A blank trip is still a result. If you only write down the good ones, your notebook becomes a highlight reel. This exercise uses fictional numbers so you can inspect the calculation before applying it to your own notes.
Add first, then divide
Suppose one bait produced four fish in two hours. The next two-hour session produced none. Across both sessions you caught four fish in four hours: one fish per hour. Removing the second session doubles the displayed rate without catching another fish.
The patterns screen groups bait-session notes, adds their fish and recorded hours, and divides those totals. An entry without hours contributes to counts but not to the effort-based comparison. Do not assign the same hours repeatedly to several species from one session.
Try the example charts →Ask what else changed
Bait is only one part of a trip. A different location, depth, season, angler or technique can explain a difference. A personal log suggests questions for another trip; it does not establish which change caused the result.
Check your understanding
Four fish over two hours, followed by zero over two more hours: what is the combined rate?
Method note: this is a simple arithmetic exercise and our suggested notebook workflow. NIST’s experimental-design introduction explains the broader discipline of planned comparisons.