Chris Karls, of Champlin, has been an entrepreneur for some time, initially working to help clients build and launch websites. With the mobile app popularity explosion, he's diversified his skills and offerings to meet market demand. Although he deals largely in the paperless world of cyberspace, it was a stack of papers that led him to his newest venture.

The stacks of papers so dear to Chris' heart are his father, Ed Karls', hunting journals.

"From 1956 to about 1974 he kept these journals," Chris said. "He would keep track of his and his buddies' hunting trips, their time at camp, who was in the hunting party, where they hunted... everything."

His father would write down his memories and meticulously type them out on an old-fashioned typewriter. Chris said he and his brothers make an appearance in some of the journals as they began hunting with their father in their teens. The journals are a treasured keepsake for Chris and his brothers.

Chris found inspiration in these hunting journals as they gave birth to a new idea for a mobile app. After many hours of research and development, Chris launched FishMobi earlier this summer.

"It's finally a way to prove your fish stories aren't just tall tales," states Chris.

The I-phone application brings the Karls family's hunting journal tradition into the 21st century for fishermen. The app allows anglers to instantly record information about every catch. Some of the features of the app include taking a photo, recording length, weight, type of fish and a vast amount of other data from lure type to water clarity, depth and temperature. FishMobi takes over from there, automatically recording GPS coordinates, time and date, current weather conditions, humidity, wind direction, lunar information and more.

All this information is collected and organized in a digital journal of sorts, offering a section for customized notes, for example, Chris says, who was along on the fishing trip or details on reeling in the catch. Every catch is displayed in the fish finder and links back to details information entered in the electronic journal.

It even features a "brag" button that will send out an email to friends or post the photo to your Facebook site - without giving away your secret fishing location, of course.

"FishMobi is a powerful tool for anglers who want details information about where, when and how they caught their fish," said Chris. "Through the GPS tracking with Google maps it sets the waypoint of favorite spots for the next fishing trip. It can make you a better fisherman."

Chris utilizes the I-phone's "shake" feature as an on/off function he says, making it easier for anglers to access it while they have their hands full with the rest of the business of fishing.

While developing the app, Chris did extensive research on the facets of information that would be most desirous for anglers to record. Users can customize how much of the information they would like to record making the app entertaining for the casual user as well as a performance improvement tool for the serious angler.

FishMobi is available for $2.99 on the I-Phone 3G, 3GS, 4 and I-Pod Touch running version 4 software or later. Chris' goal is to begin work on developing a similar hunting type of app.

To view the orginal article written by Mindy Mateuszczyk, visit Champlin/Dayton Press.

Media interested in a demonstration or who wish to interview Chris about his invention can contact him through the Signals Studios offices at 763-232-1922, or email him at fishmobi@signalsstudios.com.