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Meet Luke Fraser, a 45-year-old angler from Maine USA.
Luke grew up in a small coastal town in Maine, where the Atlantic Ocean was a backdrop to his childhood. His father, a seasoned fishing enthusiast, often took young Luke out to sea, teaching him the nuances of the ocean and its sea creatures. Luke’s mother, an avid boat captain, instilled in him a deep appreciation for the sea and its marine life. These dual influences shaped Luke's outlook on life, blending practicality with a profound respect for the great big blue.
After high school, Luke enlisted in the Navy, where he honed his skills in navigation and sea survival. His time in the Navy exposed him to different cultures and fishing techniques from around the world. Upon returning to civilian life, Luke decided to pursue his passion for fishing more seriously. He became a commercial angler, working on trawlers and longline boats and over the years gained a reputation for his skill, patience, and deep knowledge of the sea.
At 45, Luke is now a well-known figure within his angling community. He runs a successful charter business, taking tourists and fishing enthusiasts on trips along the rugged Maine coast. Although Luke’s children are now grown up they too enjoy ocean life, often coming home for family fishing trips together.
Challenges getting out on the water
Over the years Luke discovered he was increasingly spending more time planning his angling trips than actually going on them. Between juggling family and a work-life balance, Luke found himself time short when it came to enjoying the sport he loved. In particular, Maine is known for strong tides and varied weather. Luke, being an avid planner, would check multiple weather and tide apps, tidal atlases and charts to try and ensure a successful fishing trip for him and his family when time allowed. After explaining his time struggles to a fellow angling friend he was quickly recommended to try Savvy Navvy, with his friend insisting he would spend more time fishing and less time planning to.
Sure enough Luke tried out the app where he made use of having critical information in one place. Luke began to enjoy more time on the water by making use of a more seamless and accurate approach to planning his day on the water. Ove time Savvy Navvy became Luke’s best planning friend due it its:
- Detailed Savvy charts™
The app provides Luke with detailed electronic charts that licence data from the UKHO, NOAA and other official hydrographic offices from around the globe. The Savvy nature of the charts means they are easy to read and understand, helping anglers navigate waters safely to find the best fishing spots whilst having a clear overview of potential hazards and obstructions.
- Smart weather forecasts
Accurate weather information is essential for planning a fishing trip. Luke found he was increasingly referring to Savvy Navvy for its Meteomatics Mix approach to weather forecasting. The app's weather model goes beyond ECMWF to combine a wide variety of weather sources into an intelligent ‘Savvy’ blend, such that the best data source is chosen for each time and location. The provision of up-to-date weather forecasts including wind speed, direction, cloud and rain overlays (and much more) proved to be critical for ensuring a safe and productive angling experience.
- Tide information
Maine has some of the strongest tides in the United States. As a result, Luke found it was essential to account for tidal variations when planning an outing. This would usually involve checking multiple apps, tidal atlases and local forecasts to combine all the information he needed to decide when and where to go fishing. The trouble was errors in combining all of this information often meant Luke got caught out, ruining his day on the water.
It was this problem that caused Luke to experiment using Savvy Navvy’s tidal graph feature where he can easily view tidal highs and lows throughout the day using the app’s tidal graph as well as tidal streams with the visual chart overlay. Having an accurate overview of tide times significantly improved Luke’s ability to choose the best time to fish.
- Smart route planning
It’s one thing to know what the weather, wind, tide and charted hazards are doing however Luke found it was quite another to put all that information together to plan a successful angling trip. Through the use of Savvy Navvy’s smart routing, Luke found he could tap on the chart to drop a start and finish location and the app would plan the best route based on his boat information, wind, weather, tide and charted hazards.
The app even provides a departure schedule feature so he can see the best time to slip lines to get the most out of his day on the water. In particular Luke likes the feature that estimates fuel usage, so he can be more prepared with fuel provisioning for longer trips.
- Safety features
Luke makes use of the app's GPS tracking tool to ensure he always knows where he is and what’s around him. In addition, he uses the Share Your Route tool to share his boating plans with friends and family ashore, ensuring someone on land always knows where he’s going and when he plans to return, a fantastic safety feature.
- Points of interest
As an angler, Luke enjoyed using the app's points of interest feature, which includes locations of marinas, anchorages, fuel stations and other relevant amenities. He also used the satellite overview layer to more closely inspect new and interesting potential fishing grounds.
- Saved markers
It seems all anglers have their favourite, and often secret, fishing spots. Luke is no different and so for this reason he uses Savvy Navvy’s saved markers feature to save his prize locations, ensuring he can easily navigate back to them.
Importing markers from other apps into Savvy Navvy
Once Luke realised Savvy Navvy was his go-to app he became tired of referring to previous navigation apps to view his saved fishing markers. Thankfully Savvy Navvy released an Import Markers function which meant he could download all of his markers from his previous navigation app as a GPX File, he then simply uploaded this file into Savvy Navvy and was able to view all his previously saved markers right there in their app.
Supporting Anglers to Fish More
Here at Savvy Navvy we are proud to support anglers to get out on the water and enjoy a successful day’s fishing. The release of Import Markers goes one step further to helping ensure anglers can keep all their historical fishing data in one place to get the most out of their time on the water.
Are you an angler?
If you love fishing, and like Luke, would like to find a more streamlined and safe approach to planning your day on the water, download Savvy Navvy to explore all the handy tools that can help you spend more time fishing and less time planning to.
The app can be used on any personal device and provides unlimited chart access (wherever we have coverage).
