Question about fishing logs.

Hello,

I am pretty new to FFXIV and have found the in game logging of fishing locations super helpful so far, however, now that I have reached level 50 and am finding myself returning to fishing holes with a selection of bait ranging from level 1-50 I am finding it difficult to remember the correct baits to use to obtain the correct fish.

I guess the question is, should I begin recording baits alongside location and caught fish myself or is there something in the fishing log UI that I am missing that notes what baits to be using?

Secondarily, are there any tips you would give a new gatherer/crafter for organising/remembering recipes, gathering locations and tools?

Unfortunately, there are no ingame notes you can use for that, aside from use bait of roughly the same level as the stuff you want to catch. But even then, you don't know whether a lure or live bait would necessarily be better.
Cat became hungry is an extremely useful reference site for fishing with info on optimal bait in areas to target specific fish, among other things.

Remembering recipes? I think the best you can do on that is to just craft it until you remember it. :X Personally, I don't remember anything and I just look it up every time I need to craft something.
Gathering locations, or just ingredients in general, I usually check http://xivdb.com/ first, since sometimes it'll also list vendor NPCs too.

For general fishing below 50, you can catch a fish up to 5 levels above the level of your bait. So if you want to catch a level 35 fish, your best bet is a level 30 bait. If you want to catch a fish that mooches off a level 5 fish, use a level 1 bait.

Yes, Cat became hungry is an extremely useful website, especially since you can set up fish alarms (make sure to disable global alarm though, since it can pop up while you are in battle too, just the sound is enough).

Approximate gathering locations are listed in the gathering log, you could use Arbour call I/II to find where to go. This map might be useful too.

As for recipes, you can drag the most needed (or most often used) recipes to your hotbar so that you do not need to look for them :)

As stated before, bait catches stuff up to 5 levels above it. You should also note if it's fresh or salt water. As for bait and lures, lures are near infinite use (they are not lost on a successful catch) but they catch fish slower than bait.

Basically what you're trying to do is use the highest level fishing hole you can (where lower level fish don't appear) and using the lowest level bait you can (to lock out higher level fish)

Thanks for all the information. I perhaps should have mentioned in my original post that I am trying to avoid online guides and other aggregated resources found on websites in favour of figuring stuff out using the in game tools and logs a long with old fashioned pen and paper - perhaps not the most optimal way to play, but so far, the most fun. I had not realised up to this point that bait catches fish up to 5 levels above so that will help a lot!

@Urthdigger I like the idea using the bait level and fishing hole level to filter out fish to be more efficient - can't wait to try it out!