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An extra edge on
the water with the FishHead App
| Date: |
2/3/10 |
| Tackle type: |
Electronics -
iPhone App |
| Manufacturer: |
Nervous Water
Apps |
| Reviewer: |
Zander |
Total Score: 8.5 -
GREAT
Introduction:
Own an iPhone? Like to fish? Then you’re probably already inundated with tons of
apps, but quality fishing apps are few and far between. FishHead is designed to
be a easy to use on the water and planning tool for anglers interested in
tracking weather, stream flows, tides and lunar information all accessible via
iphone in the palm of your hand.
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FishHead
App
Specifications
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Tackle type |
Tool
(software
app) |
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Platform |
Apple |
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Features |
River data,
tidal data,
weather,
lunar
information,
flow charts,
tidal graphs |
|
Coverage |
United
States |
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MSRP |
$6.99 |
FishHead is easily downloaded from
the App Store and is designed for both fly and conventional anglers
Impressions:
So how was FishHead born? For that we need to look no further then John Sherman
who we recently interviewed. John is very active in the industry and works for
Simms and is an expert fly fisherman, outdoor photographer and star of the
popular “BASS – The Movie” and it looks like you can add software developer to
that list.
FishHead takes just a second to
load whenactivated
The idea for FishHead
spawned when John was routinely using 4 applications (Aye Tides, My Weather,
River Guide, Fishing Calendar) to help plan for fishing trips and thought it
would be great if there was a way to have all that information available all in
one view allowing anglers to make quick decisions while on the water or when
planning a trip in advance.
Anglers are greeted with a home
screen, which can be either "rivers" or "tides"
John partnered up with his
college buddy Chris Cooney who helped take this original idea and bring it to
life. Chris immediately understood what John was looking for as he is also an
avid angler and a software engineer by trade. Together they sat down and formed
“Nervous Water Apps.com” and introduced FishHead as their first creation.
Select the detail arrows and get
more in depth data, here we take a closer look at weather data
Real World Tests:
FishHead really cannot be reviewed like most of the other “tackle” we test as it
doesn’t fit into many of the categories we routinely use to rate products. Field
tests for this app basically consisted of using FishHead to plan trips to both
Northern California Rivers as well as the Delta. Using FishHead we made
adjustments to our plans on the fly based off information that the application
provided. At the conclusion of the tests we assigned a total score based on our
overall impressions.
The detail river data shows a flow
graph and anglers can select date range...
Operation: FishHead
is essentially a software “tool,” and much like you would use the information on
a GPS/fishfinder this piece of software is designed to improve the chances of
catching fish. The great thing about FishHead is that it is housed within a
device that many anglers already carry around everyday, their beloved iPhones.
So if you don’t own an iPhone you can probably stop reading, or maybe look at
this as one more possible motivation to consider the iPhone and its insanely
addictive library of apps.
...turn the iPhone horizonatlly in
this mode (or tidal mode) and see a larger graph
Any good app is easy and
quick to use and FishHead does fit these requirements. Once you set up your
locations, or have FishApp find locations near your current position the data is
displayed in the form of graphical boxes. Anglers have the ability to focus on
either tides or rivers, and depending on whether you are an inshore or
freshwater angler will effect which features you will more utilize. Since this
app was designed by fly fishermen let’s start with the river capabilities.
Moon Phase data helps anglers plan
their trips
The “Rivers Home” screen
is broken up into three sections within a green box with the weather snapshot on
top, followed by the river flows and gage height, and below that is the lunar
information. On the right side of each section is an arrow labeled “details,”
this allows anglers to get a more in depth look at more detailed data as well as
the more extended forecast.
We used the FishHead app on our
trips to the Klamath and Smith River in our pursuit of Steelhead
Next Section: More river data and tide
capabilities |
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