Fish-Hawk.Net

Hey Hawkers,

I'm making a fishing journal for the computer -- to keep track of all the presentations I've tried on different bodies of water, and whether they were successful or not. Once I get a stable program working then I can share it (free of charge of course) with whoever is interested. Maybe I can recruit some beta testers....

Right now, it simply collects data, stores it in a database, and displays it in a table. I want to add the ability to create charts, perform statistical analysis, stuff like that. That'll be a later version though.

I could use some help deciding what details to keep track of. Other than the following details, what else would be useful to track?

For the outing:
Date
Sky conditions (sunny, cloudy, raining, etc)
Water body
air temperature
water temperature, water colour, water clarity
wind speed, wind direction

Combinations of presentations used (can be many of these for one outing):
rod used, reel used, line used
technique used (trolling, casting, etc)
lure used, lure colour
what setup is used (gang troll, texas rig, etc)
specific location on the water body
depth fished
time of day

And if fish were caught for that presentation:
species
weight, length
whether it's the year's PB or a lifetime PB

Hope there's some interest out there in this project

And by the way, I've not a professional programmer, I'm a total (and humble) hack.

thanks,
yak

Yak, we started to do this last year, we keep a book and pen on board and record the day , time of day we started, conditions, etc...

When we catch something we write down everything we did including the time and temp and location, depth, depth fish was caught. SO many details but you can go back and look for similar conditions and that gives you an idea on what to try. It is a really good idea to do.

Good luck with you program.

I would add Barometric Pressure...and whether its rising, falling or stable

Andy

(great idea btw)

Thanks for your comments guys. Andy, that's a good point, thanks.

I always start the season out with intentions of keeping a log, but never follow through. Maybe when the boys are a little older.

It's interesting stuff, though, and from what I've heard you definitely can see trends and patterns over time if you faithfully keep your journal/log.

W.

Hey Yak, this is a great idea, I've been keeping a log for a couple of years now, and consult it before every outing, it is very useful. In terms of what to record, you already have way more than me.

I keep all my info in a simple excel spreadsheet and record the following:

- Date
- Weather Conditions (Air temp, sun/cloud/rain etc.)
- Wind
- Water Temp
- Group (who I'm with)
- Waterbody (with specific locations on the lake)
- Target species
- Species caught (and how many)
- Size (weight/length)
- Presentations
- I also have a Notes column where I record things like depth of fish, what presentations worked the best, fish kept or released, etc.

Some people may think its overkill, but I find it useful.

Good Luck!

Splake_Hunter

Hey Yak,

Other things that you might want to add are:

1) GPS co-ordinates
2) what type of cover or structure was it caught on.
3) Technique ( if it wasn't already mentioned)

The more information the better.

Pete

Hi
I would also add (if possible) the weather in the previous 3 days, ie if it was sunny, if there were high winds, rain for a week, etc.
I have been meaning to do a journal for years, maybe this will get me going if you share your spreadsheet.
thanks for trying this
Super

I've also pondered the idea.

I started making one about a year ago. It kinda got put on put on the back burner though. Similar to you idea.....

I have a new idea I am looking into though. So much more involved than a desktop program, with many customizable settings so you can record or not record whatever you wish..... Still playing with different ideas and looking into . The more information you can store the better......

There are a few journal type programs out there already. They all do the same basic things: Save and display data. To make "THE" one and only fishing journal software, you need to have something that differentiates your software from all the others. I know you are not doing yours for profit, so whether your stands out or not is up to you!!

In my case, I am a programmer by profession and I was/am doing mine for profit. It will still be free software for anyone to use, my profits were not aimed at coming from the end user. If I ever do get mine finished, it will be "the crap" as they say!! Due to the fact that I am doing it for profit, and have some very unique ideas, I can't say what my ideas are. You will all know about it, if I ever get it completed.

Good luck with this project. I look forward to the finished product, and I am sure the members of fishhawk will appreciate your hard work, and anyone in the programming business will appreciate it a bit more, as we unerstand and know all the hard work involved in creating software.

I too have started keeping a log this year. Only in excel though. Keep track of locations, presentations, and general success. I don't record the weather.... I can always look that up later if I want to.

Like Luke I thought of making something (I'm a programmer also) but one thing I've found is that people with a sickness such as ours have no real free time outside of work and fishing

I did kept all my fishing outhing reports for the past 4 years.

weather/location/lures/species/wind direction/

there some agenda for fishing just for that.its already all in it.
musky canada as some nice ones...in plastic and the paper in it is kind off waterproof.


I di think its a gret ideal to keep the info.

nice to come back years after years.

joco

Hey Joco..............


If all the names of your lakexxx are in the agenda can you mail me a copy

thanks for all your replies folks.

The way I came about this project is that I wanted an electronic journal not only to record data (I could do that on paper) but also to analyze the data using charts and statistics. And I figure that if I like using it, maybe others will too. And I'm too cheap to buy software, so...

I made a similar program when I used to do triathlons to track my sleeping/eating/training/health patterns. It was useful to learn when to train and when to back off.

So now with five kids I don't have time for triathlons, and spend a lot more time at home...and fishing.....

Ultimately I want to be able to get a number value for different situations like "if it's sunny, warm, and the water is clear, no wind, the color of the lure has XX influence on the results". That would be cool...extract relations between the different variables in an unbiased way....

The program is written in Java, so I'm hoping that any mac-heads out there can use it too

'best,
Yak

hey bass addict i coul..you say.. If all the names of your lakexxx are in the agenda can you mail me a copy


but the pron in th agneda is say X lake and y,s lakes.. ...ther some code..


joco

Yak ... wow ... I am TOTALLY IMPRESSED!!! I would love to see the end result. Keep us all abreast of how its coming please!!