Fish Diaries

[coheasion]

Sent mine in today.

My 2016 summary:

This was my first year fishing at SML and all but 2 days were fished in the Blackwater or Craddock creek area.

35 days fished - really fell off towards the end of the year with only 7 days fished in Sept, Oct, Nov, and Dec combined
229 hours fished
8 fish harvested - 215 inches of fish harvested
51 fish released - 1334 inches of fish released
12 skunked days :-( - March was especially brutal with 9 days fished and 5 of those skunks - lots of cold fronts that month that seemed to always move in on Fri/Sat
May was also bad with 6 days fished and 4 skunk days - need to figure out that spawning pattern a bit better
Largest fish of the year - 32 inches :-( Going to need to do better than that in 2017!

[R22]

I emailed my 2016 diary to Dan this morning. Hopefully, this thread will encourage others to complete theirs and send/email it to Dan by the end of January. Even if it is a partial year, Dan has indicated this information is beneficial in their future decisions regarding OUR fishery.

I am sure it is a lot less impressive than most but these were my results.

33 fishing trips - I thought it would have been more.
175 hours fished - give or take
76 fish boated - 73 released and 3 harvested
12 Skunks

[drag4striper]

I sent my diary in to Dan a week ago and received a new one today. I made 34 trips in 2015 with 2080 inches of fish, and only 20 trips in 2016. Slacker!

20 fishing trips
131.5 hours fished
51 fish boated 44 released and 7 harvested
1405 inches total
2 skunks, but several trips with only 1 fish
Largest fish 37"
7 fish 32" or larger

[Jason54]

I Sent mine in as well. We had a great year on the water. Our most successful year yet.

27 fishing trips
189 hours fished
113 fish landed
largest fish 38"
smallest fish 12"
10 fish 35" or larger.
and my favorite stat of all NO SKUNKS! (I probably shouldn't have said it I will jinx myself)

[bushwacker]

Please send me the excel sheet for the diary. I don't have much info but I can submit what I did catch the past 5 months and start one for this year. send to [e-mail]

[mwardncsu]

Jan 13, 2017 15:15:29 GMT -5 bushwacker said:

Please send me the excel sheet for the diary. I don't have much info but I can submit what I did catch the past 5 months and start one for this year. send to [e-mail]

on its way....

[coheasion]

mwardncsu - I received some data from Dan yesterday - Is there a way to upload the data onto this post for others to see? I found a lot of interesting data in the document - in particular the last chart about the gizzard population and how it affects the striper growth and how 2016 was one of the best gizzard populations in years.

[mwardncsu]

Only way I know would be to convert / save it to a JPEG and post a link to the pic or upload to something like Google Drive and post the link

[coheasion]

drive.google.com/open?id=0B7DWt9CD3kgjdjZ5d2RGUC05NFk

Giving the Google link a shot....

[coheasion]

Here is a pic of the chart and growth rate and hiw it closely correlates with the adukt gizzard population

[coheasion]

With company coming into town for the Holidays I have pretty much wrapped up my 2017 fishing year and wanted to pass along my 2017 summary as well as share the progress I have made as a fisherman. I also wanted to share a couple of my "A-Ha!!" moments I have had this year that I believe have made me a better fisherman.

First off - here are the numbers I posted last year and the numbers from this year:

	2016	2017
Number of Days Fished	35	27
Number of Hours Fished	229	206
Number of Fish Harvested	8	2
Inches of Fish Harvested	215	57
Number of Fish released	51	118
Inches of Fish Released	1334	3314
Number of days skunked	12	1
Number of fish 30" or greater	4	28

Obviously this was a much better year and I want to thank everyone on this forum that participates and share so much knowledge.  I have read and re-read most of the information that has been shared and it has undoubtedly helped me to become a better fisherman.  Thank you all.

Having only 1 skunk day this year was a great improvement as was my success at finding larger fish.  

"A-Haa!!" moment number 1 - all bait was not created equal.  It is no coincidence that as my ability to catch and keep bigger and higher quality bait increased so did my fishing.  When I first started I was so happy to catch any bait that I would be satisfied with anything.  Once I really started becoming serious about catching quality baits, both alewives and gizzards, my fishing really improved. 

Advice - spend the time getting quality bait - it isn't always easy...but it is always rewarding

"A-Haa!!" moment number 2 - don't waste time fishing where the fish aren't.  When I started fishing I thought if I wasn't getting bites then the fish just "weren't biting".  This is sometimes true, but sometimes it just means you are fishing the wrong spot.  I used to spend 3-4 hours fishing an area without a bite thinking they would start biting soon.  Now, if I don't have a bite within an hour or so I am getting ready to try a different area until I locate fish.

Advice - search for the fish and have enough good bait on hand that you don't mind moving

[hotdog]

A-Haa!!! It looks like a solid improvement indeed. Congratulations on your success and thanks for the A-Haa moments. I think they will really help me.
Good luck to you in 2018!

[KB]

Great improvement in deed. Congratulations. Thanks for sharing and thanks for keeping record of this as well. This will not only be a good record for you but to others that doin this will help anyone. Thanks

[bushwacker]

Nice job Chris. Awesome to see your research, and time on the water paying off.

[mwardncsu]

Thanks for sending in the diary Chris - I was talking with Dan on Friday night and he said the ONE thing that we as anglers could do to help him is to submit diaries - he only gets about 20 a year - which when you consider everyone on here that fishes even semi-regular, coupled with those in the Striper Club, coupled with others (guides, etc) that have a vested interest - that's just sad.....