Keeping a Log Improves Fishing by Don Dziedzina

I keep a fishing log and not that long ago I checked to see what kind of fishing was had at this time of the year.  With that documented information, I can have a better day on the water when the cooling lakes open.

 

Fishing log books are a valuable tool because year after year, you can go back and see what was a good lake or river to try and what baits worked well. More importantly, you eliminate a lot of questions about where to go right now.

 

Conditions can be very similar at this time of year. So the log can really help make a prediction on how the fishing will be. It is often easy to make a decision on where to go and how to fish. One record on my log related to the Illinois River by Morris, IL. A couple years ago I fished the river launching out of William Stratton State Park (west of Rt. 47 on the north side of the river). It was noted that fish were caught within a two minute drive down river and other points further west.

 

The log told me that my fishing partner and I spent the day catching a variety of fish. We launched the boat by 9 AM and started catching fish right off the bat.

 

By about 9:15 the first fish in the boat. It was a twelve inch striper. About fifteen minutes later, fish number two, a largemouth bass about the same size fell victim to the live bait that I was using.

 

We recorded quite a few fish throughout the day. My entries showed that most of our time fishing was on the north side of the river. Notes said that we were looking for transition areas that included boulders and sand.

 

A transition area on any given body of water is where one form of structure meets with another. So, an example of transition areas would be where a concrete wall meets with a wood wall. It could be where gravel on a bank changes to large chunk rock or boulders. It could even be where there is a lot of sand that has big boulders in it here and there. 

 

Structure is simply something that makes up the area within a body of water.  Rocks, weeds, wood, concrete, steel, sand and mud are all bits and pieces of structure that make up a body of water as a whole. It’s just like your house. Concrete foundations, wood studs, drywall, doors and windows all make up the structure of your home. Look where one type of structure meets with another, and you have a transition and a potential spot to find fish.

 

Not to confuse the issue, but what you must also do when trying to find fish is put together a pattern. What are the fish doing? What are they relating to when you caught some? Paying attention to how you caught the fish is putting together a pattern. The pattern is your formula to catch fish again and again. All you need to do then is take it from one place to the next and you should find and catch fish.

 

Day by day, patterns change. One mistake that many anglers make is to try and figure out where fish are using information that does not match.

 

On a body of water and in a certain location where you caught many bass in April will without a doubt be different in February. A lot of things must be compared in order to make your log entries worth while a year or two from now. Dates, times, locations, water temperatures, weather conditions all play into the game. Two years ago the weather was mild in February. Now, well you can see what it’s like out there.

 

Even the bait used must be entered; it’s an important entry to the log. Winter fishing means cold water and more success would come with live bait. The entry for this trip was large minnows fished on a light wire hook and a split shot about fifteen inches up the line.

 

Because I had this information in my log, I am able to predict fairly well where and how I could catch fish.  Once on the water, it fine tuned it a bit by putting together a pattern and that led to our success on the water in the past. 

 

On that one day a couple years ago, we found that a lot of fish were relating to boulders, trees, and concrete that was laying in sand. Just about every fish was caught in less then three feet of water. All of the fish came on live bait and nothing on lures. This made it easy for us and actually made it fun. We hunted for spots to fish. We would be able to fish a stretch of the river catching largemouth and smallmouth bass and when things started to look different, we pulled out of the area and just went further down river until we found a location that looked similar to those that our pattern told us to fish.

 

It will be cold for awhile, but there is still a chance of a warm day here and there and plenty of good fishing. The Morris area of the Illinois River is a good starting point. But other lakes are open now, like LaSalle, Braidwood and Powerton and they’re all worth giving a try. If you don’t have a fishing log now, start one.  Buy a preprinted log or make one up on your computer. Keep a lot of details and for sure, you’ll reap the benefits of that log for years to come.