New Fish Explorer Features

1/18/2007

It's been a busy albeit cold winter, which is a good thing I suppose since it has kept us indoors to work on adding some new features to the website. We have a long list of items we will eventually check off, but for now, here are a few items that we made live today.

Home page Revamp
With the advent of new features, we have given the home page of the site a facelift. You'll find the most recent news, forum posts, and blogs listed on the right hand side of your screen. Recent lake updates appear on the left next to the new listing of Field Editors on the right. The table which displayed the list of lakes we cover along with their most recent temps is now on its own page.

Fish Explorer Field Editors Blogs and Articles
Since we cannot be everywhere at once, and more importantly since we are not particularly experts in any realm of fishing, we thought it would be a good idea to get some fresh fishing minds involved. Today we lift the curtains for two leading fishermen, guides, lecturers, and authors Chad LaChance and Troy Coburn.
Over the course of the season Chad, Troy and the rest of us will be writing blogs that hopefully will keep you informed if not entertained. Additionally, we will be publishing several articles, two of which are on the site now. To access the Field Editors' pages, click on the tab in the top navigation bar. Click here to go now...

Thank You's
We rely on members' involvement to keep current conditions on the lakes we feature. Thus we have developed a "Thank you" page listing the members who have supported this project along with the lakes they've helped update. It's been a banner first season and we truly appreciate you taking the time to send
updates to the site. Click here to go now...

Point System
Although not complete, we began issuing points to members who submit updates on lake conditions. What we do with these points we are not sure, but for now they are for bragging rights. We'll come up with a plan and let you know soon. Your point total can be found on the My Account page when you are logged in...link is at the top right of your screen.

Calendar of Events
We've often been asked to add listings for events, but lacked the proper pages to do so. Welcome the Fish Explorer Calendar of Events. We've added events that we have been notified of, including fishing shows, tournaments and seminars throughout Colorado. If you have an event you would like listed, or know of an
event that should be on the calendar, it's as easy as clicking the "Submit an Event" button at the top of the calendar. We aim to have this be the most complete Colorado fishing calendar available, so please notify us of any events not listed. Click here to go now...

Fishing Clubs Page
What better way to learn about fishing Colorado lakes than joining a fishing club? You get to meet people who have your same interests and most likely hold a lot of knowledge to tap. We honor the clubs that make fishing more than a solitary pastime in a new page that lists clubs in Colorado along with a description of each club, a link to their website, and contact information. If you know of a club that we have not listed, please contact us. Click here to go now...

RSS Feeds
The RSS feeds have been on the site for a while but we never formally announced them. We have feeds listing both Ed Dentry's Rocky Mountain News articles and Charlie Meyers' Denver Post articles, as well as a listing of Podcasts offered by AskAboutFlyFishing.com. All are updated in real time, so as each comes out
with a new piece, you will find the link to it on Fish Explorer. Click here to go now...

Refer-a-Friend
We need as much help updating lakes conditions as we can get, so we made it easy to tell your friends about Fish Explorer. The Refer-a-Friend page has a form where you can add the email addresses of your fishing buddies, click submit, and we'll send off an email with a link to the site. We'll then rack up some points for you for spreading the word. Help us help you by letting everyone know about Fish Explorer. Click here to go now...

Fishing Map Lake Names
Although small, I think it is worth mentioning. The Google Maps Fishing Map on our site which displays icons for all the lakes we cover has been upgraded. It should be faster, and now when you hold your mouse over an icon, the lake name will appear right next to the icon.

Links Page
This is another item that has been on the site for a little while lacking formal introduction, but we now have a link page that shows some links that we find interesting or just noteworthy. Click here to go now...

Fish Species Updates
We are working with DOW biologists to update fish species listings for all the lakes we currently feature as well as new lakes we plan to add. All of the Poudre and North Platte drainage lakes have been updated. Due to drought, undocumented plantings, and many other conditions it is sometimes difficult to maintain a highly accurate list of healthy fish in the lakes. We will continue this ongoing process of refining information on the lakes we cover.

It should be noted that there most definitely will be bugs with these changes, so please let us know if you find anything that doesn't work!