As the name suggests, they help fishermen catch more fish. A FAD is essentially flotsam (something floating out at sea). It is seemingly still unknown as to why fish choose to congregate around flotsam but they sure like doing so. Perhaps there is something appealing in flotsam whilst for miles and miles in every direction there is nothing but open sea.
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MaxSea – FURUNO Seminar in Sweden
On November 25th and 26th, FURUNO Sverige and MaxSea hosted a seminar at the FURUNO Sverige office. MaxSea Regional Sales Manager Ferhat Dahak tells us about the event.
13 dealers from all over the country (17 people in total) attended this seminar. On November 25th, I presented information on all the latest developments throughout our product line, focusing on:
- The latest version 2.1 of MaxSea TimeZero PLOT
- TimeZero Coastal Monitoring v1.4
- MaxSea TimeZero App upcoming new features
On November 28th, a MaxSea training day was carried out with Swedish fishermen. 10 fishermen from the Gothenburg area, mainly trawlers, attended the training.
We concentrated on the following topics:
- Layer Management
- AIS/ARPA management
- PBG and WASSP Modules
The presentation took place in a room with 5 computers, all running MaxSea TimeZero PLOT which allowed the fishermen to train at the same time.
Thanks Ferhat!
MaxSea at IceFish – the Icelandic Commercial Fishing Show
Last week, Regional Sales Manager Thibault Hua represented MaxSea at the IceFish exhibition which took place in Reykjavik. IceFish is the must-visit event of the commercial fishing industry. Here he tells us how it went.
MaxSea products were displayed at the stand of Iceland’s Furuno distributor Brimrún. Special emphasis was placed on our PC-radar and fishing-PC sounder solutions with Furuno sensor integration. The new WASSP interface was also very successful because of the increase in productivity and time it represents for bottom mapping tasks.

Learn more about the new WASSP-MaxSea compatibility!

Brimrún has been the exclusive MaxSea distributor in Iceland for the last 3 years, and is highly-knowlegable on our software. Their input has always been priceless to the improvement of our products. Brimrún spends time training customers on how to use MaxSea. They have organised several training seminars and more are planned for the future. Get in touch with Brimrún to learn more.
Thibault would like to thank them for their support over the past years and for their welcome during the show.
Visit Brimrún’s website or send them an email if you would like to know more about this Icelandic distributor of MaxSea.
MaxSea at Navalia 2014
This week, Sandrine Abadie, MaxSea Inside Sales Manager, represented MaxSea at the Navalia International Shipbuilding Exhibition, which took place this week in the north-west of Spain.
Where: Vigo, Spain
Navalia Info: In 2013, over 25,000 professional visitors attended from 90 different countries. There were approximately 500 exhibitors. Read more about this exhibition here.
MaxSea Booth: MaxSea products were demonstrated at our partners’ booth: FURUNO España and Nautical.
Navalia attracted many professionals involved in the commercial fishing industry.

MaxSea TimeZero PLOT software is specifically designed for commercial fishing, and was demonstrated with the new WASSP Module, showing advanced compatibility features with the multi-beam sounders.

This event was very successful and MaxSea would like to thanks FURUNO and Nautical for their cooperation. See you next year!
Top 5 Boating Blogs to Follow Right Now!
There are many boating blogs out there – some are general whereas others specialise in just one element of boating, from commercial fishing to safety rules and regulations. We’ve scanned the internet to pick out five great blogs that all boaters should follow! Here’s the countdown, from 5 to 1:
5. Capt’n Pauley’s Virtual Boatyard: This is very good DIY boating blog, with information on everything from rigging to boat restoration to engine maintenance. If you’re looking for some tips and advice and like to work on your boat, this is the blog for you!
4. Bitter End: Capt. Richard J. Rodriguez keeps you up to date on news related to the world of boating. A good mix of topics!
3. G-Captain: Captain John Konrad does a great job of writing entertaining and informative articles. This blog mainly focuses on commercial fishing, but even if you’re a recreational boater, you’ll find high-quality information and advice.
2. Sailing Anarchy: Scot Tempesta edits this sailing blog, and he’s a guy with attitude! This blog stands out because it takes a no-nonsense, down-to-earth approach to sailing and yachting. It’s updated several times a day and if you love sailing, you’ll find the articles very interesting. Over 80,000 likes on Facebook too – impressive!

1. Panbo: Our number one pick has got to be the ubiquitous Panbo blog. MaxSea loves it because it covers virtually everything in the world of marine electronics. Writer and editor Ben Ellison has become well-known by most people who own a boat.
Why do we like this blog so much? Because it is updated so often and you can find thorough, informed reviews of just about every major marine electronics product here. Definitely one to follow!
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Team Ashram Qualifies for World Marlin Championships in Costa Rica!
MaxSea is proud to be a partner of The Ashram Fishing Team. This Australian-based team recently participated in the “Seasport Charters Marlin Cup,” using MaxSea TimeZero PLOT on board. Here is their account of how the tournament went.
The team is made up of Sangeeta Menon, Andy Ziepe, Mark Jarrett and Rhyss Whittred. The Seasport Charters Marlin Cup was hosted by the Perth Game Fishing Club in Jurien Bay, and ran from February 20-23rd.
Jurien Bay is approx. 400km north of Team Ashram’s home port and boasts some excellent game fishing species. The winner of this tournament receives an invite to compete in the Offshore World Championships in Costa Rica for 2015.
Rhyss Whittred gives us his account of the tournament:
“For our team this was the first major tournament we had competed in since I purchased my Wellcraft 270 and revamped the electronics to include Maxsea TimeZero PLOT and Furuno’s latest technology. I can’t say how keen we were to compete and in fact one of the teams there had the reigning world champion angler on board Valkoista (Craig White).
It was a 3 day tournament with your 2 best days fishing score counting towards overall championship points. The night before the tournament commenced I downloaded the latest Maxsea weather file and carefully worked out our fishing plan in line with sea surface temp, currents and plankton.
We headed out and had a cracker of a day. The Maxsea oceanic data was spot on and my team was fantastic with their art of angling and we managed Southern Blue Fin, Striped and Yellowfin Tuna to give us some great points of 2,850 points and our nearest competitors were on 375 points.
Saturday dawned and I planned to go to the same area north where we had done so well the day before. Alas, the water temperature was down 2 degrees, with no bait and no birds. We could hear others on the radio with great fishing results. Unfortunately I had left my mobile phone at the hotel and couldn’t download a current weather file. We were now at a complete low and did not turn a reel for the day.
The next morning I was up very early and downloaded the weather file and made a plan of attack. In fact the good water and temperature breaks we had 2 days before where now 40kms south of Jurien and we needed to get among it. With the early start we got down there in time for lines in at 6am and once again we tagged our limit of tuna and returned to port.
The scoring by other teams was very good and it was an absolute pleasure to have revealed that the Ashram Team picked up Champion Boat, Champion Female Angler, Runner Up Male Angler and Champion Tag and Release.
So my friends at Maxsea, I thank you all for your cutting edge technology and how it all worked in so well with my Furuno equipment and helping us to win this tournament.”
– Rhyss Whittred
Thanks Rhys! And best of luck for the World Marlin Championships in Costa Rica!
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In Search of Fish with Maxsea TimeZero
This week, MaxSea partner Olivier Journaux, A.K.A. Cpt. OJ, gives his advice on how to find the best fishing spots. He does this both by using the right onboard equiment, and by understanding the types of areas that certain fish like to be found. Cpt. OJ is an accomplished athlete who now provides sport fishing lessons in France.
When fishing with a line, jigging or vertical bait fishing, it has become essential to be extremely precise. In my line of work, I coach recreational sport fishing.
For this, it is important for me to position the boat as close as possible to the fish so that my customers can enjoy close contact with the beautiful fish.
It is also essential to constantly discover new fishing areas, which allow me to manage the amount of fishing in each spot. In this way, I take one or two fish per area out of the water and practice the “catch and release” technique that I described in this earlier MaxSea blog post here.
Then I move on to another area before returning again several days later.
Finding predator fish
To catch a predator fish, first we must find the place it is most likely to be. This is obviously the biggest job, the hardest and longest one to master.
Where are the fish
95% of the time, bars, shade-fish and saithe can generally be found near the water surface. They position themselves above their prey and upstream of the current. The pout, their main food source, usually hides in hollows. As a result, it is very common to catch bars and lean on rock surfaces as this is where the pouts can be found.
Onboard equipment
To be able to localise the fish, it is essential to have a sounder and GPS system with nautical charts. Unfortunately electronic charts are never 100% accurate. Maxsea TimeZero PLOT or MaxSea TimeZero SportFishing are perfectly suited to fishing as it allows the user to record the sea floor and generate their own, extremely accurate chart of their favourite fishing grounds.
Useful features within MaxSea TimeZero
A computer with MaxSea TimeZero connected to the GPS and sounder can store unlimited depth points, and adjusts for the current water level depending on the time and date (integrated tide information).
This means that by simply navigating in your fishing spot, you are simultaneously saving thousands of contour lines and the precision of your seabed data becomes increasingly sharp.
Thus, in places where all charts tell you that the bottom is flat, you discover hidden contours, sometimes more than 10m high over distances of 500m long. All you need to do is to explore the area with your sounder.
MaxSea offers the ability to create whatever you want, ideal routes, specific marks that can represent fish, rocky peaks , buoys, wrecks etc.
Then you can also add comments to each mark. In TimeZero software, you can consult classic hydrographic office charts, and add your own bathy data, and even record a bottom classification to view the type of sediment in each area
Types of spots favoured by fish
Depending on the direction of the current, we can have a good idea of where fish are most likely to be found.
They are usually
- upstream of the current and
- above the rocks (the highest point)
- just below the first step of a rocky “staircase” if there is one in the area. They like these spots because it means that they are high up yet sheltered from the current. It is often a favourite spot for saithe when the current exceeds 1.5 knots.
By following these steps, I personally found wonderful fishing areas in the rocky waters of Antioch and Breton in France where I came across beautiful fish that had never previously been disturbed by humans.
Read more about Cpt. OJ on his website (in French) by clicking here.
You can email him at olivierjournaux@neuf.fr or call him on +33 (0) 6 50 58 56 59.
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MaxSea sea bass fishing day out
With the help, patience and boat of Olivier Journaux (aka Captain’OJ, an oldtime partner), MaxSea’s sales team went sea bass sportfishing a while ago. We brought you the pictures.
A very difficult weather and poor technical skills (sorry guys, we have to admit it), it was quite a challenge for the team to fish anything. Captain’OJ, the only pro on board, caught the first sea bass (a 1,5 kg piece) that was released immediatly:
Sales Director Frederic Algalarrondo caught the second fish, a 3,6kg sea bass also released as the team only wanted to keep one.
Next fish was caught by Area Sales Manager Philippe Raba (3,5 kg):
Fourth sample (4,1kg!) was caught by Area Sales Manager Thibault Hua:
The icing on the cake was a magnificent 5,2kg sea bass caught by Philippe (second fish of the day and of his entire life) and kept by the crew.
In spite of the bad conditions, it was a wonderful and very enjoyable sail trip: Captain’OJ discovered the new MaxSea TimeZero for professional mariners (ECS) and MaxSea Sales Team put their hands on the fishing craft.
Thank you Olivier for the great experience and thanks to Fred, Philippe, Thibault, Clément and Sandrine for allowing us to publish these amazing pictures of you 🙂
Here’s the same post on Captain’OJ’s blog (in french).
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Do you want to go sea bass fishing? 2012 Season is up and running! Contact Captain’OJ.
MaxSea Time Zero Explorer User Testimony
User Testimony of MaxSea Time Zero Explorer
By Keith Johnson, Game Fisherman, Port Stephens
JN Taylor the Australian distributor for Furuno, Maxsea and other leading brands of marine electronics was once again in 2009 the major sponsor for the largest offshore game fishing tournament in the southern hemisphere – the 2009 NSW Riviera Interclub . The Interclub event runs over 10 days at the end of February each year and is as much a festival for life around the water as a fishing tournament. Hosted at the picturesque coastal holiday town of Port Stephens on the Central coast of New South Wales two hours drive North of Sydney, the local fishing grounds are world renowned for proving one of the most consistent fisheries for all species of Marlin.
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