THE Perfect OzarkAngler App

[snagged in outlet 3]

Yeah, I reference pictures when I go back to my notes.  Photos on the phone makes it easy.  

[Phil Lilley]

I do like videos... Youtube is my go-to place to find out how to do something.  And they're easy to make as long as you don't get into a bunch of fancy editing things.  I takes me about an hour to do One Cast from beginning to end each day.... sometimes longer depending on how long the video is.

I'd love to do some OC's on Table Rock but there's not enough hours in the day.  That'd be 100 times more popular than Taneycomo's trout.

[JestersHK]

The app potential for the world of fishing is huge.  I worked a little bit ago on an app to use for the length tournaments that Phil was doing for CAM. It also had a bragging board and social feel to it towards the end. I will start by saying I'm not a developer, but have years of practical work in the mobile ag space so we gave it a go with a kid that was doing a co-op term here at my work. 

We ended up with a rough beta that was iOS only but had the general shell built out. We even used it in one of Phil's tournaments and learned allot. Unfortunately my developer ghosted on me right when iOS 11 came out which also broke the app and that's where it's been on the shelf since I've been buried work and family...

The app had a login feature we tried to tie into the OA forum user database, we had camera integration where it would time stamp and put a GPS coordinates water mark on your photo, then upload it to a leader board. That piece sort of worked...

Phil I hope your app guy is better than mine ended up...  I will say try to keep focus on the usability side of things.  Nobody will use a clunky app.  It's got to be easy.  Take the auto measuring stuff for the pictures example.  I wish we could of really got that part working better and easier to use.  

Always here for ideas or testing and like I said previously you can have the source code that we ended up with if you'd like.  

 

[fishinwrench]

I never thought of an auto measuring app.  That could actually work.  I use a leveling app to set motors and jackplates, shim decks on Jon boats, and center guages and steering helms. I even use it to optically center rifle scopes. It is spot on everytime.  

[Ryan Miloshewski]

You should have the USACE daily generation schedule populate at the top (even though it's mostly inaccurate certain times of the year), along with weather data. Check out DeerCast. I like their format..and they pay me. 

[JestersHK]

1 hour ago, fishinwrench said:

I never thought of an auto measuring app.  That could actually work.  I use a leveling app to set motors and jackplates, shim decks on Jon boats, and center guages and steering helms. I even use it to optically center rifle scopes. It is spot on everytime.  

Wrench we have a pretty accurate measuring system built in already.  You had to have a reference object in the picture on the same level with the fish that you knew how long it was. When you hit the measure button it dropped a virtual slider that you set on the object and then set how long it was.  Then a new slider popped up on the picture and when you place that on the fish it would give you a pretty accurate lenght measurement. 

We were working on automating the reference object measurement by using a 4x4 square with a bar code on it.  You'd set it down next to the fish and the camera would pick it up automatically and set your starting measurement for you.   Then you just drop the slider over the fish and it would capture the length and upload it to the leaderboard.

Was just about there then iOS 11 hit and lost my developer to MIT in Boston...

The sky really is the limit.   They have blue tooth scales that you could sync to an app as well. That was on our list.   We talked about having a wireless sensor on the boat that would report in water temps as well and basically try to capture as much data as possible to track your catches.  The app would already drop a pin on a map for us each time you caught and photoed a fish.   That came in handy as I could see what spots produced the best results and notate them to go back to that area next time...

If enough anglers used the app you could also start tracking larger fish by their spots and patterns.  I know when I see a big brownie caught on Taneycomo I have a folder of pictures I go through and compare markings to see if they've been caught before and some have. With technology today you could build out a trophy database of fish,  which you could also have as a reference for different species as well. 

I have thought long and hard about trying to do this full time, but just not in a place right now with the family and the kiddos to leave this job behind and focus 100% on making a full app happen.  Takes either allot of time or allot of money to get everything baked in and then try to keep it updated, published, and working right...

 

[JestersHK]

Here's a few pics to help visualize from an older build... We had channels set up for the tournament and a bragging board, but you could use them for different bodies of water as well. I have some actual fish Pics from when we used it for the CAM tournament but they are at home on my Mac...

 

[trythisonemv]

How about a link in the aoo gor each water that has a few peoplewho fish them frequently so you can ask for advice via message in real time . Not saying we all need to be at the worlds beck and call but maybe a quick message or tip from a pro...