Numbers

This is number three in a series of posts about things I have been thinking about. Some are rants and some are just things I have been thinking about. This one is about numbers and keeping track of fish. enjoy

Numbers

I have always been a numbers guy. I keep track of a lot of things. I have a five subject notebook that I have labeled “Journal”. It is not a journal in the same way people keep a diary. It is really more like a series of lists. I have been keeping it since I was about twenty. In the different sections are lists ranging from books I have read to the number of animal species I have seen in each year. I know exactly how many movies I see each year separated by rental and going to the movie theater. I keep track of daytrips I’ve gone on and who was with me. I have a list of concerts I’ve been too.

The only time I write in “diary form” is when I go on vacation. At the end of each day I write down what I did or saw that day. Since my notebook is nine years old (I’m on my second since I was twenty) I leave it home on vacation. I take some scrap paper with me on vacation or another notebook and transfer the trip log when I get home. I am very thorough. If I did it I will write it down. Sometimes I will get detailed as eating a turkey sandwich on top of a mountain if it was a real good sandwich.

You’re probably asking yourself why I do this and where I am going with this. The answer is I don’t want to forget anything. I am very visual so if I write it down I remember it better. If I reread something it reminds me of it. Even when I keep track of movies, if I write it down, I am more likely to remember the plot five years later. 

The same thing is true of fishing. I keep track (usually on the computer) of the fish I catch and where I caught them. I know exactly how many trout I have caught over the last two years. This year I have been better at writing down the other species. Although I probably couldn’t tell you exactly how many stripers I have ever caught, I think my guess would be within fifty.

Some people keep track of these things and some don’t. To be honest, it is all about personality and what is fun to you. Some guys need to know how many they caught while others just go out and hope to catch fish and don’t think about how many. Neither side is right or wrong.

So when I write a blog post about a fishing trip it will usually include the number of fish I have caught. I write the number down for two reasons. One, I actually know how many fish I caught. Second, if I write “the fish were really biting” or “we caught a lot today”, I assume you would actually like to know how many.

Do not consider this bragging or boasting at all. It is not boasting. Besides there are only about five of you that read this and most are good fishermen so who the hell am I bragging to anyway?  Here are my reasons.

I put in a lot of time fishing. I assume if others fished as much as I do they are going to have just as many days where they run into large numbers of fish. If I write about a fifty fish day, I assume the reader knows that the fish were stacked up and anyone with reasonable common sense knows fishing was easy that day. If I have a day where I catch twenty stripers or trout it isn’t to boast. It is to share my experience. I want others to want to do the same thing. Maybe and hopefully it will get others to go fishing or get outdoors, which is the point.

Also, numbers really aren’t very impressive after a certain number anyway. I will give you an example This March I caught 9 trout at Fearings Pond. It was a good day, I had a person that read my blog say” You nailed them yesterday.” A month later I caught 26 in a couple hours. But is that number really three times more impressive than nine. Did I seem like I am three times better of a fisherman because I caught 26. The answer is no. I ran into some fresh stockies. I kept fishing for them because I rarely run into browns and brookies (I catch brookies in New Hampshire but not too many in MA) and that is what these were, so I took advantage of the easy fishing.  It wasn’t to pad my stats or to brag about how many I caught. I had only caught three browns in my whole life until that day so each one I caught was really fun for me.    

The point is some people keep track of how many they have caught. Some don’t. Some fishermen write down in fishing reports with tide, date, weather conditions hoping to learn from it. Some keep track so they can add up how many they caught at the end of the year. In the end, who cares? Just have fun doing it your way.  When I write how many I caught in a post it is because if I was reading someone else’s blog (and I do) I would want to know how many “a lot “was. If you read about how many fish someone caught they are trying to make a point of how good the finding was, not how good a fisherman they are. With a little luck and a lot of time everyone will have great fishing days.  Don’t read anything into it, but keep reading it.