Beginning A Serious Fishing Log. I Will Only Be Using Flies, But This Pretains To The Information.

[MoonManiversity]

Names Andrew,

 

       I started fishing about two years ago on live worms wrapped around an available hook, since then I've moved on to the fly and have caught the bug. I am interested in majoring and attaining an advanced degree in a marine biological field, or possibly a fisheries specialty.

 

That leads to the point of the thread. At the moment I am exclusively wade fly fishing (9 weight) a medium sized pond (Width=40 yds Length=120-150) It seems to be extremely well taken care of, I see what seems to be an aerator, there is a rather large pier, plenty of sub surface trees, a few overhangs, and points. It seems to be about 4' deep 4' off the bank I'd guess 8'-10' in the middle. I am starting a fishing log right now and so far the data I am going to collect:

 

Conditions: Sun/Moon rise, noon, set, distance from earth at the time of both, moon phase, Weather: air temp hourly for whatever time fished.

I also intend to record what flies I use and what retrieves were used for both succesful and unsuccessful attempts. Lengths, girths, mouth colorations, and where specifically they were caught.

 

I have drawn a map of the pond with a legend of all structure and available cover I am aware of with the intention of adding too.

 

About 5 years ago there was a fish recorded (or so I've been told twice) at 8 pounds. I saw about 4 bass of 5 or more pounds obliterating bream in a shallow flat, and what I believe to be a bass (skepticism comes from size) 12-15LBS on a glance.

(Never seen carp, or cats in there, and it was facing the bank at night when I got to see it.

 

My questions are:

What am I missing for my daily log? (it is only going to be for this pond.)

How should I measure water temp?

How to best determine gender?

Does anyone have knowledge of what I can derive from the coloration of the inner top lip?

Also I am looking for fly patterns that immitate a rather large Bream, I want to target the lunker.

 

I have read pretty religiously since I found this site a few weeks ago and intend on becoming a regulare poster. All tips are welcome, especially fly specific. ...And this turned out to be pretty long and dry, thanks for reading it.

[Sam]

1.  Welcome to the Forum. Wonderful having you with us. Please check in via the Introductions section.

2.  Where are you? Please add your location as it will greatly facilitate your responses based on your geographical area.

3.  Include the following in your fishing logs, some of which I am sure you already are doing:

Location

Date

Day of Week

Time Started

Time Finished

Water Temperatures: Start and End

Air Temperatures: Start and End

Structure Types: Docks, stumps, brush/trees, rocks, rip-rap, hump, rock piles. Points, road beds, rock cliffs, mud flats, gravel banks, flooded timber, etc.

Aquatic Vegetation: Lily pads, cattails, milfoil, dollar pads, bulrushes, elodea, coontail, maidencane, cabbage, hydrilla and other

Growth stage of Acquatic Vegetation: Submerged or emergent

Weather: Bright sun, partly cloudy, overcast, showers, rain, other

Wind: MPH and direction during the day

Water Clarity: Clear, stained, murky, muddy, etc.

Water Level: Normal, high, low Rising, Dropping

Contributing Factors: Baitfish, insects, crawfish

Total Number of Fish Caught

Fish Over 12-Inches Log:

  Length

  Weight

  Time

  Lure type, color, weight and name

Moon Phases: 1^st Quarter, ½ Moon, 3^rd Quarter, Full

Fishing Partner

 

This is courtesy of BassResource.com! Try to find via:

www.bassdresource.com/fish/fishinglog3.gif

 

If you can’t find it ask Glenn where you can locate it.  Great form and it is ready to be photocopied and for immediate use.

 

 

[Sam]

Now, for the other queries:

 

How should I measure water temp? - On the surface.

How to best determine gender? - You can't. Bigger ones are females.

Does anyone have knowledge of what I can derive from the coloration of the inner top lip? - Sorry. I have no idea.

Also I am looking for fly patterns that immitate a rather large Bream, I want to target the lunker.- Have you tried Orvis?

 

I am not into fly fishing. Did do fly fishing when growing up in south Louisiana many years ago but that is all of my experience.

 

Good luck.

[Sam]

Found it!

 

Check out the first entry in the "Tools" section at the top of this page.

[Oregon Native]

Used to flyfish a lot but have long since given it up for various reasons. Loved matching the hatch and such and tying my own flys. Dave Whitlock was an author who had a lot of good patterns I tied and was quite successful with.

Tight Lines

[Alex_bassman]

^{Welcome to the forums andrew!}

[MoonManiversity]

I left for a spot right after that post. Thanks for the quick response, I am in Daphne AL, east of Mobile. I now see the form, very helpful. as well thank you.

 

Looked on Orvis, but I am looking for a really big bream fly, the big bass looked like they were feeding exclusively on the large ones. (For the two minutes I watched the troop in the shallows) I'm sure I could hook them on smaller flies.

 

 

The question about the top lip. Just moved down south from Indiana, and in a few different ponds the bass had dark brown/black/grey on the inside of the top lip. Wondered if it meant anything to you guys.

 

Once again, thanks for your time. You can keep it going, but I am pooped.

[MoonManiversity]

The bass in Indiana had the coloration on the top lip.*

 

I think it would be easier to target the big one and not deal with the small ones on something like a shark fly pattern-ish (More just in the size of fly I have seen used for sharks.) Probably going to attempt to tie one off one of the giant shark fly concepts.

 

Mr. Oregon. ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice fish!

[Grizzn N Bassin]

I do the same thing... its awesome the amount of info u get