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The
Fish Tracking System TM is
a fishing log system written for personal computers running Windows®
XP
with SP2 or Vista operating systems. Ideal for anglers that want to keep
records of their fishing
activities
and for competitive fishing game planning, it’s much more than a logbook
The
basic concept is simple. After each fishing trip you enter when and where
you fished, the weather
and
water conditions, patterns fished, and catch results by angler and species
of fish. Tournament
anglers
looking for an additional advantage can also enter the catch results of
the top finishers in each
tournament.
You’ll soon have a database that can be analyzed to determine the best
fishing patterns,
locations,
lures, anglers, species, and so on. More about ‘what is best’
in a moment. The system is
organized
by its main menu into three functional sections. They are Identification,
Fishing Log, and
Performance
Analysis sections.
Identification
Section
The Identification section is where user-defined data elements are entered
once and stored. It is up to
you
to specify any or all of the following: Locations, sub-locations, angler’s
names, pattern elements
(location
type, water flow, cover type, depth range, lure presentation, and lure
retrieve), species of fish,
lure
name, lure color and lure size. This scheme supports any kind of fishing.
These data elements are
important.
Location type, for example, can contain values for lake situations
indicating “Creek Mouth”,
“Back
of Slough”, “Main Channel”, “Creek Bend” and the like. Water
flow can be used to indicate tides
for
coastal locations, generating status for hydropower generating lakes, or
water volume for rivers and
streams.
They are all accessed in the fishing log by Windows-style, drop-down, list
boxes.
The
Fishing Log
The fishing log is where all the data representing your fishing activities
is entered into the system. You
begin
by mouse-clicking the calendar icon to bring up the calendar window to
select a date. This
calendar
is perpetual and scrollable to any month, day, or year. The calendar also
facilitates transferring
the
information from a manual fishing log if you’ve been keeping one. The
Moon’s phase is instantly
calculated
and captured. The location fished is then selected from a list box.
Clicking the “Next” button
always
takes you to the next screen for the logical sequence of input. “Next”,
the sub-location
representing
the exact area fished is selected. With the sub-location, the time, the
weather conditions,
and
the water conditions are selected. “Next”, the anglers are selected.
“Next”, the pattern is selected
that
the selected angler used at the given sub-location. “Next”, the lure
and fish species information is
selected
along with the quantity and weight information for that lure/species
combination. What the
system
really has here is a multi-dimensional database. For a date and location
there can be an
unlimited
number of sub-locations. For each sub-location, there can be an unlimited
number of anglers,
and
so on, with patterns, species, and lures. To visualize it, think of an
organizational chart or tree
structure
lying on its side.
There
is really a lot of detailed information that goes into the fishing log
database, much of it is optional.
But,
the system performs a few tricks to make data entry quick and painless.
First of all, if a new lure is
used
or a new location is fished, it can be added on the fly. With the fishing
log opened, any data
element
added through the Identification programs will be automatically added to
the log entry.
Secondly,
all the data elements accessed through list boxes are sequenced by their
“last use” date for the
given
location. This puts the most recently used data at the top of the lists.
Lastly, with some smart
defaulting
logic, a lot of the data is automatically entered for you. For example,
when a sub-location is
entered,
the weather and water conditions are loaded with the values last used for
the sub-location. Only
the
differences have to be changed. And, when a lure is entered, the color and
size last used is
automatically
loaded along with the species last caught and the presentation and
retrieve last used.
Again,
only the differences have to be changed.
In
addition to the structured information, the fishing log has a free form
diary for note taking or expense
tracking
and you can post your digital photos with a fishing log entry. If you’re
going on an extended
road-trip
without your PC, the system prints fishing log input sheets that can be
used for recording your
data
for later input.
Performance Analysis
The Performance Analysis section is where the serious research is done.
Statistical summaries can be
performed
by locations, sub-locations, angler’s names, pattern elements (location
type, water flow,
cover
type, depth range, lure presentation, and lure retrieve), species of fish,
lure name, lure color, lure
size,
year, month and moon phase. That list includes each Identification
category plus a few extras.
The
real power of this analysis becomes evident when Database Selection
Criteria is applied to filter the
analysis
to a particular portion of the database. Each field or data element in The
Fish Tracking
System’s
database can be used as selection criteria. For quantitative fields, like
water temperature or
barometric
pressure, you can select a range of values.
Here’s
how it’s used. Say there’s a tournament coming up and you want to
prepare your game plan.
First,
add to the selection criteria the conditions that you know will exist at
the time of the tournament.
That
might be the moon’s phase, water temperature range, barometric
conditions (weather front status),
a
date range ten days either side of the tournament date, and so on. Then,
run the pattern analysis
program.
The pattern summaries are then displayed for the conditions you specified.
You will see the
average
weights, biggest fish, the number of fish and weight per visit, the number
of fish and weight per
hour
and more by pattern. Now, here’s where ‘what is best’
comes into play. If best for you is which
pattern
produces the biggest fish, click the Biggest Fish column-heading button
and the patterns are
sorted
to show the best pattern for the biggest fish first in the list. Click the
Average Weight button and
they
are sorted in best average weight sequence. If you’re just taking a
youngster fishing and want to
insure
plenty of action, click the Number of Fish button and the pattern
maximizing the number of fish
caught
will be displayed first. Once you’ve selected the top patterns, you can
add the pattern to the
selection
criteria and perform the Lure analysis to show which lure works best given
that pattern. The
Performance
Analysis output can be displayed on the screen or printed. Color-coded
charts and graphs
representing
the results can also be displayed or printed. With eighteen different
performance categories
factored
by the database selection criteria, there are virtually an unlimited
number of queries that can be
performed.
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