Hi Guys
I've previously posted a note to you moderator JD to ensure that it was ok for me to open this thread, which is primarily about asking for your collective insight and second to gauge opinion on a free site/app I'm developing based on my own 20 yr experiences of fishing the Holderness coastline in Yorkshire. What I wanted to do is to create a capability designed from the ground up for those of us who spend time making decisions about when and where to get a line in the water, and for many who don't live near the coastline, it's quite a time consuming thing to do properly and many people like me consult 3 or 4 different sites to get a picture often losing the near term historical perspective. So to cut a long story short I've developing a website/app which makes this simple.
It brings together the core set of information I need to make informed decisions (it's called https://www.magicseafish.com and for those who're interested here's a blog article which explains how the app was used to help is select a mark for the large Daiwa open comp this weekend just gone - https://www.magicseafish.com/team-msf-the-daiwa-beach-open-2019/). Interestingly I also provide a 5 day historical timeline as well as a 5 day forecast that near term history does have a huge bearing on current and future conditions...
Currently to tool is in app form for iPhones and Androids, but I'm soon to be opening up a full desktop version which will allow you to bookmark specific locations from your laptop etc and then refer to the app based on your current position. Given my base in Yorkshire I initially connected into data sources for Weather (UK MET Office), Tidal Forecasts (UK Hydrographic Office), and Sea Surf conditions (Magicseaweed.com) which are UK centric - but that's just a starting point. There are additional integrations I've done to get data from NOAA, Eurpean Marine Monitoring Agency, CEFAS wavebouys etc but right now the prototype app is just focusing on the really key info. I have big plans for it, but right now it's just proving the interest with early visibility. So I'm not here on the hard sell - this is a trade of your insight for what I believe would be a free, useful tool.
Its not just a weather tool. There are many of those about. The key difference is that if there is sufficient interest over time, I plan to integrate simple but really useful feedback loops for anglers to tap a button to share weed reports, whether the conditions are fishable on mark, even catches (but that's a much more sensitive thing to address re privacy etc) and ultimately grow a level of community backed insight which will enhance the basic conditions data shared. This would have been truly invaluable for me as a new angler all those years back striking out on my own, avoiding other anglers out of sheer embarrassment at my ineptitude, and blanking for years before people passed on wisdom to help me grow into what is an all consuming passion for 20+ years.
So to my ask for help. My reason for posting here is because I am seeing a lot of traffic originating from Ireland to the website. I have posted an article on the magicseafish.com blog, to acknowledge that I am working now to extend the prototype to cover Ireland, but I need to first understand where you guys go for the info you use in planning? The goal for me is to use your feedback to then integrate data from those agencies into the MSF app, so if anyone chooses to use the app around your coastline, you'll get the same locational high-precision conditions report and insight.
So for weather, tide and surf/swell, do you guys have particular 'sea-angler' endorsed agencies/sites you tend to advise newcomers to trust? I'm really keen to hear from you about this - Ireland is my next goal for the service, and any further ideas from you guys for what would make it worth using - then I'm all ears. Lastly this is not a commercial venture, it's totally self-driven, self-funded and done purely for the love of Sea Angling, so please take this in good faith. Thanks for reading folks, Cheers Stewart