u/TonyCodes2050

Started tracking every single thing i threw this season. not just what i caught but what i was using, what the pressure was doing, water temp, time of day, all of it.

took a few weeks before patterns started showing up but once they did it was hard to argue with.

ned rig was my most consistent producer when pressure was stable. the second it started dropping i switched to a spinnerbait and the numbers went up every time. wasn’t something i planned — i just saw it in the data after the fact.

Also found out i’ve been sleeping on crawler harnesses for walleye. had it logged three times in falling pressure, cold water, cloudy sky — all three times it outproduced everything else in the box. would have never connected those dots without looking back at it.

the gear stuff is only half of it though. the conditions attached to each catch are what actually tell you why something worked. a lure without the conditions it worked in is just a guess.

anyone else tracking what they throw against conditions? curious what patterns you’re seeing this season

Started tracking every single thing i threw this season. not just what i caught but what i was using, what the pressure was doing, water temp, time of day, all of it.

Took a few weeks before patterns started showing up but once they did it was hard to argue with.

ned rig was my most consistent producer when pressure was stable. the second it started dropping i switched to a spinnerbait and the numbers went up every time. wasn’t something i planned — i just saw it in the data after the fact.

also found out i’ve been sleeping on crawler harnesses for walleye. had it logged three times in falling pressure, cold water, cloudy sky — all three times it outproduced everything else in the box. would have never connected those dots without looking back at it.

the gear stuff is only half of it though. the conditions attached to each catch are what actually tell you why something worked. a lure without the conditions it worked in is just a guess.

anyone else tracking what they throw against conditions? curious what patterns you’re seeing this season?

Been fishing by myself most of this season so i started actually writing down conditions every time i went out. not just what i caught but pressure, temp, time, all of it.

took about two months before i started seeing anything but once i did it was hard to ignore. every single time barometric pressure was falling — not low, falling — the bite turned on. didn’t matter what i was throwing. didn’t matter what time. the trend was just there every time i looked back at it.

got a spot on lake macatawa i’ve been fishing for three years. pulled the data and it has literally never produced after noon. not once. i just never noticed because i never wrote it down.

anyone else been tracking conditions? curious if the pressure thing holds on your water or if it’s just something weird about my lakes

so i finally did the whole reorganize the tackle box thing this spring and it kinda messed me up lol

i’ve got like 80 something lures. and when i actually looked at which ones had teeth marks or scratched paint or just looked like they’d been in the water… it was maybe 8. everything else basically brand new.

and honestly the money isn’t even the part that got me. it’s that i keep buying stuff i already own because i can’t remember what’s in there. i’m pretty sure i have 4 packs of green pumpkin senkos in slightly different shades because every spring i’m standing in the aisle like “do i already have these” and just grab em to be safe

the 8 i actually fish though, they all kinda have a thing in common. cold front i know what i’m tying on without thinking about it. water’s stained after rain, same deal. the other 80 are lures i bought for situations i imagined not stuff i actually run into

starting to think i don’t need more lures i just need to actually pay attention to what works when

anyone else like this? curious what your actual list of confirmed producers is vs what’s just sitting in the box

Not gonna lie, I only started logging conditions because I was annoyed. Kept telling myself I "knew" my lake and then having zero idea why one Saturday was lights out and the next one was dead.

So I just started writing it down. Weather, pressure, water temp, what I threw.

Biggest thing so far....my good days were almost all when pressure was actively dropping ahead of a front. Not low pressure. Dropping. Soon as it bottomed out and went flat the bite died with it, even when the number itself was still low.

I always heard "fish before a front" and kind of assumed that meant the whole day before. For my lake it looks more like a couple hours. Bluebird high pressure days were my worst by a mile. Everybody says that, I know, but it hits different seeing it in your own notes instead of just nodding at it on here.

Water temp thing surprised me too — seemed to matter more than air temp for where they were sitting. And every decent spinnerbait day was overcast and windy. Not exactly breaking news but the consistency was kind of wild.

Anyway...curious if this lines up for anyone else. Is the falling pressure bite a short window for you or do you get a longer ramp into it? And does anyone actually do well on flat low pressure or is that just a thing people say?

Took me way too long to figure this out lol

I used to show up to the same spots over and over and have completely different results every time. Sometimes crushing it, sometimes getting skunked. Drove me crazy because I had no idea what I was doing wrong.
Turns out I wasn’t doing anything wrong. Timing was the issue.

Barometric pressure, water temp, tide if you’re on the coast — fish are way more predictable than people think but you have to know what conditions you’re fishing in. A falling pressure front will kill your bite almost every time. That window right before a front moves in though? Some of my best days ever.

Started writing it all down and the patterns showed up pretty fast. Wish I had done it from day one honestly.

Anyone else figure this out early or did it take you a while too?

Got into a weird situation this year. Shared a couple of coordinates with a buddy through one of the bigger fishing apps and within two weeks there were four boats sitting on a spot I'd been working for three seasons. Either the app leaked it or somebody screen-grabbed it. Either way — done with that.

Right now I'm back to a screenshot of Google Maps with little x's on it like I'm planning a heist 😅

What's everyone using to keep honey holes actually private? Open to anything — notebook, spreadsheet, custom solution, whatever. Just don't trust the big apps anymore after the last couple of acquisitions.

Michigan guys especially — curious how you handle it.

I always get stuck in this loop when things slow down: I’ll either keep swapping lures every 2 minutes, or I’ll run around spot to spot and never really figure out what they wanted.

What do you usually do first?

Slow down / change cadence with the same bait

Swap color or profile (still staying put)

Change depth (weight, line, different part of the column)

Slide down the bank / move 50–200 yards (same type of water)

Pull the plug and go find something totally different

And what’s the “tell” that makes you decide—wind shift, sun popping out, bait activity, missed bites, you mark fish but they won’t commit, etc.?

I’m trying to get more consistent about tracking what actually led to fish — like water temp/flow, time of day, weather shift, fly/lure, depth, and what kind of water (riffle/run/pool) — but I always fall off after a few trips.

Right now mine ends up being scattered: a couple pics, maybe a note like “olive bugger worked,” then a month later I can’t remember why it worked or what the conditions were.

Curious what your real system is:

do you write stuff down streamside,

do a quick recap later at the truck,

use waypoints/photos as your “log,”

or just rely on memory?

Basically, what’s the main thing that breaks consistency for you — forgetting details later, it’s annoying to type/write, hands wet/cold, or you just don’t see enough payoff?