On January 23rd, 2014 - a dark and miserable night when the sun sets at 4:00 PM on New York City, I found myself dawdling on the eve of a football-less weekend. Hunkered down beneath Madison Square Garden with all the other mindless minions of the commuting World, I stared blankly at the train monitor to see which track my train would board on. "Dover - Midtown Direct, track 3!" Of all the tracks we could depart from; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 ..., it was usually track 1, 2, 3 or 4. As a mindless commuting minion, I contemplate such things on a 70 minute train ride home.
Upon getting settled and not being able to sleep; like all good fishermen, my mind drifted to fishing. Having just purchased a new Samsung Galaxy 4 (Product plug! Still no kickback from Samsung), I found this little gem in the app store - the New Jersey State Parks & Forests Ranger!
Wow! And it is free! The app connects with your Smartphone's GPS as well as all the New Jersey Fishing and Hunting regulations. The first thing I did was looked at "Fishing Spots Near You". As the Midtown Direct rolled through New Jersey, I gawked at all the fishing spots the Pocket Ranger pointed out to me. I may not have been able to fish those spots that day, but I could there was always the spring! I found I could set way-points on my app using the GPS ; fishing spots; good or bad ... I have found lots of bad ones. And apparently there is functionality to connect with your friends Pocket Ranger and enabling the two of you to find each other on a body of water if launching at different times or at different launches. The information was bountiful! There are fishing tips, breakdown of fish species, which lakes are public, fishing regulations and State records (which I am currently not listed on). Who knows what else I will find in the coming weeks; God knows I got the train time to consume it!
This is must for all fisherman and hunters. Yes, I spoke exclusively of the fishing pieces, but it has hunting as well.
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