Keeping a Field Notebook
The little details are often what you’ll want to remember
We take more photographs in the outdoors than ever before. Phones and cameras can document the fish we catch, the deer we see, a morning on the marsh, or a particularly good sunset.
But photographs don’t always tell us what we’ll eventually want to know.
What was the weather doing that morning? What was the water temperature? Which fly finally produced a fish? When did the wood ducks begin moving? Was that buck using the same trail as last season? Who was there with you?
That is where an old-fashioned field notebook still earns a place in the gear bag.
I’ve come to think of a field notebook as less of a journal and more of a personal record of time outdoors. It doesn’t require pages of writing. A few sentences written at the end of a trip can preserve details that would otherwise disappear surprisingly quickly.
What should you record?
There are no real rules, but a useful entry might include:
Date, time, and general location
Weather — temperature, wind, cloud cover, recent rain or fronts
Water conditions when fishing — temperature, clarity, level, current
Wildlife observations — species, numbers, behavior, movement
Fishing or hunting activity — flies, lures, baits, patterns, locations or techniques that worked
Seasonal observations — flowering plants, insects, mast crops, migrations or changing habitat
People — who shared the day with you
One lesson from the trip — especially something you want to try differently next time
The important part isn’t recording everything. It is recording the things that may matter later.
A note like “caught three bluegill on a Hare’s Ear soft hackle” is useful.
A note that says “September 6 — cool morning after overnight rain, water slightly stained, bluegill holding along the outside edge of submerged vegetation, Hare’s Ear soft hackle retrieved slowly just below the surface” becomes much more valuable.
A year from now, that entry may help you recognize the same conditions.
Patterns begin to appear
This is where a notebook becomes more than a collection of memories.
After several seasons, you start seeing patterns.
You may discover that a particular pond fishes especially well after a September cold front. You may notice when certain insects normally begin appearing. A hunter might recognize that deer consistently use one section of a property under a particular wind. A photographer may learn that a favorite wetland produces its best light during a particular part of the morning.
Memory tends to remember the exceptional days.
A notebook also remembers the ordinary ones.
And sometimes those ordinary observations are what eventually reveal the pattern.
Don’t make it complicated
The easiest way to stop keeping a field notebook is to turn it into homework.
You don’t need a special system. A small waterproof notebook and pencil will work. So will a traditional notebook kept in the truck. Some people may prefer notes on their phone.
The format matters far less than developing the habit.
Write down enough to remind your future self what happened.
Five minutes at the end of a day outdoors is usually enough.
More than information
Years later, the entries may become valuable for reasons that have nothing to do with catching another fish or finding another deer.
You may open an old notebook and find the date your child caught a first fish. A hunting trip with someone who is no longer around. The first time you saw a particular bird. A fishing trip when nothing went according to plan but everyone laughed about it afterward.
The weather observations and fishing conditions may have seemed important when you wrote them.
Eventually, the names might matter more.
That’s probably the best reason to keep a field notebook.
We’re always trying to figure out what the outdoors is telling us. Writing a little of it down helps us become better observers.
But it also leaves us a record of something even easier to lose:
the days themselves.
MARSHLIGHT Outdoors
