The Roots of a Fishing Journal

There's a guy I know who told me long ago "Rooty, you're a good hunter, but if you wanna be a great hunter, you need to start keeping a journal". He was right. But I had no idea just how right he was until I began using that for tracking data that has been a crucial part of my fishing toolkit that I have managed to fine tune so that it only takes me about 10 minutes to complete after each fishing trip.

The main things I track are temperature, moon phase, wind speed, water temperature, water clarity, barometric pressure, time of year, time of day, amount of fish, what I caught them on, and where I caught them. This requires me to use a variety of different programs and save them all in one place. I use the Navionics App and Notes program on my iPhone 5, Microsoft Excel to store it, Microsoft Paint to edit images, and I get all my weather information from Weather Underground (www.wunderground.com). The reason why I like WU is because it shows me a lot of the information that I want in these graphs below (this is from 9/11/13 in Syracuse NY). You can see that it not only shows real time data, but also what the normal high and low is as well.



I take this photo, which you can see in the history of any weather station here, save it to my computer, open it in Paint, and then I begin marking along the barometric pressure line with my system of colors and numbers and symbols to identify what I caught, how I caught it, and how big or how many. I post in green for largemouth, brown for smallmouth, blue for spotted bass. I don't waste time plotting 15 individual 2 lb largemouth. I'll post a green 15 with a circle around it to represent it was a group. I use different symbols ($, #, !, >, +) to identify if I was cranking, finessing, flipping, etc. And if I caught a lot of fish in a period of time I’ll use brackets to show that time period. See below:

I look back at my iPhone apps to let me track the depth and location for what I caught. I give a quick rundown of what I was using (color, size, line, leader, retrieve, weight), what the water temp was, and what the water clarity was like (was it stained, clear, was it nautical out there or was the lake laying flat under bluebird skies) and I make sure to note anything that was really significant (fish were in patches of grass containing hydrilla and milfoil, fish were concentrated on ledges, needed Ronnie Grass, docks with 7 feet of water), anything like that so that I can remember for years to come.

The reason why this is helpful is because I can look back at September 2011 and see what worked, or I can search for keywords like “ledges”, or “tubes” and it will show me a list or journal entries that include those words. This, more than anything else, will help you learn how to pattern fish, and give you an enormous advantage when you’re fishing a new body of water and trying to dissect it based on the history of other places and the weather data that you’ve stored. And the more you do it, the more useful it will become.

My first appearance in a product catalog

Here is a glimpse at the Dobyns Catalog for 2014.  I was very fortunate to be included in it and am really excited about it.  Huge thanks to all of them!!!

Take Me Fishin' Youth Clinic follow up

By: Josh Sheldon, Outdoors Columnist
Published: June 27th, 2013


On Sunday, June 23, the Take Me Fishin’ Day took place at Cook Park in Greene. Jim Root, designer of the program – along with the help of friends and generous donors – brought this program to fruition.



The air was filled with excitement and anticipation for the day's activities. The stage was set and the children were ready for a day full of fun and education. Because of different experience levels and a larger group than expected the kids were separated into three groups. The day began with an important message, followed by a lesson on how to tie a Polymer Knot.




"We told everyone the most important part of fishing is to protect our resources so that this wonderful sport can be enjoyed by the future generations,” Root said. “Clean water is an essential part of maintaining a healthy fishery. We told kids how important it is not to litter, and to carefully and quickly return all caught fish back to the water."

The first-timer group was headed up by Jim and his buddy, Dylan Howe. They went over bobber fishing, how to bait a hook, how to set the hook, and how to remove the fish from the hook without being spined by it. Dylan, age 15, did an amazing job helping the inexperienced in a way that only adults are typically able.




Click here to read the full article

Oneida Lake Northern Open 2013

The second Northern Open of 2013 is over, and I can tell you that it's probably gonna be awhile before I can fully get over the sting that still exists from not having had done as well as I know I should have.  I had very few bites, I knew the lake would fish like that going in, but I didn't deliver.  I really needed to stay focused, not miss fish, and I didn't.
Day one I fished with Randal Tharp, FLW legend.  We began out deep, targeting smallmouth.  I really needed to do a better job of trying to get those fish to bite.  We were hovering over them in 25 feet of water, and I didn't do enough to fire them up and get them to eat.  I saw them on the screen and I threw all the things that I would normally throw, but when that didn't work I really needed to dig in and start going through everything else until I found what it was they wanted.  I didn't do that.  Instead I sat there for almost two hours, waiting for them to bite the things I'm really accustomed to catching them on at that lake.  It's almost as if my knowledge of the lake betrayed me, because it prevented me from doing what I do best:  finding what the fish want to eat.  I did the one thing I always pride myself on not doing:  I was stubborn, and I only used what I was used to using.  I wish I could have it back.  I didn't manage to get my first fish until noon, I missed two fish flipping grass, and caught my second fish on a drop shot at 1:30.  Although I was lucky enough to catch two good fish, one of which was the big bass up until the last 10 minutes of day 1 and have my picture taken and posted here on Bassmaster, not having the third fish I needed left me 4 pounds off the lead.  Had I been able to bring in any of the fish I missed I might have found myself in the lead or in the top five.
Day two I was paired up with Greg Pugh.  We began the day targeting smallmouth and I did the same thing:  I threw the same things, with the same results.  None of the fish we saw on the graph ate the things I threw at them, and I didn't try to throw anything else.  We left those fish after two hours, flipped grass, again I didn't catch anything.  We left there, flipped docks, I got frustrated and shut down a little, my knowledge of that lake and drive to win it got the best of me because it was noon and in my mind I was already defeated.  I caught my first fish at 2 pm on a drop shot, caught a good fish at 3 cranking, and lost (sadly) what might have been the biggest fish of the tournament with less than ten minutes to go on a crankbait after the fish buried me in some deep weeds.
Both of my boaters were great guys, and I had an excellent time fishing with both of them.  All my fish were caught on soft plastics made by Bass Attacker Lures.
Probably the highlight of the tournament for me was getting to see my friends I've met this season.  I got to spend a lot of time practicing with John McGoey and we even got to have a special evening at a local bait shop where we were fortunate enough to meet some great people.  We talked fishing, shared stories, and gave away some gear to some really deserving people.  The looks on their faces was incredible, and it made me feel really great to be able to share my love for this sport with men and women and children.  I also got to spend a little bit of time with Brandon Palaniuk again after meeting him at the James River when we were paired up on day two.  We didn't get out this time, but I'm sure we'll fish together again.  Probably not out of the same boat in a tournament (this is my last year fishing off the back) but we'll get out again.
With just one tournament left (Northern Open #3, Lake Erie, Sandusky Ohio, September), it's really important to me that I thank all my family, friends, and sponsors for their support:  Dobyns Rods, Citizens Bank, Rahfish, Schuler-Haas Electric, Bass Attacker Lures, and Quantum Fishing.