I keep a daily journal of whatever I do. Have been doing it for almost 2 years now. Does anyone else keep a journal, especially while trapping and hunting or am I the only one? I’ve always thought that it would be neat to look back as I get older and see what happened and look at habits and patterns of the animals.

Just deer hunting for me. This year was one of the better ones. In archery sat 26 times, 25 bucks and 29 does. Of the bucks, 10 2.5 year olds which are my definition of a shooter. 77 hours on stand. 0.70 deer per hour.

I actually keep 3 related to trapping.
#1- Is a daily journal for trapping, fishing, hunting, foraging, scouting for one of the above.... Basically anything I think I want to remember, organized chronologically.
#2- Is a trapping journal organized by set #. Date set, lures/baits, location, and a log of catches, misses, relures, etc. I use a set # system based on the season date, so the first set of the 2019-2020 season was 1901, second is 1902, so on and so on.
#3- Catch record- species, size, sex, foot they were caught by if a foothold, notes on fur quality or other disposition, type of set caught in, set#, and any other notes.

I really only started at the first of this year, but I think both the process of the record keeping, and the records themselves are already helping me learn and grow.

I keep one during trapping season have been for 5or6 years.
Look back at locations that catch a every year.

I am actually going to keep a second journal like yours just for trapping as well this year. I have to check in all my cats that I catch and have locations and dates, so I plan on doing this so I can speed up the check in process instead of trying to remember off the top of my head.

Harvest reporting is a lot of why I started doing it!
We have to tag cats, and report catch totals on everything but coyotes and skunks and its a whole lot easier to refer back to notes. My memory isn't worth squat.

Plus, I figured that god forbid I ever have a regulatory or legal issue I can fall back on the old legal maxim of "he with the most documentation wins".

I really enjoy the process of keeping my notes, and I am planning to go back and do some analysis at the end of the year to determine effectiveness of set types, lures, etc and cross-reference to weather data and date. I am just geek enough that there may be charts, graphs, etc. If so, I will definitely share!

I have kept a detailed journal nearly non-stop for most of 40 years. I am lazy, so I have skipped a few years now and then, and will sometimes go a couple weeks without writing in it. I have found that the best (but hardest to keep up) way is to write in it every night. I can grab a notebook from 30+ years ago and read it.....and if you write enough detail from each day, you can almost always remember that very day. Detail is the key. Now that I am a full-time caregiver for my Bride I don't get to ram around the woods like I used to, but I try to record little stuff.....a certain bird spotted out the window, a news story, or what meal I cooked, etc. It all will add up to jogging your memory 10-20 years down the road. Also, I try to write things I hope my grandbabies will find interesting when they read these journals years from now. All my outdoor outings are recorded in detail. I don't necessarily write the detailed weather, etc. but more along the lines of observations in nature. 100 years from now I doubt that anyone will be interested in whether or not it was partly cloudy after noon, but they may get a kick out of me having maybe heard a few migrating flocks of Tundra Swans as I sat on my bucket under the tree waiting for a buck, or the fact that I had an Ermine catch a vole in the brush pile under my tree stand. Who knows, maybe 200 years from now one of my descendants will publish a book of my everyday scratchings. If things change as much as they have the last 200 years, there may be folks around in the future that actually find it interesting stuff.

I have a Trappers Advanced Jumbo Log book, the Long Liner version. I use it to log all my lures, baits, urines, and what lures baits and urines I use a specific sets. I got it from a T-man member on here. https://www.amazon.com/Trappers-Advanced-Jumbo-Log-Book/dp/107773381X

I used to keep a spiral note book that listed all my sets, type of trap etc. I don't do that now. I do however set down at the computer at the end of the day and list those. I feel that recalling them later helps me remember things better. I also always check the line the same way or direction I laid it out and that helps.
Keeping records is a good thing for me, but I really find out on average how low my catch percentages really are and I work to improve those but I don't ever seem to improve a whole lot. A lot may be due to my set heavy and move more frequently than many do but for me that helps me get through the permissions better.
This year has been a real bust for me. My most intense trap line time for me has always been November 1st until about two days prior to our 9-day gun season. This year my trapping was very limited due to a whole host of issues. I will need to think of new methods as this is the 2nd season in a row where very, very wet conditions has caused me to due minimal trapping when I usually do the most.

Bryce

Off and on for 33 years or so. I am 45 and last year wrote a book of everything I can remember/experiences/etc. for my whole life. It ended up being a book. Like J Morse, I too am writing it for my future generations. It would be pretty cool if I had something similar from a past relative.

I have a calendar that 's on the wall by my bed, it's one of those that has the square boxes with the days date at the top in the box. Every night right before I crawl in the sack I write down what I did that day, numbers of fish caught and a running total of animals trapped, temps if a little high or low, rain or snow amount and anything else I might want to remember about that day. I've done this for years , probably won't mean anything to anyone else but it pleases me.

Dad kept diaries of the battles of Iwo Jima & Okinawa, those are priceless.

I have been writing down daily entries since my first child was born, she is now 12. I'm 37. Just a summary of daily events. I'll sit down everyone once and awhile and flip through. pretty enjoyable.

I haven't before, but I am being encouraged to do so as part of my work.

Anyone have any tips on how to get started and stick with it? Seems like it would be easy to skip it for the day if you were busy or tired.

For the first 4-5 years I only kept records of catches. the last 25-30 years, I kept more detailed records (similar to jmorse), including weather, unusual incidents and such. My log also covers the period of my divorce, so there are some very personal things in it, not meant for anyone but me. I love looking back, and remembering the good old days. It means a lot to me.

My wife keeps a fishing journal year round at our lake house. It comes in handy to see how fishing has changed over the years. It's informative in that you can see a pattern in the fishing such as what time of the year certain fish started biting, what depth they were at, best bait, method of fishing, trolling, bobber fishing, etc.

My wife has been keeping the journal since 1998. It's interesting to look back to that time in comparison to the current year.

I keep a trapping log, set type, bait-lure-urine, catches, species, male/female, remake, total catches per set. Also i keep record of the animal’s caught by number and then what i sell them for, makes me a better judge of my fur.

Then i keep a digital record of trap locations on a app on my phone.

Never stop learning, and if you never fail you never learn.

I have for the last 5 years.
My hunting, fishing, trapping and general outdoor adventures. Great resource and fun to look back to find the place and time of year to be on a spot.

The other thing it points out is how much time I waste in the doing this stuff. 34 hunting trips this fall so far who would have thought.

I've kept a hunting/trapping/fishing journal since I was about ten years old.

I also keep a journal at camp and everybody is required to make at least one signed, dated entry per stay.

I have tried several times, as it is a very cool and romantic thing to think of family sitting around years after your gone, reading it. But alas, I don't have the self discipline to do it. I am called the story teller of my family, reckon that's what I do, I tell not write. I also take pics.