For years, anglers have been documenting their trips in logbooks that keep track of everything from weather and fishing buddies to snacks and fish caught.

When kept meticulously, those logs can teach valuable lessons. What works … and what doesn’t. Where the hotspots are located … and seemingly productive water that never seems to hold fish.

After a few years of periodic entries, those logs take on another life: In addition to being valuable resources, they turn into volumes best enjoyed in front of a fire after a long day on the water. Skimming a few pages can remind the reader of times past, trips taken, and friends who may or may not get to fish as much as they once did.

Thanks to a pair of southern Mainers, fishing logbooks may never be the same.

Dan Tarkinson, creator of a popular fly-fishing Web site, and business partner Keith Sirois have launched a new site called TripTracks.com, and hope to turn that online venture into a nationwide tool for fishermen and fisheries officials alike.

Since its April 1 launch, the site has signed up more than 100 anglers who log on to detail their fishing experiences.

The difference between the Trip Tracks Fishing Logbook and other Web sites that cater to anglers, and which provide message boards and forums for their use, is simple.

The data generated by the free site is shared with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and will be used by biologists who have historically gathered similar information in much more labor-intensive ways.

“The neat thing about the Web application is that it’s real time,” Sirois said. “As soon as you enter your information, the state has it. I think it can save the state a lot of money.”

Sirois said the state generally compiles similar data in three ways: Through a “brown box” at known fishing hotspots, where anglers can fill out voluntary trip surveys, through season-long volunteer logbooks that anglers return to the state at the end of each year, and through on-water interviews by biologists and part-time staffers.

“What we’ve done is taken the exact kind of information they currently ask for so that our results can be seamlessly be combined with the state’s information,” Sirois said.

Sirois and Tarkinson have known each other for years: They met as high school wrestlers – Sirois at Fryeburg Academy and Tarkinson at Deering High – and became friends while wrestling teammates at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Both eventually returned to Maine, and rediscovered their passion for fishing their native waters.

And both ended up in computer-oriented jobs – Tarkinson as a programmer, and Sirois on the interface side of the industry.

While talking one day, they found that each had been thinking of launching similar fishing logbook Web applications. In spirit, at least, TripTracks was born.

About two years ago, the duo began talking with state officials to find out what kind of information they’d want in such a service. Eventually, the result was TripTracks.

“We have a contract with the state, and they’re paying us for the information that we provide for them,” Sirois said. “They’re helping to pay for the [Web] hosting and whatever.”

Perhaps most important to anglers, the fact that the state is paying the freight means that individual users get what amounts to a free personal logbook, with the understanding that their information will be passed along to the DIFW.

“As far as we know, there is no other product out there like this,” Sirois said. “What we’re trying to do is improve our fisheries, and we’re hoping that it catches on with anglers.”

Among the features that anglers will likely enjoy are the ability to upload photos to an individual logbook, and to access the logbook year after year on the Internet.

Another feature that Sirois is proud of: TripTracks’ focus on illegal species.

“Different kinds of fish are being put in watersheds that they’re not supposed to be in,” Sirois said. “We’re hoping to use this as a flag system. If an angler enters a fish [species] in a body of water they’re not known to be, the state can use this and maybe catch some of the problems before they can’t be helped.”

John Boland, the DIFW’s director of fisheries operations, enthusiastically supported the project in a press release last week.

“I’m extremely excited about this partnership,” Boland said. “TripTracks will enable our fishery biologists to more accurately monitor fishing activity on Maine waters, and will provide an avenue to solicit input from or provide information to anglers. This innovative program will undoubtedly enhance our ability to effectively manage Maine fisheries.”

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.