About Carp Anglers Diary

The Carp Anglers Diary is a service for carp anglers to keep an online diary of the catches that they have made, much in the same way that carp anglers have done for many years in a note book. The Carp Anglers Diary differs slightly from the conventional diary as it allows the user to mark on a drawing of the lake they fish, exactly where they casted when they made a catch. It does not stop there, the user of the Carp Anglers Diary is also provided with the facility to record information of fish that they lost and fish that they saw other fishermen catch and also record sightings of fish that could proove valuable when returning to the lake.

Scroll down the page to see screen shots of what you get when you sign up for the Carp Anglers Diary :

Each catch that is made the user will enter the following details against

• Details of Fish (Weight, Species and Name)
• Details of Capture(Time, Date, Swim and coordinates on Drawing
• Details of equipment used (Bait and Rig)
• Details of the weather conditions
• 4 Free form fields for user to record anything they wish e.g. full moon.

There is then a facility to display the drawing of the lake and search for catches made during certain weather conditions, just display sighting's and catches of a named fish, (this can be useful for the serious specimen hunter that is after a specific fish). All in all the carp angler can now truely build his own picture of the residents of his favorite lakes behaviors.

So how do i make use of this service, well you need to pay an annual subscription of £15 and setup an account, £15 is not much for such a great service that could increase your catch rate. The Carp Anglers Diary will be online by the end of Arpil 2008 and initially the numbers will be restricted so to avoid disappointment please register your interest and join the waiting list, by clicking here and sending your email address.

Your diary will be kept private from all other anglers so do not worry about other people learning your secrets.

The Concept

The Carp Anglers Diary allows its users to manage the following information.

• My Lakes (This is a list of lakes that a Carp Angler fishes)
• My Bait (This is a list of bait that a Carp Angler uses)
• My Rigs (These are the rigs that a Carp Angler uses)
• My Sessions (This is a list of the times that a Carp Anglers visits the lake)

Within the Carp Anglers Diary these concepts are placed into easy to use screens which allow the Carp Angler to use predefined bait, lakes and rigs or to add their own custom ones. Below are screen shots of each of the concept, which aim to demonstrate how the Carp Anglers Diary works.

My Bait

This screen shot shows a user adding a bait from the bait catalogue, the Carp Anglers Diary will contain all the major bait suppliers shelf life boilies and imitation sweetcorn baits and these can be added to your list of baits by using an easy to use search interface.

Adding Custom Bait

This screen shot shows how a user can add a custom bait and information about it you will notice a small table on the right titled My Baits this is a list of baits that you manage and can use to record captures against. And once you have added a custom bait it will then appear in this list.

Adding Custom Rig

This screen shot shows adding a custom rig, in a similar way to adding bait you can add rigs in the same manner. Once they are in your list of "My Rigs" they can then be used to record captures against.

My Lakes

This is a list of the lakes that a Carp Angler fishes the screen shot shows an angler that only has one lake Note : the lake was drawn using the tool provided within the Carp Anglers Diary. The lake is selected and a small thumbnail is displayed on right hand side of the screen as is a summary of the captures made and fish lost.

Adding New Lake

To add a new lake to your list of lakes you can either search using a text based search facility or you can use the map based search in the screen shot the lake the user is trying to add to their list of lakes is not currently in the Carp Anglers Diary database so they are adding a new one by marking a reference of it on the map.

Adding New Lake Details

Once the reference is marked on the map the carp angler will be prompted to provide some more details of the lake, e.g. whether it is part of a complex of lakes and a name, description and some notes about the lake, this information will be public so that other users can use the same lake.

Draw or Upload New Lake

Once details of the lake are entered the user will be prompted to choose a sketch of the lake with existing lakes some sketches will exist for the user to choose from but they will always have the choice to upload a drawing from their pc or create a new sketch using the drawing tool.

Draw a New Lake

This is the lake drawing tool it is a basic interface like windows paint but has some added tools to add trees, lillies, reeds snags and gravel to the lake there is also a bivvy which signifies a swim that can be added to a users drawings. Once the drawing is complete this lake will be added to the users "My Lakes" list and ready for the carp angler to start recording catches against.

Adding a new Session

To Add a new session a carp angler must already have some bait in "My Baits" some rigs in "My Rigs" and at least 1 lake in "My Lakes" list. Once they do they can then add a new session, the screen shot shows the first screen for adding a new session. Here the carp angler is asked to provide the start and end dates and times for the session and some basic notes about the session.

Specify a lake for a new session

This screen allows the user to specify which of the lakes in "My Lakes" list that are recording their session against, this is simply done by clicking the lake from the list and seeing it displayed in the thumbnail under Selected Lake.

Adding catches to a new session

This is the screen where the Carp angler provides all the details of a capture that they have made and using the button "Show on Map" they mark a reference of the location where the fish picked up the bait.

Adding catches and losses to a new session

This screen shows all the catches that a user has recorded against a session by using the add catch and edit catch buttons a user can build up a record of their session and also you will notice there is a facility to record lost fish, these can be analysed later to try and see if you are losing more fish on short rigs a particular rig or swim.

Adding Others And Sightings to a new session

In the same manner as we added catches and losses in the previous screen here we add observations, these can be seeing other people catch fish and marking where they cast and any other information we can gather from weather conditions to the amount of bait they are using. Also there is the facility to add sightings here, these are things like if we saw Basil in the margin feeding or a group of fish crashing over a gravel bar, this information can all be used at a later date so it is worth taking a note pad and pen to the lake with you and filling in as much as you can when you return.

Searching and viewing Catches.

This screen shot shows the sketch of the lake and the facilities we have to search or database and enable us to make better choices next time we return to the bank. It can be used to show me all records of a particular named fish or just all information during certain weather conditions. There is also a table view which is useful for analysing which swim is best and why we are losing so many fish and on what rig etc.

Future

The Carp Anglers Diary is designed for the carp angler and because of that we are always interested to hear your views as the future of this website is in your hands, if you think of some functionality that would be useful or something about the site that you do not like or you think could be improoved then please send in your feedback so that the furture of the site will fullfill all your diary needs. Happy Fishing and to avoid disappointment please join the waiting list click Here