Terrafin - renew or not?

skein · 10-06-2007, 09:23 AM

This was my first season with a Terrafin subscription, and frankly I was disappointed. There were certainly times that it provided good information and let me decide where I would head and how far I figured I needed to go, but in many of those cases the reports I got back from the other 'Dogs gave more insight - and it's hard to beat an on-the-water report.

The truth is many, many times a good picture showing temps and breaks would be wiped out and replaced by one that was just a white screen due to cloud cover or fog. I got so frustrated that I started saving the good pictures just in case they overlayed them with a poor one. Of course when I did, I would lose the coordinates feature and the ability to plot distances like I could on the "live" picture. As for the chlorophyl charts, they were almost useless. It doesn't take much of a patchy picture to lose the edges completely, and it's the edges I was trying to pinpoint.

So.... it cost me $99 for the year, and I doubt that I saved enough fuel to warrant renewing. I think I'll just stick with the free version, sprinkled liberally with what my Salty Bro's report.

What do you guys think?

Skein

fish_on · 10-06-2007, 09:52 AM

I'm not going to renew, it seems there are other options for less cost that are just as good or better.

Tower Todd · 10-06-2007, 11:40 AM

A renew only costs $89. FWIW.

bait boy · 10-06-2007, 01:10 PM

Jim, you dont have to save the images unless you're looking far in the past. Theres a tool that shows previous charts and even a loop tool so you can see the temps and water move. Click list all and you can pick the best image of the bunch, and the lat lon tool still works.

ron m · 10-06-2007, 03:17 PM

I've debated with myself about renewing also. I haven't decided yet, but I was very dissappointed most of the time. It seems like when I was getting ready to go, the clouds would hide what I needed to see. I did find it interesting looking at the shots and trying to figure out where to go. But the shots were already several to many hours old when posted and that would be hours before I went, so the info from which I was deciding was usually about a day old by the time I'm on the water. and the chloro shots don't come with much frequency either.

on the other hand, terrafin is fun to look at and when ya got the tuna fever, anything helps. I find myself still looking at it and wondering if there is enough warm water within boating distance if the ocean ever decides to lay down for a few days!
ron m

Bait O' Eggs · 10-06-2007, 03:26 PM

I didnt get much this year out of Terrafin

When I went fishing, most of the shots had cloud cover :frown:

Last year I felt it was a real plus

ron m · 10-06-2007, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bait O' Eggs

I didnt get much this year out of Terrafin

When I went fishing, most of the shots had cloud cover :frown:

Last year I felt it was a real plus

Thanks for the info, good to know that it was helpful last year, this was my first year.
ron m

wavechaser · 10-06-2007, 09:22 PM

I'm definitely going to renew. As far as I know I'm the only person who goes for tuna out of the Willapa, so the closest first hand reports are from the CR and Westport. I need all the info I can get. My first time out this year I headed exactly to the right temp and chloro break coordinates and plugged the boat in an hour.

Heck, it's not even a whole boat buck and it's fun to look at. Hmmm.....3 and 6....maybe I'll go 40 miles.......2 and 5.....50 miles isn't so bad....

Spoonplugger · 10-06-2007, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skein

So.... it cost me $99 for the year, and I doubt that I saved enough fuel to warrant renewing. I think I'll just stick with the free version, sprinkled liberally with what my Salty Bro's report.

What do you guys think?

Skein

Coastwatch is free and IMHO you can get just as much or more current data from it than anywhere else. There is a learning curve, but old dogs can learn new tricks!

John H · 10-07-2007, 05:55 AM

I use Terrafin a lot. Not a lot of reports down here around Brookings. The loop feature helped predict where the current would be when the cloud cover blocked the shots.

Mark Mc · 10-07-2007, 08:17 AM

We were very fortunate this summer, with the many good weather days. Overcast skies go along with good weather. So yes we often went fishing with a 2 day old terrafin image. Those two day old images were still fairly accurate in terms of the color edges, which in turn were key to finding fish. Even if the fingers of clear water shifted a few miles from what the image indicated, once you found it the image told you what direction the edge went, so you'd know to head NE or whatever.

Ditto what those above said about using the loop feature.

There is other data out there that augments a two-day old image, such as the surface current charts. By knowing which way the current was going, and how fast, you could estimate which direction the edges might have going from your two day old image.

Conclusion: Terrafin is always worth it.

retaliate · 10-07-2007, 08:45 AM

I don't have Terrafin, but found fish a couple times, on the advise of others that do have terrafin, Blind fishing the usuall good spots mostly, & where others had success a day or 2 before, of course it was hard to go wrong this year.

Irish Pennant · 10-07-2007, 11:04 AM

I will be renewing. Because my boat doesn't have the range to go searching around for fish, I don't follow the radio bites. I do some preunderway research to plan my trip and Terrafin was one of the tools.

Dan9113 · 10-07-2007, 02:25 PM

There were alot of fish this year. About everywhere. If we are not so fortunate next year, we will be glad we have it.

Dan

KeyWest · 10-07-2007, 02:39 PM

I renewed

If it puts me on fish one trip the entire summer it's worth the $89. Might have spent that much on lures that didnt' produce as much

Reel Obsession · 10-07-2007, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fish_on

I'm not going to renew, it seems there are other options for less cost that are just as good or better.

I didn't have terrafin this year, and am thinking about buying for next. I did fish terrafin info a couple times while fishing other boats, seemed useful most of the time.

Fish_on, what other services would you suggest?

HugeDuckFan · 10-07-2007, 04:03 PM

I did not use it this season, but did base many trips off of the report data provided to me by my tuna friends. It's not a perfect service, but along with other resources, reports, intuition and experience, I will be a more productive fisherman with it.

fish_on · 10-07-2007, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reel Obsession

I didn't have terrafin this year, and am thinking about buying for next. I did fish terrafin info a couple times while fishing other boats, seemed useful most of the time.

Fish_on, what other services would you suggest?

Coast watch is one that a few people here use. There is learning curve and somewhere on here is a tutorial on how to set it up.

http://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/coas.../CWBrowser.jsp

HiTekRdNek · 10-07-2007, 06:09 PM

I will be renewing. I found using all the information I gained a great help.
I figured out all the features mentioned by Mark Mc.
Even with the older data it showed me trends and patterns.
I also used reports made by others and put it all together.
It always seemed to point in the right direction.

Mypursuit · 10-07-2007, 08:13 PM

I'll be renewing. Like some others I can only fish beyond 15 miles when the weather and ocean "has been good, is good and will be good." So I use it plus noaa plus wetsand plus stormwatch and anything else I can get my hands on. I figure I divide the cost by the number of times I looked at it and relied on it. This year I figure that Terrafin was an extra $3\trip but worth every penny....at the risk of

I also used it to find dirty water to chase those redmeat fish with a fair amount of success

...

Cornfed · 10-09-2007, 04:06 AM

Spoonplugger provided an awesome tutorial some time back...here is the link: http://www.ifish.net/board/showthrea...&highlight=sst

What does Terrafin do for you guys that coastwatch can't do? I just started using Coastwatch, and I don't know if it can show trends or create reports. It seems to have a ridiculous number of search fields that I am still trying to figure out.

Paddler · 10-09-2007, 10:25 PM

I'm not convinced that Terrafin puts more fish in the boat than Coastwatch. Sounds like it has more bells and whistles, but not more data. A good image from Coastwatch works fine, whereas cloud cover makes them both worthless.

skein · 10-10-2007, 08:18 AM

They're both addicting (what part of tuna fishing isn't?) and when the info is there it's very helpful. I'll admit I never looked at the List function

and that would have helped. I guess I'm just not a tech-head.

The jury is still out -- I haven't made my decision either way, but I'll admit that it has led me to fish on more than one occasion.

Skein

Paddler · 10-10-2007, 08:33 AM

Not a big deal, really, as it's cheap enough. So long as people understand that the data comes from NOAA, and so is available free (not really, as our tax dollars fund it. But it's one of the very best uses for my tax dollars). It's just dressed up by Terrafin. But if people find Terrafin easier to use, and it helps them catch fish, it's as good as any other tuna expenditure.

Weather or Knot · 10-10-2007, 02:41 PM

For me its a no brainer! I re-newed! I fished alot out of Charlston this year and The info I recieved put myself and crew on fish with no guess work and a lot less looking around. Saved alot of time and fuel. Theres also a little pride in finding your own fish instead of asking everyone on the coast for info on where you should start. I dont mind sharing info and did all summer but I like to have the know how to find the fish myself. When you get to the spot you planned and instantlly catch fish it makes you all warm inside!!!

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO TURNED ME ON TO TERRAFIN A COUPLE YEARS AGO!!!!!

Brandon

5 Salt · 10-10-2007, 02:57 PM

No Brainer - renewed.

2-3day old images are better than nothing and the Chlorophyll charts are too valuable not to have at my disposal. The "Set Orgin" feature alone is worth half the renew cost in terms of quick route planning and fuel pre-flight planning.

It would take ten cloudy summers before I would consider not spending the $89.00.

PS. It helps that my renewal comes up around 15june each year

O Tshawytcha · 10-10-2007, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paddler

I'm not convinced that Terrafin puts more fish in the boat than Coastwatch. Sounds like it has more bells and whistles, but not more data. A good image from Coastwatch works fine, whereas cloud cover makes them both worthless.

But willing to listen... :grin:

Onokai · 10-10-2007, 08:24 PM

Hey its less than 1 boat buck-
its a tool that works sometimes better than others. The cloro shots got us on fish more than once this season-I'm in- like all tuna tools its got a cost one has to pay. When I started this tuna madness back in 96 all we had was a hand draw'n chart twice a week on the noaa site-very crude-no cursers no ploting- no distance-no cloro. Terrafin seems so much better than those days. Mark

Paddler · 10-10-2007, 09:07 PM

I've never used Terrafin, but I'm sure it's a bit easier to use than Coastwatch. I can get the SST's and chloro, but have to read the coordinates off the edge of the chart. Then I do an A2B using Chart Navigator, which is also free. A few more steps, but it works quite well.

For instance, Coastwatch shows 59 degree water on 10/8 at 125/18X46/48, which is 47NM out of Westport on a 244 degree bearing. Maybe you guys can get out on Saturday. Looks pretty good on Wetsand.