Episode: 2268
Title: HPR2268: Fish On!
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2268/hpr2268.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 00:39:09

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This is HPR episode 2002-168 entitled Fish On.
It is hosted by Bill, MFMED1 Miller and is about 19 minutes long and Karimaklin flag.
The summer is website and uptood for planning fishing trips.
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Hello and welcome to my next podcast here on Hacker Public Radio.
This in here is more of a kind of one of my favorite things to do.
I'm not really so much tech involved as it is using tech to do the activity that I'm going to be doing here.
But now that summer is getting here, I am an avid fisherman.
Actually an avid bass fisherman that's transported from California.
So I love fishing.
That's one of the things I do.
And with fishing, especially in New Jersey here, comes prep work.
You really got to prep because the weather changes from day to day.
It could be sunny one day and pouring rain in the next.
So you really got to plan out your trips here and get them going.
So I've put together a basic set of apps and websites that I use when I start up a fishing trip.
I started a day or two before I decided I'm going to go fishing or a week or two.
Now I'm starting plans now for my summer fishing trips.
So I'm getting them all mapped out or I'm going to go on what I'm going to need.
First thing I start with is Google Maps.
Now Google Maps is probably one of the best things you can use as a fisherman.
Not only does it show you, you know, satellite views of fishing likes that you're going to fish out.
But it gives you where you can click town on the roads.
You can see how it looks like to park.
You get a great idea of what the parking lots look like.
You get traffic.
You get places to eat.
You can even, I think, log in bait shops.
People can share, you know, points of interest as well.
So like, if you have a bunch of friends that are in different areas that are doing different fishing trips,
they can pin areas on the maps and share it with you as a group.
Two places you, you know, hey, I did really good here this week.
You may want to come back and check it out this week coming up, you know.
So it's really a great thing.
And I use Google Maps every time I'm going to do some fishing.
If I want to check out areas of lakes, you know, areas of water that I've never been to,
it's the first thing I go to is I look it up.
I see where parking is.
And that's what's great about Google Maps that we didn't have back in the day.
You used to be, you know, you look at a Thomas guy that I was in California.
Somebody used Thomas guy as an example.
You look at Thomas guy and go, well, hey, there's a link here.
And it shows houses around him.
It doesn't give you that detail.
And Google Maps gives you that detail.
I mean, you can park a lot.
You can see if it's got a park area, you know, that, you know, you can take the kids to.
You know, what kind of shoreline is it?
I mean, it pretty much shows everything that you need.
You know, vote access, things like that.
And it really is great.
So the first thing I do always is I check out Google Maps.
That's, you know, I mark them on my map.
I get where I'm going to go.
It sets up my directions.
That's what's great.
You know, you can plug in directions for your phones that way.
Transform from your computer to the phone.
So when you're going to leave, you actually get directions on how to get there as well.
So the next thing I use is Google Weather.
Now I look up Google Weather Online.
There's a lot of apps out there.
I pulled up one called Weather.
I'll have it in my link here.
It's by macro pinch.
Another, a great app that shows you different things from, you know, ambient temperatures to what it's like, you know, all over the world.
But it gives you your next 24 hours.
It does a lot.
It gives you your weather.
You know, if you're looking up multiple days weather, it's, it's a good way to look ahead into the weather game to get yourself set.
Like I said, if you're from an area that doesn't get a lot of rain usually like Southern California,
we didn't get a lot of rain.
It may not rain for two or three weeks.
It's an easy, it's an easy one to use.
The next thing I'm going to bring up are more apps that are specific to doing certain tasks.
Now, they'll, they'll, you'll, as I go along here, you'll, you'll forget what, what they are.
The first one I'm bringing up is CTO.
Now what CTO does is it's a online, almost like a, if you get stranded on a lot of your boat breaks down, you need help.
It's like you're 9-1-1 call for, for your boat.
And it really is.
They give you 24-hour service.
They have tow boats.
It really is nice.
You can learn more about it at www.CTOSEATOW.com.
Become a member there.
I suggest if you're going to be out on any type of major waterways, you would should get the, the, the membership package and use the SAP.
Reading after the Google webpage, the Google Apps page for it is, it says this, help never looked like this before.
Contact CTO for on-water assistance plus access tides, weather forecast, radar, GPS, course over ground, speed over ground, compass and CTO locations, all with day night modes and all from a single lap.
Because boating should be the adventure and not finding information.
CTO's yellow boats, tow boats are, are standing by 24-7 to provide industry leading on-water assistance.
Like I said, you can learn more about it at CTO.com.
If you're not a member yet, no worries, the app is free.
All because it's from an industry leader.
It's their job to make boating safer and more enjoyable for everyone.
So CTO, it's a great app.
Look up on Google Play.
I believe it's for iOS as well.
I definitely must have app if you're out on the ocean of water anyway.
Well, the next apps I use is called Fish Brain. Fish Brain is kind of like a social media app.
I'm going to give you an example. I just used it here not even two days ago.
I got an alert on my phone from a guy who's fishing in a harbor right over here by me.
And he pulled out an 18-inch striper on bloodworms.
What he tacked at what time it was, what he caught it on where it was at.
And I instantly got that on my phone. I instantly shared it up on Facebook with my other fishing buddies.
They're like, oh, they're in the back base already.
We can start going out from now. The season hasn't opened yet, but it's about to open.
So it gives you a good idea as to where people are catching fish already and what they're bringing up.
From the, again, from a Google app page, this is what their description says.
Fish Brain is a community made app by anglers for anglers with an infamous on the social and local aspects of fishing.
The Fish Brain community consists of 2.7 million users across the globe.
Over 1.7 million fish have been caught with many anglers using catching release principles.
And like I said, it covers a lot of things.
You can get the fishing community connects with other anglers locally and globally.
You can keep track of who's catching what when they're catching it.
You can share your catches via their own community, pictures, things like that.
You can join it on conversations.
You can use your accurate fishing positions and hotspots with added data that's gathered by the anglers themselves.
You can explore over 1.7 million bodies of water.
And you can also know what baits will catch the best fish.
So it's really a good app.
Now, the next app I'm going to bring is another one caught in almost in the same vein.
This is called Fishing Times Free.
It's available on the Google Play Store.
Probably available on iOS as well, not an iPhone.
You just can't tell you that.
And from their website, it says this app offers an easy to read solar-mer fishing calendar,
title times, and send moon information to plan your fishing trips.
Now, if you're a bass fisherman, for years we have always used moon times, fishing times,
Doug Hannah's fishing times, we track when the high and low tides are.
And it really does tell you when the best fishing times are.
So this really is a bit of information you need as a fisherman.
So I would highly suggest you having an app that does this.
Whether you use this app or one that's included with other apps,
it's just a good one to have.
And this one is free, and it's an easy one to use.
The free version is ad-supported, and it's limited to a three-day forecast.
So you can't get seven days out, but you can at least get three days out.
You get a day rating indicator, which is one to four, which is fair to excellent,
which is a good day for fishing.
So if you have, if you plan on going out today, and you look at this,
you go out, says it's only fair, but tomorrow's excellent.
You want to go out tomorrow and do that fishing, which, believe it or not, I do do that.
I'll look at it and go, well, my best chances of catching a fish this tomorrow
at four o'clock in the afternoon.
And I will change my fishing times to do that, as long as I have that time available.
It's got icons for Sun and Moon rise and sunsets.
You can swipe left or right to change the dates as well.
So it's a really good app, fishing times free on the Google Play Store.
The next app I'm going to bring is a actual company app.
From Rappala, a VMC corporation, you know, Rappala Lourdes,
you've ever heard of VMCs, a hook company.
They also make a line called Suffix.
It's a, almost, I think it's a braid, if anything.
They may have monofilament, but it might be just a braid.
But they're a guide. They had put out a guide on Google Play.
It's called the Suffix Guide.
And it does a lot of really good things too.
It's a, Suffix is a line guide that makes it easy to choose to write fishing line,
it shows you where to buy it and how to knot it.
So it's how to tie it.
So if you use braid, you know, braids are very tough thing to tie.
It takes special knots to tie a braid and also to do a hybrid knot,
which is a braid to a monofilament or braid to a fluorocarbon line.
There's certain knots you have to use to combine those two.
The Suffix Fishing Line Guide is designed to help fishermen from all over the world
to choose the perfect line.
Just select what you want to fish, what type of fishing you're going to do at and where.
The Suffix Guide will show you what line is the best choice for you
and shows you on the map where you can get it from.
So, you know, locally, it can help you out.
If you don't have that information or you don't already have certain lines set up,
Suffix will offer you a guide here that will help out.
Also, the Suffix Fishing Line Guide also has a beautiful,
has beautiful 3D animation the most commonly.
The knot animations follow your swipe,
phase by phase to be as clear as possible.
Both the Suffix Line Guide and the knot animations also work off one.
So, you don't have to be online to use this app.
You can also check them out.
Whenever you are fishing with Suffix, there's nothing you can't catch.
A good all-around app, especially if you're learning knots.
It's a good way for using braid, you're new to braid.
It's a good way to learn how to do the knots.
Next app I'm bringing is another, I believe, it's a go-free hook.
And this is what they say on their Google Play Store page.
Get out on the water and challenge yourself in your friends with the go-free hooked fishing app.
You can host and compete in live lead-to-board style fishing tournaments,
which means if you and five buddies are walking a lake,
you can, you know, hey, five dollars for the biggest fish or five dollars for the most fish,
and you can start a competition with it on the side of the lake there.
You can log fish catching details and photos,
and populate your insight Genesis maps,
which these guys offer for free and software to do it with,
with pins marking locations of the fish you catch.
Whether you hooked them in your boat, a buddy's boat, or from the shore,
you can even export your data to for use in compatible Lawrence and Simrad chartplotters.
So it's an app that kind of crosses over to other things as well.
Go-free fishing app is designed for all anglers,
regardless of fishing skill level, on shore and off shore,
in the boat or on the bank, as well as fresh water and saltwater fishing environments.
They know that you will want to challenge your friends to see who's the better angular
every time you head out to go fishing.
It records and shares catches.
You can save fish catch photos, log fish catch locations, record fish details,
and notes about the catch.
Share fish picks with family and friends via text, email, or social media.
You can track fishing success.
You can review fishing trips and specify specific catch locations on the map.
Study fish details and notes to monitor your progress.
Revisit your best fishing spots.
You can challenge your friends, like I said.
Challenge the water.
Find out if you're a better angler on the shore, on a small pond or out in the open.
You can track the time of day your fishing success throughout your log catches.
Be your catches overlaid on the inside genesis social map.
So it's like, again, there's a thing called the social model to bring up next.
It's a good app. It's free. Go-free hooked.
Now, the next thing they come up with is, like I said, is Insight Genesis, which is by Go-Free as well.
It's an automatic map creator.
Insight Genesis is a cloud-based software that does all the work.
And I'm actually processing the sonar data you upload to create your own custom apps.
You can have unlimited custom apps.
Free and premium subscribers can easily create, use and store unlimited custom apps with adjustable, high-resolution contour lines,
depth transition shading, automatic and manual depth offsets, notes, tags and waypoints.
So it gives you pretty much everything you need to use on the water and off the water.
So if you have a buddy who has a boat and he plots a bunch of charts on the water with the certain fish binders and depth binders he has,
you can actually transfer this over to your app and your account.
And that way you have all that same information.
So even if you don't have a boat, you can still get that information over.
It does weather temp trends.
It requires no additional hardware. You can back it up. You can put it on an SD card.
I mean, it really is nice. They got cloud backup.
So you don't even have to worry about that. It shows bottom-hardness of vegetation.
It's just a lot of things that it does.
Like I said, it ties in with the Go Free hook app.
Next app I'm going to bring up is Fishing Point GPS and Forecast.
Fishing Point GPS enables you to save and find your favorite fishing locations.
Trot lines and trolling pass. Enjoy the best satellite view from Google Maps or use offline mode with nautical charts.
Suitable for every Angular on open seas, lakes or rivers.
Prepare for fishing trips on the best fishing times using solar and our tables,
tide prediction and weather forecasts. Create a fishing log and save the details of every catch.
You can do photos, wait and link.
Weather, solar and tide information are added automatically.
Another thing does you can import CAMZ and GPS files from GPS devices or other apps.
So this is another one that's free and allows you to import from the hardware that would be on major boats.
Which is nice. If you don't have that kind of hardware in your own boat or you don't own your own boat,
it's nice to be able to add that to your information where you can take your tablet out of your phone out
or you and your buddies are fishing on a rowboat or a rental skiff.
And now you have the same thing your buddy has in his $7,000 console on his major fast fishing rig out in the water.
Those are my apps for fishing online.
It's a great set of stuff you're going to do if you're going to fish.
I would suggest that if you are going to fish, it's planning is 90% of a great fishing trip.
When you don't plan, you don't do well. It goes from tackle to weather and everything.
So this will hopefully use all the help you can get to catch.
I mean, that's why they call it fishing because we don't do a whole lot of catching.
But when we catch, we want to make sure we maximize that potential as well.
The last thing I'm going to bring up is some guys that I watch on YouTube that have some great shows to watch.
They're different kinds of guys. They're not your typical, you know, they're not your guys that are making a lot of money doing this.
They're usually local guys, little smaller, just interesting sites.
A couple of them I mentioned, Paul Adams, he's a lure maker.
He probably doesn't make all that much money shown videos.
But his videos are very entertaining and very informative because he makes lures in front of you.
He's very gifted and crafted.
I don't have his link up here. I'm not going to put it in the notes, but you can find the Paul Adams is easy.
Another guy that I bring up is Leo Shen. He's a local guy.
Leo Shen is extremely fishing.
Now I bring him up because I'm in South Jersey and this guy is really close to me.
So it's fun to watch him fish our local waters.
He fishes every some really tiny fish. He's known for catching micro fish.
He tries to catch as many fish species as he can.
He's very smart. He knows most of the scientific names of the fish that he catch.
So it's very, you know, family friendly, very nice guy and fun to watch.
I mean, he's entertaining to watch as well.
So that's Leo Shen. Extremely fishing. I'll have him linked down below.
Another one is Wienby Tedrick.
Now Mr. Tedrick does a show called Fish Tales.
And I think he's based out of Texas that don't quote me.
I may be wrong in that, but I'm pretty sure he's Texas.
And not only does he do fishing shows, but he shows you how to tie flies.
He does a lot of, you know, on his videos are more than just the fishing trips.
He shows local wildlife. You know, he shows you, you know, birds along the waterway.
You know, beavers on the side of the lake and the creeks.
Just really kind of relaxing videos and they're really fun to watch.
So if you can get a chance, watch Mr. Tedrick.
Fish Tales is a YouTube channel and you'll enjoy it.
If you're a fisherman that just wants to relax and wants something that's nice to watch on the YouTube,
I put it up on my TV on my Roku and can relax and watch them, you know,
take a fishing trip for 45 minutes.
You know, it's just another way to relax and enjoy when I'm stuck inside and cold weather like today.
The winds are blowing 100 miles an hour and I can't get out and do anything.
You know, it's nice to watch someone who can actually get out there and make you want to get out
and do some fishing as well.
Last guy I'm going to bring up is he's a Japanese guy.
His YouTube page is halfway in Japanese, so I can't even tell you the man's name.
The name of the channels called Haru, H-A-R-U, 834.
So H-A-R-U, 834 is the YouTube channel. I'll have the link down below.
Now, he is different. He's a lure maker that's very like in the style of Japanese very detailed,
makes some really interesting lures.
Different stuff takes just basic stuff and changes them around and makes them really cool
and interesting looking lures.
He also makes some type of foods as well.
Now, they may be cakes, cookies, breads, whatever.
But it's kind of a mix. He has, you know, nice music to listen to.
Very enjoyable and pleasing to watch.
No word you usually said. It's just a music and hand-working on lures or hand-working on food.
So if you can check him out, it's another one as well. Haru, 834.
What that said, that's it for me.
Hopefully you like this. Hope it's not too boring for you.
But if you're a fisherman like me, you can always use more information.
That's one thing you never stop learning how to fish.
So if you enjoy it, send me a line, you know, techwires with a Z on the end at gmail.com.
THNFMZ1 at gmail.com as well.
Let me know what you think. If there's some stuff you want to check out,
it's some other apps or YouTube channels you'd like me to check out.
I'm more than happy to look at those as well.
And send me your feedback.
And again, thank you for listening.
And I'll see you again on the next one.
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