Introducing 1.4: The Wind Tab

The Wind Tab, Great Lakes support, usability enhancements, and a whole lot more.

The Wind Tab

I've been wanting to improve the wind & weather feature for a while now. Weather is still coming, but this is our first pass at improving how you use Big Buoy to predict wind. We added the ability to view all models earlier this year, and although this helped figure out if all the wind models agreed, it was pretty hard to read.

This is basically the next pass at that. We line up all the models in a table so you can see the deviation between models. The higher the deviation number, the more uncertainty there is. That means, basically, the more likelihood of a blown wind forecast — and the ability to yell at Big Buoy. This happened literally yesterday. The deviation was pretty high. But when the deviation is low, it's locked in.

Every model in one table — the DEVIATION row is the uncertainty score.

I've also added the ability to see wind and swell direction. This will help you play the wind. And we added a Fishable view. This requires you to set your limits, but the defaults are pretty accurate if you don't want to touch them. It goes 16 days out. Keep in mind a forecast that far ahead generally isn't accurate — but you know what it is good for: figuring out when big storms or cold fronts are coming in. For those who love fishing in the fall, this is a big one.

This feature is Big Buoy Pro only. Give it a shot if you've subscribed. And if not, I might get a free trial going in the near future, so that might be the first opportunity to try it out without paying.

Great Lakes Support

One of the biggest pleasant surprises for me from running Big Buoy has been seeing all of the users we are getting from the Great Lakes area. I've gone steelheading up there more than a few times, but that is it.

This update brings in more Great Lakes support. We've done a cleanup pass and made sure we have all of the buoys and key locations up there accessible.

I also went ahead and removed tides from the buoys on the Great Lakes and added water level. In the near future, I plan on adding that to any location you click in the Great Lakes. Right now, clicking on the map still shows tides. I'll fix it soon.

Wind Overlay & Usability Improvements

We rebuilt the wind overlay on the map. We tried to make it easier to use and faster. We also went ahead and updated the time selector for it. Hopefully it's a lot better to use.

The rebuilt wind overlay — speed shading, live particles, and the new day-by-day time selector.

Tooltips and hovers have also received a pass. Each chart should have haptics on it now and be a lot easier to use. And we made a few layout improvements.

More To Come

We've got a lot more in the pipeline that will be announced shortly. In the meantime, give 1.4 a shot and let us know what you think.