Good Record Keeping

Years ago I began keeping detailed records of all my outdoor adventures. I must admit, I am not as detailed for my fishing as I am for trapping and hunting. But I see that there is a big difference in my success when I not only keep records but when I refer to them in subsequent adventures.

Case in point. On my trap line, I keep a list of what type of set I made, bait used, lure used, and type of trap used. Its pretty simple. But what I see when looking at this, is that I am catching a most of my canines on one particular bait. And raccoon's on another type of bait. Does that mean that I switch all to that bait - maybe, I will continue to experiment with others, but it does help me when purchasing or making future baits to know what has worked in the past.

In my deer hunting records, I see that certain stands produce better in early season and others in late season. This helps me to not waste time sitting in a late season stand in the early season and to focus my attention on the correct stands. Now I must admit, my hunting records are a bit anal, but it works for me. Each stand has a wind direction chart. Telling me when I can hunt this stand. All of the stands are broken into specific directions. I have stands for North winds, south winds, east and west winds and I NEVER hunt a stand if the wind isn't right. This does two things, it gives me confidence, and increases my odds of seeing and harvesting deer. It also prevents me of educating other deer on my presence.

Some think this is extreme, but I have seen over the years that it works. And it works well.

Weather conditions, moon phase, wind direction, time of year, time of day all are important to what the success will be. Records help to see correlations between similar circumstances. Plus for me, it adds to the experience. When I can look back through my book for 10 years and see what I did under these circumstances and the success makes me a lot more confident.

I use a simple excel spreadsheet to make and keep my records. This gives me a PC backup and I have hard copies in my binders that go with me on all of my trips.

If you aren't keeping records, do so. I know of one fellow who has records of hunts going back over 75 years. His grandfather wrote down his information, then his father and now him. What a legacy to leave for our children and grandchildren.