Getting Started with ReelTemps: A Quick Tour of Every Tool

Short version: everything in ReelTemps happens on one interactive chart. This is a quick tour of each tool, what it does, and when to reach for it, so you can get the most out of your membership from day one.

Start with the layers

The chart has three main picture layers. Switch between them to read the water three different ways.

• SST (sea surface temperature): the temperature map, shown in a smooth color ramp. This is where you find temperature breaks, the sharp lines where warm and cooler water meet. Start here most days. New to it? Read how to read a temperature break.
• Chlorophyll: the water color and productivity map. It shows the green to blue seam where productive green water meets clean blue water, another edge fish follow. Full detail in chlorophyll charts explained.
• True color: the actual satellite photograph of the ocean, clouds and all. Use it to see the real water and exactly where the clouds sit. It needs a connection to load the imagery.

All of it is built on best-in-class satellite data from NOAA and NASA JPL.

Composite and single pass

Every picture layer can be shown two ways, and knowing when to use each is half the skill.

• Composite view: a blend of several recent satellite passes. A cloud that blocked one pass gets filled by another, so you get a continuous read. The 3 day composite is the default. Widen to 5 or 7 days on cloudy stretches, narrow to 1 day or half a day when skies are clear.
• Single pass view: one individual satellite pass. This is the freshest, sharpest snapshot, best when the sky is clear and you want the exact line of an edge right now.

The trade off is recency against coverage. The full explanation is in composite vs single pass.

Cloud-free view

When clouds are heavy and even a wide composite leaves holes, switch to the cloud-free view for gap-filled imagery that gives you a usable picture on a bad weather day. Hold the filled areas a little more loosely, since they are an estimate rather than a fresh direct read. For the whole cloudy day routine, see why your region looks cloudy today.

Compare, side by side

The compare tool splits the screen so you can put two layers next to each other, most often temperature and color. This is how you line a temperature break up against a chlorophyll seam to find where both edges overlap. Where the temperature edge and the color edge sit on the same spot, you have a higher percentage area than either one alone.

Depth readout and contours

Structure is the third edge, and the chart draws it two ways.

• Depth contours and bathymetry: depth lines drawn on the chart, including the shelf break near the 200 meter line, so you can see the terrain under the water.
• Depth readout: hover, tap, or drop a mark and read the exact depth in fathoms and feet at that point.

Use these to check whether a break sits on the shelf edge, a canyon rim or a seamount, which usually makes a spot far more productive. See shelf breaks, canyons and seamounts.

Buoys

Turn on the buoy layer to see real in water observations from NOAA buoy stations, including water temperature, air temperature, wind and waves. This is your ground truth.

Satellite and in water readings can differ, so use the buoys to sanity check the chart rather than expecting an exact match. Buoy coverage applies to U.S. regions. More in ground truth SST with buoys.

Currents (not in ReelTemps yet)

ReelTemps doesn't have a current layer yet. To see which way the water, and the edges on it, are drifting, step back through recent days on the chart and watch the edge move, and check the free IOOS HF radar surface current maps. A break that has been sliding offshore will likely keep sliding, so plan for where the edge will be, not just where it was.

Route, ruler and waypoints

These are your planning tools.

• Route and ruler: draw a line from your harbor to a spot and read the distance in nautical miles, so you can plan the run and the fuel.
• Waypoints and marks: drop, name and save a spot. Each waypoint shows its position, the water temperature there and the depth, and it builds into your personal spot book.

Everything syncs to your account, so a waypoint you drop at home is on your phone at the dock. For a full planning walkthrough, see how to plan an offshore run.

Make it yours: units and GPS format

Set the app up to match how you already work.

• Units: choose your temperature, depth and distance units so the readouts match your plotter and your habits.
• GPS format: set your preferred coordinate format so waypoints read the way you expect when you move them to your boat's electronics.
• Named spots: the chart labels curated banks, seamounts, canyons, ports and buoys, so you can speak the local language of your grounds.

Try it before you commit

The free demo is a fully interactive Bay Area chart on real but frozen sample data. Every tool on this tour works in the demo, so you can get a feel for all of it before anything else. When you are ready, your membership unlocks all 43 regions, every tool, on phone and desktop, synced to your account.

Jump into the demo to play with the tools, or open the charts and start reading your water. None of these tools guarantees a fish. What they do is let you read temperature, color and structure together and plan a smart run, which beats running blind every time.

Not for navigation.