Entry by Mike Loebl
I just made my first entry in my brand new 2009 fishing log. My log for 08 did the trick and I’ve decided to keep on writing down info for each day on the water. Never before last year had I kept track of my fishing, but I wanted a better idea of the number of days I fished and I also knew that my memory for each day of fishing has been on a steady decline after several seasons out here and countless Olympia beers. The log was simple, just a spreadsheet with the date, time of day, where I fished, what I fished for, fishing techniques used, who I was with and the notes for the day. The notes for the day usually featured some butchered typing about the weather and the bite, maybe if I saw something out of the ordinary I’d jot a few lines about it. Nothing was set in stone.
The log worked for two reasons. One was that it was simple for me to enter info for each day of fishing, thus I did it. Every time. Obviously a fishing log doesn’t make much sense unless you keep it up to date and I managed to do just that. Secondly it worked because I enjoyed reading back through it and reflecting upon the days that I have spent on the water. Entries such as this one from an exceptionally warm April day on the Gallatin spent with Wes Dow warm the heart a bit in the winter months. ”Fished below Big sky, didn’t fish too much water as we railed on them. Got cooked up to 71 in Bozeman, James met us after glassing. Hell of a day. Like it f***ing should be.” Can’t beat that. And thanks to my log, I won’t forget it. I hope there are plenty of entries in 2009 with all the highs and lows from a complete season of fishing.