Also sea fish species and baits for use in the sea are slightly different as well, in terms of behaviour and characteristics. So any fish species and baits that is created for sea fishing, needs extra lines adding.

Hightide = 9

This line specifies what time the first high tide will be on the 1st January. There are two high tides and two low tides a day, each high tide is around 12 hours apart, as is each low tide. So in the example above, on January the first, there will be a low tide at 3am, high tide at 9am, low tide at 3pm and a final high tide at 9pm. This is because the 9 setting corresponds to the first high tide on January the first (9am in the morning). The rest of the tide values do not need specifying, as these are easily calculated by fishsim.

TideInc = 45

This line specifies, how the tides are adjusted each day in minutes. For example, on Jan 1st, the first high tide will be at 9am, on Jan 2nd, it will be 9:45am, Jan 3rd 10:30am etc.. Each day has 45 minutes added. You can specify any value in minutes. It's a crude way of re-creating tides, but it is roughly close what happens in reality, for the purposes of fishsim, it's adequate.

Tidedev = 72

This specifies tidal deviation in terms of inches. Again it's crude, but adequate for this purpose. This means that at high tide, the water depth will be 72" ( 6 ft ) deeper than at low tide. When depths are added to sea pegs, the depths at low tide added. Therefore, if you were to be pedantic, the angler would effectively be standing in 6 ft of water at high tide, with this example. But it's a sim, which is totally safe, and of course you don't get wet either.

Given this example, if you was fishing at midday on Jan 1st, then the tide would be decreasing, as high tide was at 9am and the next low tide is 3pm, with midday being straight in between. The all the depths would be 3 ft higher, and steadily reducing ( 3 ft. is half of 6 ft ). At 3pm. the depth would be exactly the same as what is entered with the peg editor, as it is low tide. After 3 pm, the depth would start rising again gradually up until 9pm where it would be 6 ft higher, and so on... This rising and falling motion occurs realtime while fishing.

With sea venues, there is a status bar shown on the fishing screen, while fishing, which shows whether the tide is rising ( arrow facing right ) or falling ( arrow facing left ). It also shows how high the tide is, with the blue status bar. When the box is totally blue, it is at high tide, when it has no blue, it is at low tide. The tidal box is shown in the bottom right corner of the screen, where the sunrise/sunset is normally positioned for freshwater venues.

Other .ven file considerations

The temperature models for fishsim 2 don't work well with sea temperatures. The closest setting at the moment for the tempmodel line is 6. Also, the tempfact line may need setting to something like 1.2 or even 1.3 on deep sea venues to artificially increase the temperature. The fishsim temperature algorithms work so well with extreme deep water, as it only back calculates weather and temperature starting from 3 years before the venue is fished for the first time. This is what the "generature temperature and weather data" part does, it fast simulates every minute from three years prior to the present date to work out what the temperature of the venue at different levels will be. With extreme deep water, three years unfortunately isn't long enough, plus the amount of agitation and "mixing" that goes on in the sea is not accounted for. To give a deep sea venue the best chance possible in this case set the Starttemp to something high, like 15 - 30 degrees.

0 = Freshwater venue ( default )
1 = Sand Beach
2 = Estuary
3 = Pier
4 = Rock
5 = Mud beach
6 = Shingle beach
7 = Sand / rock patches
8 = Deep water
9 = Wreck

If the seatype line is not in the [water] section a freshwater venue is assumed.

All the above is self-explanatory, you will just need to decide which "type" the peg corresponds closest to, and enter the code. For example, if an estuary venue was being created, then the line

SeaType = 2

Should be added to the [water] section of the .peg file.

Other .peg file considerations

The DPRATIO line will probably need altering for deeper water, as will the RTOP and XD lines, so that casting say, 300 ft will look realistic.

It is important to set the SALINE line, otherwise it is unlikely that any sea fish will be caught, also, this will stop freshwater fish such as carp etc.. that are accidentally placed in sea venues from being caught.

The PH settings don't have to be used, however, it seems a waste of a "factor", just to ignore it. So this can be used to represent any factor you wish. You may need to create special objects that adjust the value of the PH ( or whatever you want to use it as ), and also, set the stk files for the venue with PH lines and settings.

Like the venue set the TEMP in the [Water] section to something like 1.2 to give the deeper water a chance to warm.

Peg editor considerations

With sea venues, use the flow editor to represent tidal movement, especially on rough sea venues. Estuaries and calm sea venues can have light flow, but beaches with rollers etc.. you will need to set the flow speed to be very fast, both the surface and under flow settings.

TIDE 80 -30 150 2

This line specifies how the species reacts to the height of the tide. It is similar to the rest of the factors in the species files with an ideal, minimum, maximum, and tests. The line above shows that the species is most active at 80% high tide ( whether coming in or out ), with a minium of -30% and max of 150%, two tests are made.

TIDEIN 40
TIDEOUT 80

These two lines can be added to specifiy the importance of the tide direction to the species, again in terms of a percentage. In the example above, there is a 40% chance of catching this fish, when the tide is coming in, and an 80% chance when the tide is going out.

On top of these, there are simple percentages that can be applied to each of the sea types ( listed above ) to represent how much the species likes ( or dislikes ) the sea type. These tests, as with tide are all additional to the tests that freshwater fish venues go through. Tests like temperature, oxygen content, etc.. are all still valid with sea fish. Below is an example, 100 % means the fish really likes it, 0% means the fish hates it, etc..

BEACH 40
ESTUARY 20
PIER 40
ROCK 50
MUD 15
SHINGLE 20
SROCK 60
DEEP 100
WRECK 80

Other factors

It is probably wise to include WDEPTH ( water depth ) lines for sea fish, as this is a factor when sea fishing. By specifying these lines, it will cause fish to come in and out with the tide, as in real life.

Also, with sea fishing, the time of year for certain species can be crucial, for example, cod fishing from the shore is best in winter, whereas mackeral are probably summer fish. Therefore a series of MONTH lines can be added to represent the popularity of a fish at any given month. These can also be added to freshwater fish too, if you wish. Below is an example, that probably could correspond to a cod.

MONTH 1 100
MONTH 2 90
MONTH 3 70
MONTH 4 60
MONTH 5 50
MONTH 6 40
MONTH 7 30
MONTH 8 20
MONTH 9 40
MONTH 10 60
MONTH 11 80
MONTH 12 100

Make sure with sea fish the ideal salinity value is set to high, otherwise we could find people throwing cod into freshwater venues, and them being caught !

With bites, it's probably better for sea venues to set the RUN value for the fish high, so that bites can be detected easier in rough water. Sea fish won't bother so much with fiddly bits and bobs like course fish, they are much bolder and less cautious. An ideal line would probably be :

RUN 70 90 80

This will produce a running bite that will be recognisable at long range.

Also, most sea fish, eat fish, and a lot use smell as a way of detecting food.

If a bait is to be made into a sea bait or a freshwater bait, or both then the [CLASS] section of the bait tkl file should contain the following two lines :

Freshpop = 10
Seapop = 100

These lines above will make a bait that is 10% effective in freshwater, and 100% effective in the sea. If the lines are not included in the bait files, then the following are assumed :

Freshpop = 100
Seapop = 0

At present, apart from the sea rod, there is no specific sea tackle, so this will also be needed. Firstly for beach fishing and fishing in rough water a lead will be needed that is heavy enough ( 3 oz + ) to cast. Also, if fishing a beach venue with a strong surf, then the lead will need to be made to grip the sand or bottom, so that the current doesn't bring it back in. A GRIP line can be added to the bombs tkl file. A GRIP value of 100 means the weight will not budge in current, a value of 50 will mean, it will probably move in a strong current, but be fine in a weak current, like a river. A value of 0, and it will be swept along with any current.

Also, the current ledger bite detectors in FS2 are suited to calm freshwater. In version 1.12 and lower, this isn't an issue, but in version 1.13 the bite alarms for example, will drive you crazy if used in the sea, and the swing tip looks like a metronome. Therefore, a ledger bite detector which is suited to the sea would be handy. There will be a special rod rip detection as well for sea fishing in version 1.13 and above.