Jake:

Was the hotspot tool working incorrectly or did you just not want to describe your hotspots?

To my knowledge, you have to make a comment on each hot spot for it to be a hot spot. Simply clicking on the map and not describing the hot spot isn't allowed.

I just implemented that last night because there were a lot fo HotSpots coming through with no comment. What good are they without a comment? Once we're up and running with the new tools you'll realize why this is important. The HotSpots are not related to the report that they were entered with... they are used all by themselves so without a comment on the HotSpot the users will have no idea why that area was/is hot... they won't have the report to rely on. You'll be viewing All the HotSpots for a given lake all at once on a large map and you'll be looking for areas that have clusters of HotSpots... and then you'll want to read the comment to know what to do.. what to kind of fish there are there.. something more than just a set of coordinates.

I really don't know what to describe. I put that all in my report. I guess I could of put "fish here" fish here" fish here" or "hotspot" "hotspot" "hotspot". If I felt there was something to comment, I would have. If it is mandatory I won't fill out the hotspot, I think thats enough information already.

I guess it's that you don't understand that your HotSpots and your Report are completely disconnected... Your descriptions in your report are not related to the HotSpots... they won't be viewed together since the data is for completely different areas of the site. Reading your report I see nothing that describes why you placed those HotSpots... There is nothing that states that when "E" went deeper, he did it at HotSpot 1.. or 2.. or 3.. and the point of the HotSpots in general is to give another level of detail for people to use to reproduce your success. i.e. they need to use that lure at that spot and that depth for ... Bass? Dunno.. thats what the comment field is for. It's Ok Jake. It's a new tool and without having the HotSpot viewer available yet it's a bit hard to see the big picture of what we're really trying to do. I hope that you enjoy our site and will consider becoming a Premium member in the months to come when that option is available. Once you have access to the tools and see how they will all work together you'll see why the HotSpot specific comments are so vital.

Note: A good example of what to put in the comment fields is in the HotSpot instructions:

"Largemouth like to hang out under a submerged log here. Plastics seem to work well."
"There are Smallmouth beds all along the shore at these coordinates."
"Trolling wedding rings at about 15' along this area always produces sizable Rainbows."

In your case, you could have put "Use a Copper Wee Dick Nite here at about 20' for great Kokanee action."

I love Hot Spots. I like that they will be separate from the reports. This makes viewing one lake real easy. It'd be nice if everyone filled out Hot Spots cause it'd make it a little easier learning a new lake that we've never been to. Great, great addition to the site. My .02 KTK

Seems like some small popular lake, like Green Lake in Seattle, might get pretty crowded full of hotspots. Maybe they could be filtered by date, time of year, or fish species. Just imagining here. :)

True, after awhile they will get crowded. They do have a date saved with them and I'll be sure to add some filtering options to the HotSpot viewer.