Anyone use Lakemonster?

[Bankc]

So I might be late to the party, but I just recently noticed a website called lakemonster.com.  It appears to have low resolution thermal satellite imaging of many lakes and not only gives current(ish) temperatures of various lakes, but also shows where those surface temperatures are distributed.   I haven't gotten a chance to verify its accuracy yet for myself.  Maybe it's just fiction.  But if it is even slightly accurate, it could be a valuable (and free) resource, especially this time of year when the water is just starting to warm up.  

 

The last recording on one of the lakes I was looking at was Feb. 10th.  That makes it 8 days behind.  So it's not real-time information.  But it's still recent enough to be useful.  Maybe.  

[T-Billy]

When I saw the title, I thought you were talking about this.

[RDB]

I’ve never heard of it.  I compared it to the listed temps on the Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept. fishing reports page and some were spot on and others were off quite a bit.  I don’t really trust the #’s from TPWD though.

[Trox]

Never heard of it, but I will definately be putting it to the test during my next few outings, any off-the-water tool that is accurate can be very useful... Unfortunately my boats in the shop so it may be a few weeks. Will circle back (eventually) with my findings... Thanks for sharing!

 

The site is likely just pulling information from external APIs that belong to other sites though (through code, grabbing information from other websites and sources and combining them into one place)... I wonder what those sources are. I thought about doing something like this with the accuweather or wunderground APIs, and making it more relevant towards fishing. Have been too lazy to build it. 

[txchaser]

There's a spot for people to upload observed temps. 

[casts_by_fly]

I’m also curious to know where the raw data comes from. Wind and weather is easy enough- lots of data sources. Water temp it looks like user sourced but that is going to potentially have issues with small sample size and accuracy of data. Still, I’m going to keep an eye on it this spring and compare to my own. It would be really helpful to know if a lake is warming faster or slower than expected. I entirely missed the 60-degree range last year. We were traveling a little and the water warmed up while we were gone. I saw mid fifties, didn’t fish for a week, went away for 2 weeks and got out a week and a half after we got back.  So four weeks went from 55 to 70.  Had I known, I’d have gotten out at least a little in the week before and week after.

[slonezp]

Never heard of it. Just took a look. Water temps under 40*. Makes sense since there's 18" of ice on top. 

[Bankc]

Just tried it against a local lake today. It was spot on!  
 

some of our lakes have their temperatures regularly published.  Others do not.  And even the ones that do, this site shows you where the warm and cool spots are.  So I think I'm going to add it to my list of prefishing sites.  

 

And yeah, I can't figure out where they get their data.  Some thermographic satellite.  But I can't find out which one or if that information is generally available to the public.  

[RDB]

I’m leery of the thermal info if it is intended to show water temp.  The image below is a back pocket on the upper end of a lake I know well and it shows temps from 40-55 degrees.  All of the water (~ 100 acres) is less than 4’ deep and protected from north winds.  There is no way there is that much variability in temp and I can guarantee there is no 40 degree water and certainly not within 1 square of 55 degree water.  Let me know if I’m reading it wrong.

 

 

[Bankc]

On 2/19/2022 at 8:49 PM, RDB said:

I’m leery of the thermal info if it is intended to show water temp.  The image below is a back pocket on the upper end of a lake I know well and it shows temps from 40-55 degrees.  All of the water (~ 100 acres) is less than 4’ deep and protected from north winds.  There is no way there is that much variability in temp and I can guarantee there is no 40 degree water and certainly not within 1 square of 55 degree water.  Let me know if I’m reading it wrong.

 

 

I took it to be more of a gross generalization.  The resolution is so low, that I wouldn't take it too seriously as far as square by sqaure.  I'd read it more like there the north end is probably a degree or two warmer than the southeastern section.  I'm sure there's all kinds of things that can throw off what the map is reading, like cloud cover, rocks and trees, probably waves, humidity, water clarity, and who knows what else.  My assumption is they're using satellite data from a satellite that was never intended to be used for this, as it seems that it would be crazy expensive to launch your own satellite just to do this for a free site.  They're probably piggybacking off some university's or corporation's satellite that's collecting information for something else.  I really have no idea though.

 

So far, it's been helpful for me for choosing which lakes to fish and where to launch (because being in a kayak, I typically can't explore an entire lake in a day).  I wouldn't put too much faith in what it says.  I'm definitely not going to be looking at it while on the water.  I trust what my fish finder says more.  

 

I've got no association with this site.  I just ran across it on a Google deep dive the other day and thought it looked interesting.  I've only ever tested once against real world number.  And it seems to me that it's really only going to be of much use to me in the wintertime, when the temperatures are in the 30's-50's.  After that, I'm not too focused on water temperature.  

[RDB]

3 hours ago, Bankc said:

I took it to be more of a gross generalization.  The resolution is so low, that I wouldn't take it too seriously as far as square by sqaure.  I'd read it more like there the north end is probably a degree or two warmer than the southeastern section.  I'm sure there's all kinds of things that can throw off what the map is reading, like cloud cover, rocks and trees, probably waves, humidity, water clarity, and who knows what else.  My assumption is they're using satellite data from a satellite that was never intended to be used for this, as it seems that it would be crazy expensive to launch your own satellite just to do this for a free site.  They're probably piggybacking off some university's or corporation's satellite that's collecting information for something else.  I really have no idea though.

 

So far, it's been helpful for me for choosing which lakes to fish and where to launch (because being in a kayak, I typically can't explore an entire lake in a day).  I wouldn't put too much faith in what it says.  I'm definitely not going to be looking at it while on the water.  I trust what my fish finder says more.  

 

I've got no association with this site.  I just ran across it on a Google deep dive the other day and thought it looked interesting.  I've only ever tested once against real world number.  And it seems to me that it's really only going to be of much use to me in the wintertime, when the temperatures are in the 30's-50's.  After that, I'm not too focused on water temperature.  

I’m sure you’re right.  I’ll be on that lake tomorrow so I will have a better idea.

[casts_by_fly]

Fished Friday and the actual lake temp was 43-44. Lake monster is showing under 40 as the estimate for that day. I’m thinking that their thermal satellite imagery might be under estimating or lagging in some way. I’m going to keep looking, but I won’t let the website stop me from going out.