Update on thefin.com

Jason Puris from thefin.com has taken the time to point out some things that I may have overlooked on his fishing networking site. Since he has taken the time to explain more about what is offered there, I will reciprocate by taking the time to review the site in more detail.

I plan to conduct a full review of this fishing social networking site within the next 5 days.

And yes, if I was wrong or hasty in my comments (it wouldn't be the first time), I will apologize.

In the meantime, I'm stuck in an office with my hands on a keyboard instead of navigating around the point :-(

Stay tuned...

Capt. Kevin

Fishing: the social networking dilemma

The "dilemma" is basically this: Do I waste my time on these sites or not? My answer is simply NO. The reason is simple: The new fishing "social networking" sites that have launched recently are just plain WEAK.

For example, I looked at 2 sites recently thefin.com and anglingmasters.com. A friend of mine said he knew the guy who started thefin, so I gave it a fair shake. Anglingmasters was mentioned in techcrunch last year. Here's the skinny on these fishing sites: they both suck!

Hey guys (and gals), a nicely designed CMS does not a social networking website make. Do you know why there are only a few good SNS sites that are popular? It's because it's hard. It's hard because the true value of a social networking experience is the data relationships between your members and the interaction stimulus that you provide in the UI.

Both of these site owners must think pretty pictures and a couple of "celebrity" "fly guys" is a recipe for success. It's true that visuals for fishing fanatics (like me) are stimulating. But I want to know more about who and what I am related to more so than a picture of a guy kissing an illegal bluefin tuna from God knows where.

If you want a more interesting experience than what is offered today, I suggest you try your favorite forum. Personally, from my geo area, Noreast.com or surfrats.com are great places to start and get acquainted with people that want to INTERACT with you (i.e. socially network).

Sorry for the rant, but frankly, it had to be done. Us fishermen need good sites so we can share ideas and really connect. We don't need hyped up, wannabe celebrity driven websites that don't deliver.

(disclaimer: I am in the business of the internet and I was a charter captain out of Montauk)

Capt. Kevin

Montauk fishing report - September 22, 2008

This montauk fishing report is from Gene Kelly, who is btw a ROCK STAR when it comes to getting you weekly reports from Montauk. If you don't get his report already, I suggest you do so: montauksportfishing.com. See my next post/rant about the new wave of bad social networking sites about fishing.

Here's some great stuff from Capt. Gene...offshore, inshore:

Today is the official start of fall, and it looks it outside. But for me, fall started Saturday when I went to Gaviola’s and all the winners from the 2007 Local’s Surf contest had been wiped clean.

Offshore fishing got a little interesting this past week when some bluefins started showing around the 650 line. The fish that were caught varied from 35 pounds to 100+ pounds and were caught both trolling and chunking. But, the weather is starting to play a big part. Thursday was good and a number of boats caught fish. Friday no one went. Saturday was marginal at best and I only know of one boat that went out there. He couldn’t get any bait from the one dragger that was there because the birds got the trash first, he couldn’t chunk because of the numbers of bluesharks, so he trolled all day, but only got one 40 pounder. Sunday the weather was good and I understand some fish were caught, but more boats stayed closer and did well with the sharks. I did hear of one fish around 50 inches being taken, and I suspect there were more.

The marine weather forecast for this week is as follows;
Tuesday- NE winds 15 to 20 kt with gusts up to 25 kt. Seas 3 to 5 ft.
Tuesday Night- NE winds 15 to 20 kt with gusts up to 25 kt. Seas 4 to 6 ft.
Wednesday - E winds 10 to 15 kt with gusts up to 20 kt. Seas 4 to 6 ft.
Wednesday Night - E winds 15 to 20 kt with gusts up to 25 kt. Seas 4 to 7 ft.
Thursday - E winds 20 to 25 kt with gusts up to 30 kt. Seas 7 to 10 ft.
Friday - NE winds 20 to 25 kt with gusts up to 30 kt. Seas 9 to 12 ft. A chance of showers

There has been a bill introduced to get us out of the TWIC requirement. It was written by Senator Coleman and is S.3377. There is opposition to this bill and the only way it will be adopted is if you call your Congressman and/or Senator and say you fully support Senator Coleman’s bill They are going to vote on this before they leave session which is in the next few days so please do what you can to help get this bill passed.