Conditions reports are the core of Fish Explorer. One of our goals is to get every class 1 and class 2 water and at least half of the class 3 waters skippered. Wanna help?
Being a
Skipper is a great way for you to help give back to the Fish Explorer community and earn a decent discount on
FxR+ as well. Skippers will have real-time control over the conditions displayed for the lake or river they have committed to. Updating water temperature, level, and additional information is very quick and easy to do.
The position is voluntary and we ask that only those members able to commit to updating a lake or river on a regular basis apply. If you are only able to update a lake/river once or twice a month, we may try to form a team of Skippers for that water, so please apply.
Fish Explorer will provide the following for committed Skippers:
- Bio page with photo gallery
- Email notification when a forum post is submitted for assigned lake/river
- "Skipper" designation on your forum posts
- Skipper featured on lake/river Detail page for assigned lake/river
- Access to quick update form for real-time updates, bypassing approval system
- Ability to approve and edit reports sent in by other members
- View historical data for assigned lake/river
- Discounted price of $10/year for FxR+ (after a few months of active “skippership”)
Skippers commit to the following:
- Visit the water at least once a month. Ideally, two-three times a month. This keeps conditions current for the lake or river page. It also gives skippers an idea of actual conditions when approving other members’ reports.
- As necessary for assigned lake/river: general content revisions, improvements and corrections such as camping information changes, closures/openings, construction, regulation changes, photographs, links, contacts, events for the calendar, etc.
- Participation in forum for members needing assistance with their lake or river.
Before you apply, you should have a bit of history on the site AND the lake or river you’re applying for. If you’ve been lurking (no worries, we were all there), try getting on the
forum a bit, respond to posts and questions, make some
blog or
news comments, etc. The way we see it, for every person who posts a comment or question, there are a lot of other people thinking it. Post photos to our gallery when you can too.
The best way to be active on the site and help other anglers is to submit conditions reports yourself, particularly for the water you'd like to skipper. Every time you go fishing or even drive by a water and can get an idea of some conditions, submit a report. Details like water level and color, temp if you can get it, how many other anglers, potholes, weather, wind, etc. are all good things to include. After a couple reports, please apply.
A number of the skippers are also editors for their waters. This allows them to update the lake/river page as needed (details, description, special regs, etc.), and of course, gain more points. We also have a number of lake editors who help us add waters and keep active waters updated. We’re pretty selective in who we allow to edit the lake pages, although we aways welcome emails with suggested updates for waters and award points that way too.
We also ask that you be honest, helpful, and considerate in representing Fish Explorer.
Since Skippers take a more official role in the website than standard members you will be held to high standards in regards to your participation in the forum and in any other manner regarding Fish Explorer.
If you have any questions, just let me know.
Click here or the Contact Tom link at the top of
my Bio page.
With your help we can continue to expand and make Fish Explorer the ultimate resource for fishing.
I was a skipper for a short period of time. I had trouble committing to the job. I felt like I should have been visiting my lake and providing updates more often than I was, but there were too many other places I wanted to fish at the same time. If I ever buckle down and start fishing a certain body fo water regularly then I will apply again. Good luck finding more skippers Tom!
Being a skipper is great fun. I really enjoy it and encourage others to conceder it. Tom how do you receive a discount for being a skipper? My credit card has been charged the full amount every year when my account is up for renewal. It just renewed in January and i've been a skipper for years now.
I'd love to see the FL skippers expand as well, I know we have lurkers out there...get involved guys and gals its a great time!
Goose, when you re-up, there is a pulldown menu that has a tab for Skipper.
Goosehunter82, yeah when you go to the Membership page, then click on Subscribe to FxR+, in box #1 where you choose which subscription you want, at the bottom you should see the option "Annual Subscription w/Skipper discount". If that's not showing up for you, let me know. We'll look into your January renewal. Thanks guys!
Thanks Tom. I think my problem is my account is set up to automatically renew every January so I don't do anything. It just renews and charges my card.
I'm having the same issue Goose is, but I will check on the pull down tab! Thanks guys and bring a skipper isn't hard, it's actually fun for me. Hoping to start hitting my water soon, I'm not very good on hitting the river in cold weather, guess I'm getting old LOL