Time & Tide: Fishing-Specific ‘Pro Trek’ Watch Ups Your Angling Odds

Fishing is a balance of being in the right place at the right time and a slice of luck. Here are some tips to help you improve your chances of catching fish — and how the Pro Trek PRTB70-1 can contribute.

Understanding the natural forces behind fish behavior can improve your angling. It can provide you with the knowledge to see the big picture and how all the variables involved in fishing interact. And the Casio Pro Trek PRTB70-1 watch, with features made specifically for fishing, can help with that.

We won’t address the minutiae of lure choices here. Instead, this is a dive into the PRTB70-1 as well as a zoomed-out approach to testing the water at the best times and under the best conditions.

Casio Pro Trek Goes Fishing

The Casio Pro Trek line of watches is made to meet the desires of outdoor enthusiasts. It comes with a digital compass, barometer, altimeter, and thermometer functions. It will even count your steps if you’re into that sort of thing. By syncing to the Pro Trek Connected app, you can log your route, steps, and other information.

The Casio PRTB70-1 builds off of that tech with fishing-specific functions that could help you get the most out of your fishing trips.

The watch continues Casio’s Fish In Time feature, which, once programmed, shows four different fish icons to indicate the probability of catching fish throughout the day. It has a timer that will count down to the start of the net-good catch period.

The Casio PRTB70 offers much of this information via Bluetooth through the Pro Trek Connected app. It can send alerts and info on tides, moon phases, and sunrise and sunset times for your location. To do this, the watch uses Fishing Point Setting, which provides data from 3,300 ports around the world.

Then there’s the Fish Memo, which acts as a fishing journal. The watch can be used to record your location, time, and date with your phone. From there, the Pro Trek Connected app will note those conditions, let you check tendencies in barometric pressure or moon age, and log photos of your catch for posterity. (Photos or it didn’t happen, right?)

Who’s It For?

The PRTB70-1 could be a fit for anyone that covers a lot of ground to fish. As part of the Pro Trek family, this is an outdoor watch at its core, with compass, barometer, and altimeter functions. This variant just has the added fishing tech built-in as well.

Anglers willing to adopt more tech in their fishing repertoire can use the Pro Trek Connected app to factor in the time of year, day, location, and tides, if applicable. From there, the watch just acts as a reminder of when the peak fishing times are. You can check out all of the features and tech specs on Casio’s website.

5 Ways to Improve Your Fishing

So, how can anglers use data from the PRTB70-1 to up their game? Let’s get into it.

Time of Day

One strategy for fishing from a boat is to change your spots according to the position of the sun. Dusk is generally the most universal time for optimal fishing. In spring and fall, midday can be lucrative.

In summer, shallow waters heat up quickly; and fish, being cold-blooded, move to deeper, cooler waters by midday. Conversely, in the mornings and at dusk, fish may be more active closer to banks.

The PRTB70-1 can gather all of this data at your location and feed it to you quickly and concisely. This eliminates the hassle of keeping track of it yourself and getting distracted from your line and lure.

Of course, the angle of the light impacts how your lure looks in the water. And fish seem to know it affects their appearance in the water, too. So smaller fish may try to avoid drawing attention to themselves for fear of attracting their predators you’re trying to catch.

Embrace Technology

Some anglers enjoy the sport and relish getting away from all things electronic. That’s fine, we get it. However, there are times when you want to ensure your time off is spent catching fish — or at least feeling some strikes.

You can always look up the moon phases and tides in “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” and plan a trip from there. But a fishing calculator is a bit more modern and has gained popularity and acceptance. These calculators factor in lunar cycles (between the new moon and full moon), sunrise and sunset, and tides to predict more active fishing times.

Rather than rely on keeping track of those calculations on your phone during a fishing trip, Casio makes the PRTB70-1, a watch that can streamline them from its Pro Trek Connected App to the digital display on its face. It indicates the best times for fishing with four different sizes of fish icons and can count down to the next window of prime fishing.

Coastal Waters

If you can, scout the shore at low tide — you can use the PRTB70-1 to determine when that is — before you even start fishing. That’s the best time to see fishing areas like sand bars, deep holes, and troughs. Even if you fish that spot later, you’ll know those features are there when higher waters come in. Aim your first casts into those pockets of deeper water or channels.

If you’re fishing from a beach or saltwater shoreline, you may want to consider timing your trip for the first part of an incoming tide. Rising water will begin to cover shorelines where crustaceans and other forms of prey like to hide. The opportunity for an easy meal draws game fish closer to shore to feed.

Rocks and shellfish beds can act as havens for baitfish and the larger predator fish looking for them. Of course, you want to avoid casting right into these spots, as you’re more likely to snag a lure than a lunker.

Similarly, rock jetties, old piers, or other structures breaking up the surf will act as havens for crustaceans and baitfish. You may need to experiment with the depth of your cast to find the fish, but they should be there.

The hours around either high tide are often considered the best for fishing. Fishing at a high tide when the sun isn’t up yet can also be more rewarding, as predator fish are more active close to the shore and, perhaps, less likely to question your line and lure. The slight exception is peak tide when waters briefly calm. That can be a great time to get a snack.

Low tides can be productive, but you need to be able to cast into deep enough waters, which can be a challenge from many beaches.

The water temperature of the ocean is harder to gauge from the shore, and it will impact which fish are where. This chart of species and water temps shows why you may want to change which fish you’re after or time your attempt.

Tidal Rivers

It’s worth the reminder that tidal rivers are in a state of flux. Elite anglers will cite tides as the most important factor, trumping location and weather except with extreme temps or winds.

For the best chance to catch fish in them, you need to be in tune with the ebb and flow of the tides. The constant change means that by the time you find a lure that works for one spot, you may only have a few more casts with it before relocating or switching it out.

In general, rising tides let smaller baitfish move into cover by the bank. Bass and other predator fish will follow the baitfish. The higher waters also give bigger fish an opportunity to look for food in tributary waterways. When the tides are dropping, the available real estate for fish condenses.

Fishing on tidal rivers and bays may benefit from deeper channels — from dropoffs or simply inflowing water. Fish often move to areas next to these channels in natural cover and debris to hunker down and avoid fighting against the pull of the tide.

Shore fishing is best during low tide when you can aim for bass around pads, trees, or other cover in 2 or 3 feet of water. You can look for banks with defined drops to avoid waters that are too shallow in low tide.

A unique feature of tidal rivers is their brackish mix where salt water and fresh water meet. There, a variety of species can be found, from bass to redfish and crappies. When the salinity creeps up, move back into fresher water.

Boat fishers may take to open waters to look for fish species that move with the tides. Tides follow roughly 6-hour cycles. The early hours of the incoming tide and the last few hours of an outgoing tide are generally considered to provide the best fishing.

If you’re down for a full day of boat fishing on a tidal river, you can start downriver, toward the mouth, and move upstream every 45 minutes or so. Setting a reminder alarm can help you concentrate on fishing and then move with the tides when alerted. On big rivers, you can do this for 5 hours and then turn around and reverse the process for another 5 hours.

Make Peace With Rain

Light rain (without lightning) can be an opportune time for fishing, especially in the summer when hosts of bugs and insects get washed into lakes and rivers. The overcast skies also drive fish to move around more.

Of course, standing in the rain can be unpleasant without proper gear. That’s where a light rainshell or poncho can help. In warmer months, you should pack a jacket with an emphasis on breathability.

Take note: A thin shell can keep the rain off you, but once it gets wet, it may cling to your skin if you have short sleeves underneath. That’s not only annoying, but it can also steal body heat. We’d recommend a long-sleeve shirt underneath for this reason, not to mention the sun protection it provides when it’s not raining.

This article is sponsored by Casio. Find out more about the functions included in the PRTB70-1 watch online.