I also take notes when I fish. It's less about recording a life list, and more about trying to collate what is otherwise very thing spotty data enough to get better at fishing.

As someone who has learned a lot of skills and hobbies online and likes sharing info, fishing has been a really interesting different world. Because anglers are effectively competing for a scarce resource, specific information about good fishing spots is understandably not shared widely.

So you have to put in the time yourself to try spots and see what produces. But in order to catch fish, you need to be at the right place, at the right time of year, at the right time of day, with the right lure, and the right technique. Get any one of those wrong and the only signal you get is "no bites". That makes it really tough to learn and improve.

I've found that taking detailed notes helps me see patterns in what works that would otherwise be hard to see.