Wednesday, May 13, 2015

What's Biting Here?

There has to be a better way. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) is discontinuing their weekly district fishing forecast. This will force many anglers to adopt new ways of getting information about local lakes. But frankly, I'm not sure a lot of thought or research went into some of those reports. "Channel cats are being caught off the bottom on cut-baits and chicken livers" appeared for a number of lakes from June to September. Probably accurate, but not that helpful.

With hands forced, I'm certain with smart phones and technology the outdoor community could crowdsource a better and more reliable fishing forecast machine that would benefit anglers and the ODNR.  Scan a QR code and get a map of the lake and updates from people that actually fished the lake. Over time if you could sort the results by time, date, species and lure that would provide great information for anglers arriving at the body of water and for the ODNR.

It might look something like this: Fish Fox Lake.

I recently learned that Minnesota has an app to enable anglers to participate in a creel surveys every time out. That's great and will save them money. It could also provide additional data. Or not. What's missing is an immediate benefit for the angler to know more about the body of water they are fishing right now. That would be powerful. 


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