Do you keep a diary of your days out fly fishing? If not, you should. During off-season the records of the days out is the perfect tool for planning your next trips. The Diary is also an invaluable tool when you are sitting at the fly tying bench trying to remember last years hatch.
I guess you know the feeling. Sitting there at your fly tying bench, or tucked away behind pillows and blankets in your sofa, trying to remember details from the past season. Just like all fish get bigger with the years, memory fails when you try to remember detail from the trips.
How was it? Did the BWO hatch before or after lunch that day? Did it rain prior to the hatch? What was the weather and water temperature like when the Sulphur carpeted the stream? Which imitation worked? Which didn’t?
Keeping a fly fishing diary is easy, and just takes few minutes after each day out. I have been keeping my diary for years. I have books and folders with notes from seasons way back. Getting better at your fly fishing as all about keeping a systematic approach. It starts with the diary. You can read all fly fishing literature in the world, but nothing beats your own experience.
What I do is keeping score of the hatch, all other insects, meteorological data such as air and water temperature, water level, imitations that works and of course time and place.
Here is my fly fishing diary as I am using it nowadays. It is a pre-formatted form that I keep on my computer and print whenever I need it.
I do print all I need each season, and keep the sheets in a binder in my car.
So here it is – download it, print it and use it!
