Fishing Log Template: The Fields Worth Recording
A log is only as good as the columns you chose on day one — add a field in July and every entry from spring has a hole in it. Here's a template that covers what actually pays off later, in a form you can print, paste into a spreadsheet, or skip entirely.
The template: ten fields
| Field | What to write | What it's worth a season later |
|---|---|---|
| Date and time | The moment you landed it, not when you got home | Every time-of-day and seasonal pattern you'll ever find comes out of this one |
| Spot | A name you'll recognise — the bank, the bay, the bridge | Turns 'somewhere on the lake' into a place you can go back to |
| Species | One consistent name per species | Counts and personal bests break the moment you write it three different ways |
| Length | Measured the same way every time | The comparable number; weight varies with condition, length doesn't |
| Weight | Scale reading, or an estimate marked as one | Personal bests — as long as you don't mix real weights and estimates |
| Bait or lure | Specific: colour and size, not just 'jig' | The single most actionable column in the whole log |
| Weather | Sunny, cloudy, overcast, rain, wind | Half of every pattern worth having is bait × weather |
| Tide or water state | Rising, high, falling, low — or river level and clarity | Explains the days that made no sense at the time |
| Moon phase | New, quarter, full | Cheap to record, and the only way to test the moon claims on your own water |
| Notes | What you tried, what failed, who you were with | The column you'll actually enjoy reading in five years |
Spreadsheet version
Paste this as row 1 of a new sheet in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets, then one catch per row:
date,species,length_cm,weight_kg,bait,spot,weather,tide,notes
Those are the exact columns Anglerly exports to CSV, so a spreadsheet you start today stays readable side by side with an app log later — and neither one locks you in.
Set the sheet up in five minutes
- Paste the header row, then freeze it so it stays visible as the log grows.
- Format the date column as a date — sorting by text will scramble your season.
- Pick metric or imperial for length and weight and never mix them; put the unit in the header, as above.
- Add a filter to the header row. Filtering by bait or spot is where a log stops being a diary and starts paying you back.
- Fill it in the same evening at the latest. Anything older than that is a memory, not a record.
Paper log book version
A pocket notebook still beats a phone in one respect: it doesn't care about rain, cold hands or a flat battery. Keep it to six columns across a page — date, spot, species, size, bait, conditions — and leave the bottom third of each page blank for the notes that turn out to matter.
What paper can't do is search, and it can't count. Most anglers who keep at it end up copying the notebook into something that can.
Paper, spreadsheet or app
| Paper log book | Spreadsheet | Logging app | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Filling it in at the water | Best — always works | Awkward on a phone | A few taps if it's built for it |
| Photos with the entry | No | Links, at best | Yes, attached to the catch |
| Finding 'every fish on a green jig' | Page by page | Filter the column | Search or filter |
| Spotting bait × spot × weather patterns | By hand, if ever | Pivot tables, if you enjoy them | Worked out for you |
| Surviving a soaking or a lost phone | Ink runs; one copy only | Wherever the file lives | Rides along in your normal device backup |
Whichever you choose, the rule is the same: fill it in before you re-cast. A log written from memory that evening is a guess with a date on it — see how to keep a fishing log that sticks.
Frequently asked questions
What should a fishing log include?
At minimum: date and time, spot, species, size, and the bait or lure. Add weather and water state and you can start finding patterns rather than just remembering catches. The ten-field table above is the full version.
Is there a free fishing log template?
The table above is one — copy the fields into a notebook, or paste the header row into a spreadsheet. Both are yours to keep and cost nothing.
What columns should a fishing log spreadsheet have?
date, species, length_cm, weight_kg, bait, spot, weather, tide, notes — one catch per row. Keep units in the header rather than in the cells so you can sort and total the columns.
Can I move an existing spreadsheet into Anglerly?
Not directly — Anglerly exports to CSV and JSON but doesn't import a sheet. Most people keep the old file as an archive and start logging fresh; the exported columns match the header above, so the two sit side by side.
Do I need an app, or is a notebook enough?
A notebook is enough to record. It isn't enough to analyse — counting which bait produced across two seasons by hand is the part that doesn't get done. Anglerly is a one-time purchase that logs a catch in a few taps at the water and works the patterns out from your entries.