Summer season

well the summer season is now in full swing, don't ask me why they have a season called "peak" summer season when you'd think peak meant the actual peak of the season.anyway the water temp is 78-85 degrees during the day and the air is 83-95  with lots of humidity and sunshine blazing down. water level is down quite a bit and rain is in short supply except for the occasionally trade shower.the water has stratified now with a warm surface layer and then a thermocline  about 8-12ft deep and then colder water below that with much less oxygen. the thermocline can be seen on most good graphs and  the fish will be there for sure after the morning and late afternoon feed. the thermocline is cooler and has more oxygen than either the surface or the deeper water.baitfish are plentiful now as the spawned fry are about looking for anything they can to hide around. and they are big enough now to make a meal for larger fish.the bass and tucs will feed heavily but often for short periods of time and often at first light or last light. bass will often feed aggressively at night on the very hottest of days and especially on full moons. the fish may become finicky with the easy abundance of prey they may key on a certain type of fish a.k.a. tilapia or shad. and the size of the lure , the color and the presentation will become much more important to get the fish to bite. the bass may be hitting 2" shad on the surface and your throwing a 3in popper in firetiger with no luck and wondering why. or perhaps the tucs will be slamming tilapia along a shoreline and you throw a  prop bait in silver shad and throw it 2 ft from the bank. but the tilapia are kinda gold in color and are in inches of water  so your not looking like what the tucs are after.summertime can be feast or famine depending on the mood of the fish and how fast you can adapt. the fish will changes moods rapidly with the weather and temp so you need to have a wide selection of baits ready to go and be ready to switch as soon as it stoops working or till you find what does. sticking with one style of bait or one color, perhaps one presentation can lead to a lot of missed opportunities  when the heat is on! and most importantly take care to stay hydrated and protect yourself from the sun. hat,100%  uva and uvb sunglasses and lots of sunblock are a must out on the water!BullFrog Ultimate Sheer Protection Broad Spectrum Face Sunblock SPF 30

June 9th 2012 trip report

well lets try this again.......... some kinda glitch cause my last few posts to disappear. the part that pisses me off is trying to remember the trip reports several weeks back, its gonna be tough and I'm sure most of the info will slip my mind now.

weather-mostly clear morning with partly cloudy by afternoon,winds were calm in the morning with gustier conditions later in the day, maybe 10-20mph by noon and no rain to be seen.
barometer- 30.07 and holding steady
humidity-67%
water level-68.85ft
moon phase- crescent about a quarter full with and astro table of 43 out of 100
water clarity-ranged from muddy 1-2ft in most of south fork above the ramp to lightly stained with 3-5ft down in the main basin.

we started our day at 7 am and headed down to robbies special tree. there were small inconsistent busts here and there from the area of cow point  to down along paper bark. robbie of course wanted his buzzbait on and i hadn't hooked it up so i had to take a sec to rig it for him. his other rod had a halo soft jerkbait in green shad on a small 3/16 ounce jig head. as i got his buzz bait ready there was a small bust right off the bow of our boat, just in front of his "magic" tree. he made a cast and with the buzzbait and i quickly grabbed his other rod and tossed it out at well and bam! first cast i hook up with a nice bass. he reels it in and we have our first fish of the day at 1.6lbs and 15in. worked the area a bit and busts would be going off here and there but always out of reach. seemed like every time we tried to fish along the bank a bust would happen and we would be forced to move out after it! finally  decided this was the perfect situation for my first attempt at the alabama rig. i tied it on the same setup i use for my frog and buzz baits. 35lb braid with a 10lb flouro leader and a 6.3.1 ratio baitcaster on a medium heavy 6'6" rod. its a boss all wire ,compact umbrella rig. i had lead head jigs on it but with the much publicized "gaffing" effect i took them off and switched to 5  2/0 vicious wide gap hooks. figured the weight of the baits and wire would be enough to get it down, besides the bass and tucs were hitting closer to the surface anyway. i had  hootchie kootchie 3" swim baits from cabelas on the hooks rigged texas style to prevent gaffing hopefully. the hootchie kootchie baits have extended tails that really look great in the water compared to the shorter tails on most style swimbaits. have to say i was impressed with how great the whole thing looked in the water, it really did look just like a school of bait swimming along. first cast and i can't be 100% sure but it felt like something popped it! i was stoked and made several consecutive casts with no luck. on the 6th cast i hadn't realized my braid had cross hatched on the real and as i sent it out the line went out 20 feet stopped with a snap and i got to watch all 27$ of umbrella rig sail out into the middle of the lake........... not a happy camper!!! oh well i was so impressed with how great it looked that i will most definatley get another rig to try just as soon as i can , maybe even 2! as far as the braid I'm not so sure ill use that rod and reel seup again for awhile hahaha. as i nursed my anger at the braid there was a good bust right up again the bank of paperbark point, that can only mean one thing....... TUCS! so i rigged up robbies pole with a small prop bait and tossed it out onto the dirt just at the waters edge of the point. pulled it down into the water and started to jerk it. only took 3 jerks maybe moved it 3ft tops and got a nice explosion but a miss. tried it again and on the 4th jerk off the bank  big hit! handed the rod over to the lad and he got to fight a nice 2 lb 4 oz 16in tuc. great start to the day so far! we chased busts and alternated along the bank in this area for some time without  another hit, to be fair i really wasn't trying as hard as i could of to coax another hit from the hungry fish. finally sometime around 9:30 or so the area calmed down and we moved on looking for another spot.we settled at kunia point and fished along the point of boy scout island. crank baits, top waters,drop shot, and even shakeyheads with no luck. there were sporadic busts from time to time but nothing worth pursuing.we then headed down to condo cliffs and fished along there alternating baits as well and finally got a small a 1 lb  catfish on a cabelas grave digger crankbait. my son decided we needed to put him in the live well for awhile so in the poor guy went, we would release him later of course.after working across to kemo'o island and fishing a few of the small points we made it over to the saddle and began to fish it , first with a crankbait and then with drop shot. didn't get to fish it for very long before my son wanted to feed the geese. so we packed up and got them to come over to us to get some bread. after the bread was gone he wanted to drive the boat and it was time to get him in and pick up lunch.he got to show off his catfish and we released it at the ramp. lunch and the lad were traded and off i went to find some fish for myself. went back down to robbies area but had no luck and the busting had stopped.wasnt a shock, the summer heat was on and I'm sure the fish had gone deep with the bait. ran down to kunia point and then over to boy scout island point. cranked the point and down along the sides with no luck and then started to drop shot the point itself. had made a few casts but nothing seemed interested. jeff choi came by and said he had a tough morning till he put on a shaky head and fished the saddle off kemo'o island and caught 25 bass in an hour just running back and forth along the saddle. we chatted for awhile and then parted ways. i fished the point a bit longer with my drop shot with no luck and then tied on a shaky head of course and headed down to condo cliffs. finally got a 1.4lb 14in bass on a shakeyhead along the cliffs.  soon after got another bass 1.6lb 15in  both were in about 10ft of water and the bites were more of a pick up sensation than an actual hit. kinda just raise the tip up and feel the fish. then just as i turned the corner at the kemo'o side of condo cliffs i got a 3rd bass 1.2lb 14in. so i was onto a pattern now so i thought.fish seemed to be holding between 10-12ft and close enough to the bottom to be interested in the shakeyhead. not really into  chasing or  eating. really had to hold that bait in front of them and shake it till they got pissed off and even then they barley mouthed it. enough time had gone by i figured why not try the saddle so i came in from the dam side and made my first cast to the tip where it was exposed. first cast i get a nice 2.2lb 16in bass in 18ft of water. alas i was so stoked with the first fish i stayed wayyyyyyyy to long and spent nearly an hour trying for another bite.again this seemed to fit right into the summer peak pattern of fishing.ran upto north fork and kinkaids figuring the bluffs would be the place to fish! but either it was well picked over , there had been a lot of boats out, or the pattern wasn't just as simple as i had though with wind,depth, andstructure/time of day. i spent some time working my way up along the bluffs and then came back down the other side throwing a crankbait , run and gunning as it were. finally got another 1.4lb 14 in bass on the housing side of kinkaids with a cabbalas grave digger crankbait that ran about 4-8ft deep. after that though i was doing nothing but hauling water. ran back to the dam side of the saddle and worked the steep back just prior to the saddle. had a really good fish on with the shakeyhead but it ran into some lay downs and after a few minutes of trying to get it off either he came unbuttoned or my line broke. i was still hung but i couldn't feel anything on the end. tried the lure retriever but the line finally broke further up  and i had to get another rig on. it was getting late so i ran back toward the ramp stopping at a few steep /windy banks but none produced and i ended the day on that lost fish. the day seemed to make perfect sense as far as what the fish were doing and where they were located. early morning busts as the said rose from first light to about 9 am then as the sun got high and the heat turned on the fish went deeper and pulled closer to structure. the wind helped but the key was shad. follow the shad and the bass were nearby on the closest structure in the 8-12ft depth range. top waters in the morning and look for busting fish, after it heats up shakeyhead and dropshot would be the ticket. i was loving the braid on the pflueger spinning reel. it really made a difference with the shakeyhead and its sensitivity to the bites. had i stayed out till later in the afternoon there might have been more surface action but 4pm i was tired and it wanted to get the boat back in the garage before dark. great day and got a few good fish to boot. can't beat such a great day on the water!Pure Fishing 6925X Pflueger President Reel Spinning 10bb 110-4 Size 6925x

Braided line for finesse fishing

Recently i had read an article about aaron martens. in it he described a growing trend of the top pros and elites to use braid for nearly all of their finesse fishing techniques. i remember the days when spectra first came out and we all had it on nearly every reel as it was the "THING" to have. eventually the cons and price  won out and it faded away. well it came back strong for a lot of specialized techniques and i have to agree that it does have a place on a few reels just for certain techniques. heavy cover,flipping and pitching, anything that requires horsing a fish out of something, but finesse????!!! well after reading the article i was sold on the idea and decided to spool up one of my extra spools with braid and try it for myself. after all summer is coming up and shaky head and drop shooting will be in full swing, and as crowded as our lake has gotten recently I'm sure finesse will be the way to go slot of the time. so here is how martins instructed the setup of the line. he said to use 10 lb braid, not alb not 12 lb, but 10lb. according to hime it was the best diameter all around for keeping enough strength and manageability  to make it work on a spinning reel. use a leader of 6lb or 8lb fluorocarbon keep the leader the length of the rod tip to reel. i ran mine about 5 ft or so. use  a rod with a quick tip and a fast action to absorb the shock of the hook set .reel wasn't as important but a faster ratio he liked better than a slower one. so i went out and bought some power pro braid 10lb, it was the only braid i could find in 10lb on such short notice, i have never used it before and wasn't sure how it would perform. actually i have been pleasantly surprised with it. i thought it was a junky line but its on par with fireline or spiderwire. i think i got a 150yrd spool for around 20$, not a bargain but it was wal mart in hawaii after all so there is always a big mark up. again it performed very well on the spinning reel , i was quite happy with it. the 150 yards seemed to be just the right amount to fit the spool of my pflueger president reel, i didn't have to put any backing to fill it out and it was close enough to seem like it wouldn't  affect the casting ability of the reel. i added a 8lb leader of berkley vanish flouro at about the length described above. and tied them together with an albright knot. the knot may not be the best for this application however as it was very tough to tie with the small diameters of the line involved. it took several tries to get one to take that didn't  fray the flouro or actually just cut it in half with the braid. perhaps next time a couple of uni knots might work better. something i will have to try i guess as i work to improve the rig. the first outing with the new setup i was having a very very tough day and by days end had decided to throw a shaky head on it. i worked down a bank that actually i had seen several other boats hit and one even parked there for some time before i got to try my luck on it. i knew they were fishing it all wrong and was confident i could get one on the shaky head there. i was right! second cast got plowed by a nice 1.5lb bass. quickly got 2 more in short order all along the same stretch of bank maybe 20ft apart or so. the first thing you notice it that the braid does cast extremely well of the spinning reel and the albright knot dosent effect the line coming out of the tip to much.the wind is much less a factor with braid on the spinning reel as well, a bait caster often cross hatches on the retrieve causing overlaps of line or backlashes as the lighter braid catches in the wind. i experienced neither with the spinning outfit. the flouro leader and braid really transmit the feel of the bottom and its easy to become overwhelmed at every little tick. but the actual bites i got were so well felt that there was never any guess as to when it was a fish and when it was something else. the second time i fished this rig also proved fruitful, same feeling same kind of success with it. however i did loose several shaky heads to  various underwater obstacles. several the flouro gave and a couple broke at the knot. again i may have to find a knot that dosent stress the flouro out so much. the one problem i do see with this is drop shooting . it would be a lot of re-tying to switch to a drop shot  or to repelce one. it bad enough when its all flouro line but at least your just tying a few easy polamar knots and done. event tried wacky rigging or anything else but the shaky head but I'm already sold on the whole braid for finesse idea, i really can't believe i never tried it before back in the day when it was on most of my reels.

Summer Peak

 summer peak is here now. water temps are in the high 70s to low 80s. its light by 530 am and won't be dark till 730pm. most of the spawning has taken place and there is an abundance of fry milling about. there may still be a tucanare nest here and there but more likely there will be mated pairs guarding fry in deeper water. when they guard their fry off the nests its nearly impossible to get them to bite unlike when they are on the nest. most bass will be scattered at varying depths and in many different types of cover or structure. as long as the water is stable though the general mood of the fish will be positive, and good catch rates should hold. although smaller fish will be the norm now. there is always the chance for a good fish early in the morning or at dusk but its not quite been hot enough to really get the night bite going yet. oxygen should still be good although the lake is starting to stratify by this time with the warmer water rising and the cooler water sinking. thermoclines should be very well defined and thats is always the best place to look for fish.food is plentiful with  all the fry and shad milling about. a lot of the bass and tucanare will now begin to shadow shad schools in deeper water and will often suspend through the midday.right now on our lake the water level was dropped to the 69ft level. not that its a bad thing but most of the grass lines are now high and dry, luckily our weeds are emergent so they will grow further out and thicker so if this level maintains we could have some great weed growth for next fall. the bad thing of course is the fry are pretty exposed and it is our dry season and we could lose a few more feet and be without a ramp to launch our boats. its a great time to get out on the lake. we just had a sewage spill thanks to a power outage so its off limits for a few days  but fishing should be great and the weather is certainly cooperating so as soon as I'm not worried about HEP C i will be out in this early summer season and you should too!

May 6th report

so the largest full moon of the year was just that previous night,so you'd think it would mean the fishing was on fire right? hahahaha welllllll lets just say i came very close to being skunked for the first time in a very very long time! my personal experience is following full moons is one of the toughest days of fishing, i think they feed heavily at night and  by day are kinda lethargic from the nights feed. so if your gonna fish a full moon fish it at night. we launched at 730. we got to the ramp at 7 and much to my displeasure, i hate fishing on sundays( club days) there was apparently a tournament going on. there were 6-8 boats in front of us and its a small lot! they were polite and waved my into the line, i offered to wait but they insisted i launch  , so we did. clear skies no rain whatsoever. air temp was 74 and warmed up into the upper 80s by noon. water temp was 74 at launch and warmed to 78-79 by afternoon. ohh yes its summertime now! wind was 5-10 mph at launch and got quite blustery by noon with gusts making boat control impossible they were in the 20 -25 mph range with higher gusts.water clarity had faltered a bit and was 3-4 ft pretty much lake wide. moon phase was well full hahaha with the lunar table at 63 points out of 100. the water height at the dam was at 77.7 ft and had risen a foot in the last 24 hours. barometer was at 30.13 and rising. we decided to avoid the crowd and ran right up to he grassbeds in south fork. i was throwing a rage tail frog and my son his mans floating agitator buzz bait( his fav lure) we pounded the grass beds hard to no avail. worked the rocky bluffs in between them with a spinnerbait and crankbait. all the way to my lucky ironwoods and didn't get anything there either. we followed the grass beds up all the way to the old bridge and not a single bite. several kayakers and a couple of boats went by. apparently this wahiawa bass club was doing a trolling only tournament. so now i guess there are 3 clubs? hawaii fresh water fishing association, northshore bass club, and now the wahiawa bass club? usually its the 3rd and 4th sundays of the month that are tournament days but noow with another club i guess its the 1st ,3rd and 4th? sundays? ahhhh screw it ill stick to saturdays hahaha. we decided to run down to retirement bluffs but worms, jigs, crank baits all to no avail. all the while having boats run by trolling. made the run down to the main basin but there seemed to be boats everywhere. we fished several deep sots that were reading shad balls and bass or tucs underneath on the graph but no matter what we tried we got nothing. most of the shore spotts were really getting worked over between the trollers who were right up against the banks as they went , to the 6 or 7 other boats that were out. it was a crowded day for our little lake.still plenty of room to share though. we fed the geese and my son was done, no action he was bored and it was hot. so we headed to get him in. then i headed back out determined not to get skunked! i started fishing just after the bridge into wahiawa and worked my way along both sides throwing a texas rigged worm and a crankbait all the way down at any kind of lay down or structure i could find. no luck. moved down onto robbies lucky spot and worked that whole bank till it leveled out near the retirement home with no luck. i then ran down to the main basin and the tournament that was going on  was a trolling tournament , it was terribly annoying with 7 boats running up and down up and down every where i went. i pretty much dropped the idea of any fishing in the main basin. ran up into kinkaids and fished a few points pretty hard . nothing, tried morgans and nothing. used worms , jig and a spinnerbait. ran down the bluff bank and finally got one on a crankbait. it was 2pm and my first fish, a cookie cutter 1.4 lb 14 in bass. continued down the bank but only managed to haul water the rest of the way. worked down the opposite bank and got another on the same crankbait. but that was to be it along that bank and again a small cookie cutter bass in the same range. did a lot of run and gun but by 4 pm i was tired and there just wasn't any game join on i had no pattern and the fish just went appearing. the tourney had wrapped up so i made a last ditch effort along kemoo island and condo cliffs with a shaky head worm. i was trying a new technique i had read about , i will go into detail on that a bit later in another post but it worked great and i pulled 3 skinny largemouths out from along the cliffs . all small in the 1.5 lb range and all in kinda skinny. i was glad to have em after the tough day. managed 5 for the day and by 5 pm i was well over done! headed in and was glad to have caught what i did. learned a few things though and that was well worth the effort. this post is so very late, blogging is tough to keep up with when you are so busy. wish i had more time to fish and post , no wonder so many blogs have such long  times in between. i have a ton of topics to talk about and so little time to sit and write thoughts out. this month almost went by with none!! i hope i can get a few down early next month and maybe a trip or two in as well!!

April 28th report

i really have fallen behind in these trip reports, its a lot harder to keep up than you'd think. you come home from the lake tired and clean the rig and put stuff away then your to tired to care. next day is chore day or back to work so its out. having to find time during the week is tough! so here we are 2 weeks out from this report and i hope i can remember all the details. ok saturday morning. 7 am launch and the suns already up. lightly clouded with just a slight drizzle but only intermittently, carried in by the trades that are building. air temp is 76 degrees and water at launch is 74 degrees, with the air warming into the upper 80s by noon and the water warming into 77-78 by afternoon. wind was in the 10-15 mph range then ramped up by 11 am into the 15-25mph range.water clarity was incredible with  maybe 4-5ft visibility all along upper south fork and near the ramp. it actually worsened in the main basin but was still in the 3-4ft range which is ultra clear. there was a slight tannic/greenish tint to the water in places that made it seem less clear till you got a lure in and saw how far down you could watch it till it disappeared. the moon phase was about half moon with the lunar table at 53 points.water level at the dam read 78ft and steady. barometer was at 30. 14 and dropping. we started out into south fork and worked our way along the ironwood trees away from the ramp . my son throwing  a buzz bait and myself a spinnerbait. worked our way all around the next big round cove  and got to the grass beds where i switched also to a buzzbait. we followed the grass lines up switching sides as we went to whatever side had the most grass to work. i was have a lot of trouble with my braid backlashing in the wind even though it was only slight. this problem even with adjustment continued for some time. we worked till we hit the lucky patch of ironwoods and then switched to the spinnerbait and a cranbait. eventually also back casting to spots with a jig and plastic chunk. no luck. we ran up to the old military bridge, a place my son insists on seeing every time we fish, i dunno why hahaha. but no matter what we threw, it was just hauling water. we headed back into lower south fork and headed toward the main basin. stopping at my sons special tree( he caught his first bass all by himself there,casted.caught.fought.landed) so now its "HIS" tree hahaha anyways i was determined to learn from the previous week and listen to the fish, i just had  to find the fish!!! i decided to downsize and go with a texas rigged bass pro shop 6" curly tail worm in red with blue glitter. its a very subtle worm with just enough action and is so small and skinny its just right for finicky bass. we worked along his tree and past with no success. there was a new  set of broken limbs in the water from a large tree so i pitched the worm into the midst of the branches. let it fall all the way to the bottom and sit a sec. about the 2nd lift and drop i felt a pressure. at first i though i was snagged but as i raised my tip to check it felt more like something moving. this is the point where you just have to hope its a fish and set the hook cause that fish is feeling you just as much as your feeling him and he's a millisec from spitting it out! i won this time! set the hook and fought her out of the wood cover and then handed it to my son to fight. it felt good but i didn't realize how good till my son got it to the surface and she rolled that i realized i needed to take over. by our lake standards she was a lunker and i was worried my son would snap her off! he has a tendency to reel a fish nearly to the eye, especially if the rod tips in the water which it was as this fish surged. anyway got her in and a very nice 19 in 3lb 11oz bass too start our day. it was around 9am i think. we worked our way down the bank along the retirement condos and caught 2 more nice fish, a 14 in 1lb 6 oz and a 14 in 1lb 1oz. so i guess the downsizing worked. i was just casting the worm into the bank which was maybe 5 -8ft deep and letting it go to the bottom. all the hits were coming on the 2-4th hop, guess the little curlytail was helping em decide to take it. we then ran our way to kunia point  and fished the bank just before and just after with no luck. tried boy scout point with no luck. threw a drop shot and cranked it. we ran down to kemoo island and i drop shotted the island and saddle . then it was duck feeding time. by now my son was tired and it was time to take him back and get lunch. ran back to the ramp and got him handed off. made the run to the big tree just after the bridge and fished it a bit with no luck, although i didn't really try to hard. then made the run down to condo cliffs and worked along them but no luck. finally ran to randalls point and cranked drop shotted and slow rolled a spinnerbait all along it with no success. ran upto kinkaids and started my way up the bluffbank pitching a jig and chunk in black/blue/purple with a blue zoom chunk on it. got another nice 2lb 4oz  17 in bass on a log in maybe 4 ft water. worked my way down the bank and lost a couple that tail danced their way to freedom. same scenario with them holding in 4-8ft of water on isolated wood cover and taking the jig on the first or second hop. picked up another 13 in 1lb bass at the end of the stretch. moved across to start my way back with the wind at my back on the shallower weedier side and alternated the jig with a crankbait depending how hard the wind was blowing.lost the jig and tied on another pumpkin with chartreuse tips 3/8 oz jig with a  pumpkin zoom chunk. i dipped some scent i had  that stained the tips chartreuse on the trailer and it was looking pretty yummmmayyyy. i guess mr. tuc though so too, just a few casts down the bank i hooked into a nice 2 lb tuc, it grabbed it as i swam it back to the boat. i reached for it to lip him but he flipped around so much i didn't want a hook in my finger, anyone that keeps up with pro bass fishing knows there has been a rash of hooks in people lately on the tours hahaha and i was having those images in my head as he thrashed about. went to grab the yoga grip but then had a though that i needed a pic to send to my friend in kaui seeing as this was a rare feat indeed to get a tuc on this kind of bait.as i reached for my phone he thrashed so violently one last time that the line snapped and off he swam with my jig! it was getting late and i decided to make the run back to the retirement bluffs and fish it with the worm one last time. worked my way along and got a nice 1lb 7oz 15 in bass on the corner. fished a couple more spots on the way back in just before the bridge but with no luck. i hope i got most of the details right. 2 weeks is a long time between posts and things get fuzzy, especially when you have another trip to post about  after this one!all in all a great day with a nice lunker to anchor it, and even better it was the one to start me off on a good pattern!

Strike king trip log app for iPhone

 so i had seen this thing advertised on the outdoor channel show "strike king pro journal" good show by the way. looked like a great log to have easy to use, good way to keep track of catches with time and date stamps all the pertinent weather and even the gps coordinates. 99 cents why not right. well i got to try it out last weekend and was kinda disappointed. it does do a lot of what its supposed to do but its just so damn time consuming. you have 6 steps to do every time you catch a fish and thats after you weight measure and release the fish! it takes like 10 min to log in the info of the catch!! who dosent wanna get right back in the water asap! step one  is the new trip add, name of the location and gps is added after you type in the name. it times stamps it and then moves onto step 2 which gives you the weather . you can edit it if your weather isn't what its saying it is, mine was not right had to change it every shot, but then thats usually the way weather works right hahaha. set the moon phase and then onto step 3 water temp,color,visibility. and depth. it gives the tides too if your in the ocean or subject to tidal changes our lake is not, all of these have to be set by you, they aren't like the weather set from NWS. step 4 is the rod and reel and line line info. again very basic choices you can't go into any detail on them you get to pick very general selections from a list.5 you can add a photo of the location or fish or whatever you want, but it has to be taken before the whole process starts , you can't snap away once this app is engaged.6 is the fish you add you catches  weight, length and a choice of strike king lures only what you used to catch them, i was using a terminator spinnerbait and there was only strike king pro models to choose from but if you don't care to be exact it won't matter. every time you catch a fish you have to add the location to the trip log and go thrue the steps and can't even get the right info in a lot of the slots. some parts of the app are great but i don't see myself using this much, it too time consuming and inaccurate. its just as easy and much after to goto the note pad on the phone type in the weight length and anything pertinent and be back in the water in a minute or two . get home and get much more detailed. i mean i may be getting old but i still can remember trip info even weeks out, besides whats this blog for hahahaha. id save on the 99 cents and room on the phone and maybe there is a better log out there, if there isn't I'm sure there will be. every day I'm amazed at how much more stuff is added to these damn things.