As BASStracker stated the log book is absolutely your best tool. This year I started to use it on a regular basis and it gave me a major edge, when trying to figure out when and where to fish.
For example: My 2007 Log indicates that all of my best nights were had around a new moon (spot regaurdless). In my ussuall spots the last two hours of outgoing to the first hour of incomming tide were very productive. And I can see that on almost all of my good nights I had a wind in my face.
Vogt given this information one can deduce that you fish inlets, and bait was being held up in them by the wind.
The most important thing to me is BAIT. Without bait fish WILL not hold. You might catch a cruiser going by but you wont catch the #'s of fish if bait is present. It is a whole lot more complicated than this though.