Price Paid: 39
Recommended: yes
Cons: Not particularly attractive, difficult to initially set up
Pros: Actually IS beneficial for fishing, hunting, keeping time.
I bought the first version of this when it was released around 8 years back and have purchased all of it's successors. The model I'm reviewing has lasted me 4 years now on the original battery. It's an impressive watch for the money. Has all of the usual wristwatch features (multiple alarms, stopwatch, etc), plus vibrating alarms/alerts and wrist-activated backlighting (VERY handy)
The solunar features are pretty da_n good in my opinion. Moon phase is indicated right on the front face and you can tell whether the moon's waxing or waning. The duration of remaining daylight or night is indicated visually around the edge of the watch face. Probability of fish activity is also indicated on the main screen
On another screen it cycles through the four best fishing times for the following 24 hours. These are determined by the moon's phase and position relative to the coordinates you set (Directly above your postion, below your position, to the east of the earth at your postion, and again to the west). Probablitiy of fish activity at these times is indicated with, well, a number of fish (from 0-4). You can tell the watch to alert you when solunar activity is high. You can also move the date into the future or the past to check solunar activity for any particular date.
Another screen is entirely devoted to sunrise/sunset times. Similarly, you can advance the date to see rise and set times for other days.
The "Fish Memo" feature lets you record the time, date, and solunar information into several consecutive memory slots at the touch of a button. This is very helpful if you're on the fish and you want to record exactly what time each was caught, how many you caught, and what the solunar conditions were. It's also handy for a myriad of other more "real-life" situations where you need to remember exactly when something happened.
Timekeeping is extremely accurate and once you get a feel for it, all of the features are easy to use. Initial setup can be tricky, you need to know the lat/long of the area you're going to primarly fish for accurate information. But once it's set up, you're good to go.
There is a classier analogue model that will provide limited solunar information, but it's virtually worthless for anything other than timekeeping. While it has some features of this model, the backlighting is terrible and the digital portion of the face (solunar information) is difficult at best to read. It's nice if you just want to feel connected to your sport when a digital watch isn't appropriate.
The hunting and fishing versions are identical with the exception of the indicators for activity. The hunting version shows tiny claws, and the fishing version shows fish. Otherwise, they're the same watch with the same solunar calculations.
The only thing that's not so great about this watch is the band - You're stuck with it and if it breaks you're basically out of luck. Even so, the watch is a wholloping $31 through Amazon so I'm not docking a point for the lack of replaceable bands.
Forester Fishing Watch (PAS400B-5V)
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