, clear and cold, windy, water stained.”
Until the late 1990s I kept those calendars without fail. For a few years my notes became spotty but for the last couple of years I have been doing better. Those notes really help me prepare for club tournaments and fishing trips by refreshing my memories of past patterns that work. And as I get older they make me remember things as they were, not as I want them to have been.
Over the years my goal was to fish at least 100 days each year. I usually fished right around that many days and that may seem a lot until you look at the year. I fish 12 months every year and until 1994 I had jobs in education that required from 190 to 200 days of work. That left at least 165 days a year to go fishing!
I fished at least one day most weekends, five to 10 days each Christmas and many days during summer vacation. And some days in the spring after Daylight Savings Time made the afternoons longer I could go fishing after work for a few hours.
In 2005 I fished 92 days. That does not include the days I fished in my ponds for a few minutes to an hour or so, most of those days were from my bass boat. I recorded 314 keeper bass and 187 throwbacks during the year. Based on Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament records, I fished 11 tournament that included two that lasted two days, so I fished 13 tournament days in that club.
In those tournaments I brought 52 keeper bass weighing 84.12 pounds to the scales. I did not zero any tournaments and with a five fish daily limit, I averaged four bass a day. Since I had some limits I also had some days under four keepers, but that was enough to lead the club for the year. Seems like that would be easy to do, go out and fish seven to ten hours and bring in an average of four keeper bass that weigh less than two pounds each.
So far this year I have done pretty good. I am writing down each trip to my pond, too, and I may make it fishing over 200 days this year. I fished each of the first nine days this year, breaking my string only to go on a cruise. I landed four bass, two crappie and 44 bluegill.
I usually cast for bass for a few minutes then go to the other pond where I feed the fish and catch five or six bream before stopping. I could catch them all day I guess but a half dozen are enough most days.
I am posting a daily log of my fishing trips to the forum this year as well as making my calendar.
How many days are enough fishing each year? One year soon I plan on fishing every day of the year to see if that is enough!
