There is a free option. It took some Googling to find, but this NASA website publishes Chlorophyll water levels, (i.e. how clear the water is). It won't help you with weedlines, but there are GPS coordinates included, so you can hover over the blue water rip on the map and find approx. where it is at! That link takes you to June 20th which was the day with the least cloud cover this month.
Worldview: Explore Your Dynamic Planet

 

That is a pretty nice free tool, thanks for sharing I'll have to see what layers I can play with!

 

For what it’s worth/ I am new to Bluewater fishing and I decided to buy a Hilton’s subscription- I check it several times a week... the problem with the free stuff is that it’s not geo referenced... may not matter to you.

 

How long have you had the Hilton's subscription? Is it easy to read or is it an analysis or what? Have you had much blue water success on Mahi or Wahoo trolling yet? I'm still looking for my first on both... :\

 

I have had it a few months. It’s just images that are georeferenced. No analysis. They say you can call Tom Hilton and he will analyze it for you. I fish such a small area (50 miles in an direction from pass) that I don’t feel like a Roffs analysis is worth it- I think they are going to tell me to go 100 miles every time - which I’m not going to do.

 

Every company uses the free data from NASA, but they add the overlays so you can get the GPS coordinates which is what you really care about. Good luck eyeballing it to see if that color break is 30 miles or 50 miles out! Since it's the same data all that matters is the interface. Hilton and rip charts are more or less the same, I went with rip charts since the owner hooked me up with a free trial. They have a ton of tutorial videos to get you started. I used roffs which gives you an excellent breakdown to simplify things, but it's $60 a pop and that's a good chunk of change for a smaller boat guy to blindly buy one, see that the good water is out of range and it doesn't matter, then try again. $170 for a year for the rip charts or 200 for the hiltons is the better bet.

 

Lots of good info on this string. I have been down this path. I spent a lot of time and fuel with no charts. They do all use the same “free” data it is just what they do with it for you. Roffs has been great, so has Hilton’s and RipCharts. Those are the three I have experience with. I almost exclusively use Hiltons at this point, Thomas Hilton has called and spent an hour with me here and there, emailed back and forth with me, and there are lots of tutorials. I know- same as rip charts. The RT NAV app lets me save charts and then it overlays my boat location while I am out there to see where I am- i know, ripcharts does that too.

Summary- save time and fuel- if you are going to target and try to get better at blue water fishing get SOMETHING. My choice is Hiltons but ripcharts or Roffs may be best for you. If it is a tournament I will use my Hilton’s paired with a Roffs but more and more I am able to use Hiltons and read it right to know what Roffs is going to tell me. Hope that helps- good luck! Feel free to ping me whenever

 

I appreciate all the info and suggestions. Just to wrap up the thread for anyone else who may be in the same boat I'll summarize the options below.

NASA: https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov

• Free

Ripcharts: RipCharts Register

• Standard $99/year
• Premium $169/year

Hiltons: Real Time Navigator Subscription Sign Up
Our membership period is valid for the duration of your subscription and includes 1 region of your choice - you can add additional regions for $30 each;

• 1 Day = 24 hours from the time you signed up. PRICE: $29.99
• 1 Week = 7 days (168 hours) from the time you signed up. PRICE: $49.99
• 1 Month = 30 days from the date you signed up. PRICE: $74.99
• 1 Year = 365 days from the date you signed up. PRICE: 200.00
• Texas to Carolinas - Available for 1 year subscription only. PRICE: $350.00
• Extra regions are available to be added for all of the above options. PRICE: $30 each.

ROFFS: Buy/Download Analysis

• Looks like $70/per 24-hour analysis or purchase a pre-paid plan

Additional input always welcome. Historical views always welcome to show what we're getting...