# hiltons or roffs



## BILL_MONEY (Feb 17, 2009)

which is the best and do they have a annual subscription or do you have to pay for each report.... how much is a report or annual if they have it.... ive used them because ive been on the boat with it but never ordered one or thought to ask the guy getting them.


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## SUNDOWNER (Apr 8, 2008)

They both have there advantages and as much as it costs to go offshore I suggest both. An annual hiltons subscription is over 200 bucks for both regions with daily access and the individual roffs report (A Must Have!) is around 65 bucks. Hope this helped


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## BILL_MONEY (Feb 17, 2009)

yup thanks


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## SnapperSlapper (Feb 13, 2009)

Most all the information that Hilton's offers is available for free on the net if you know where to look. Where do you think he get's his data? He doesn't have a satellite up on space. He is using data that is already available for free on the internet, just formatting it into an easier to use format. Hilton's is updated as the satellite data is updated. If there is cloud cover and crappy satallite data, then there will be crappy Hilton's data. Personally, I save my money and use the free stuff. I figure I'm already paying for it oncethrough taxes, so I might as well not pay for it twice.

Check out coastwatch.noaa.gov.

Roff's isa reporting service, and you pay for each report. You can buy individual reports at $64 a pop. They also offer different annual package prices which bring the cost of individual reports down.

Personally, I use the free satallite data anytime we go offshore, and use the roff's only during tournaments. I've found that if you have clear skies, the satellite data will usually get you in the right neighborhood. And if you have several days of cloud cover, neither one of them is worth the paper it's printed on.


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## Tom Hilton (Oct 4, 2007)

Snapper Slapper,

We have the very best Captains in the world using our service, (and that is what it is, a service) because they understand the value of what we provide. Whether you are a veteran or a newbie, our innovative dataformat has proveninvaluablein lowering your costs while at the same time increasing your fishing success. 

Here are some examples of what is NOT available on the government sites; Geo-referencing of the imagery to give the ability to pinpoint the position of temp breaks, water color changes, etc. Archiving capabilities provide a great learning tool - why were the fish caught where they were at last year's tournament, for example. Animation capabilities provide a much better indicator of conditions than a single static image. Locations of the semisubmersibles and drillships (dynamic data in itself) positioned on the dynamic imagery is VERY useful. The ability to tweak the sea temp imagery based on YOUR specs is a VERY powerful tool at your fingertips. Our water color imagery is unsurpassed in it's resolution, and you can get single day shots, 3 day or 7 day compilations. There's more, but this is getting long.

We continue to lead the industry by providing innovative service to fishermen (here's a sneak peek at what's coming out in May).

All the best,

Tom Hilton


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## SnapperSlapper (Feb 13, 2009)

Several years ago I was on a boat that made a run to fish the Ensco 7500 during the MBGFC Memorial Day tournament. We went to where it was shown on the realtime navigator. After making the 120 mile run, we got to the area to find that it was gone. They had moved it a week or two earlier. Yes, that was a very nice "value added" feature.


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## AUtiger01 (Oct 17, 2007)

Snapper Slapper, 

Quit being so mean.


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## Tom Hilton (Oct 4, 2007)

Snapper Slapper,

Sorry to hear that. However, I guess someone who can read the disclaimer on the site; "*NOTE: LOCATIONS ARE NOT GUARANTEED! THE OIL COMPANIES DO NOT CALL US WHEN THEY DECIDE TO PICK UP AND MOVE! THIS IS THE BEST, LATEST INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO US, BUT THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES THAT THE STRUCTURES WILL BE THERE."* yet still expects a guarantee speaks for itself. Sometimes the rigs get there and are there for a while before we know it, and sometimes they pick up and leave before we know it.It is simply the best information available to us.

Speaking of the Ensco 7500, Capt Lane Landry of the C-Ya won a nice six figure sum of money fishing the Ensco 7500 during a tournament this summer, and he had the cajones to travel over 230 NM to get there using the data from our site. The rig's position near an off-color water change was a big factor in making the decision to make that long run but it paid off. That's fishing. By the way, this same Capt. caught a Gulf Record 36 Blue Marlin the summer before that using our service.

Good luck,

Tom


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## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

we have been using hilton's for a couple years now. awesome service. the other day our electronics failed going from grand isle to venice and i texted tom hilton for a bearing and distance and he texted me back within 5 minutes with the information i needed. awesome guy and awesome website. once you learn how to really use the navigator, you'll never go back to anything else; especially if all you do is troll bluewater. invaluable. without it is just fishing blind.


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## wanna be tuna slayer (Oct 4, 2007)

Hilton's is awesome. If anyone wants to bitch about it (Snapperslapper) they are probably the type that can't afford the $200 something dollars a year(which is an awesome deal in my opinion) or they are just bitter people that aren't getting enough these days. You say you can find all of this online, well you can find some of it, but I would pay someone that much just too have it organized and on a single web page. That's not even considering all of the other features that are well worth it in my opinion.


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## 4wahoo (Oct 23, 2007)

On the same topic I bought a subscription to Rip Charts last season, I'm still up in the air on wether or not to get it again this year. Are the other services any better?


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## wanna be tuna slayer (Oct 4, 2007)

I've never had ripcharts so I couldn't compare them. Look at Tom's post above about the features his service has. I think Hilton's is awesome.


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## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

> *4wahoo (4/15/2009)*On the same topic I bought a subscription to Rip Charts last season, I'm still up in the air on wether or not to get it again this year. Are the other services any better?


I'll give you &everyone elsea free2 week trial to SeaView - no obligations. 

In a nutshell, like what has been said above, you can get most shots free from CoastWatch & Univ of Colorado & a few other places... but in our Supermap, we make them "interactive" for users to see EXACTLY what's going on & where, down to the lat/long. The GIS mapping we use is highly accurate and our users can attest to Supermaps accuracy. We keepfreeFREE too.

What we offer as a PAID serviceare higher resolutions, composites,& all aroundbetter datasets that youCAN'T get for free from the govt. SeaView has been around since the early 80s. Look them up atwww.oceani.com .... you can get their service for $150 a yearthru any SST-Offshore.com network site.$150 gets you EVERY region. I have used SeaView for over a year now and I LOVE IT. You get several more sets ofSST shots (recents, composites, cloud free....), Sub Surface Temps, 3 Plankton Density shots, Currents, Altimetry, Salinity, Winds - all with Loops too.


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## Tom Hilton (Oct 4, 2007)

Howdy,

Thanks for the feedback.

Hilton's has proven to be the innovator in the industry for the last 5 years since we launched the service. We are launching REALTIME-NAVIGATOR MOBILE in May which will provide the ability to navigate on the latest Hilton's imageries on your iPhone via iNavXor laptop via Fugawi. iNavx is an approved app on iTunes that you can load on your iPhone for $49 - they just added Navionic charts yesterday, so for $49 you have access to not only hundreds of NOAA charts for free, but now you have Navionics charts for free. <U>What a great value.</U>

This will be an exciting year for us - thanks to all of our subscribers!

All the best,

Tom


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## Speckulator (Oct 3, 2007)

Most of the bluewater tourney fishermen that I know that have placed in them in the past 4-5 yrs have used Hiltons....Some use both for what its worth.....Even some SKA winners---not whiners---- have used Tom's service....Even us.....

George


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