My Angler Diary for first half of 2016

[coheasion]

I started keeping an angler diary that I plan to turn into the Division of Wildlife folks and thought I would share some results.

I am basically self-taught, having learned most of what I know from reading virtually every post on this forum.  I also just started fishing SML in September 2015 and focus primarily on the Blackwater.


Results so far:

Number of days fished - 25 - wow, seems like I have fished many more days than this
Number of hours fished - 172 
Number of Fish harvested - 5 - all 5 harvested by an occasional fishing buddy
Length of Fish Harvested - 137
Number of fish released - 27
Length of fish released - 715
Skunked Days - 10 - Whoa!!!  10 skunks out of 25 total fishing days = awful - The Cold fronts that seemed to move in every Friday night during the spring contributed a lot to this I think
Skunked Hours fished - 61 - that really, really hurts    Maybe this is why it seems like I have fished more days as those skunked hours are REAAALLYY long
Average fish length - 26 inches
Big fish - 32 inches - lost a 36-37 inch fish right at the boat that I still have nightmares about


It is fun to go back and read some of my comments from my first few trips and realize how much I have learned on this journey.  The joy of catching my first mongo gizzard shad after hundreds of cast-net throws...throwing the cast net in a snowstorm....the sunrises and sunsets.... choice 4 letter words when a hook slipped loose....and the most important thing I learned is that we have to be a little bit crazy to do this.

[Gator]

That's good stuff! I've enjoyed watching your progress the last year.

[jmr04]

Good stuff. Haven't seen you out lately. You taking the summer off?

[Gator]

I fished SML Saturday. I only fished for a hour or so.

[coheasion]

I have had boat issues lately but i think we finally got them resolved.... Was out for a bit this past weekend and caught w smaller fish saturday evening and another sunday morning

[mwardncsu]

Good stuff!

Reminder for everyone - the angler diary is a valuable piece of info for managing our fishery - and just because you didn't keep them all year does not mean you can't record whatever you have and turn it in - any of the data is valuable. Feel like you're not catching as many as in the past? Well, your diary could tell you - but also be used as data for DGIF to provide feedback.......