Methodology

How our fishing conditions score works

This site combines current government water observations, tide predictions and National Weather Service forecasts. Gauges are treated as sensors attached to canonical waters. The score is a transparent planning heuristic, not a prediction that fish will bite.

Sources

Freshwater measurements are drawn from U.S. Geological Survey monitoring stations. Coastal tide and station observations are drawn from NOAA CO-OPS. Weather forecasts and alerts are from the National Weather Service. State agency datasets may add waterbody identity, species, stocking, access and regulation evidence when an adapter is available.

Publication gates

A water must have validated real-world observations before publication. Monthly pages require sufficient historical samples. Species pages require confirmed evidence. Missing facts remain unavailable rather than being invented.

Canonical waterbodies

Monitoring gauges are sensors, not the primary SEO entity. Multiple USGS or NOAA sensors can be attached to one canonical river, lake, reservoir or coastal water. Public water pages use the best available current sensor while preserving source provenance.

Species evidence

Species pages are indexable only when the species is stored as confirmed evidence for that water. Condition-compatible suggestions are useful planning hints but do not create species SEO pages.

Changing scores

The site stores recent daily score snapshots so visitors can see whether planning conditions improved or deteriorated. Scores remain planning heuristics, never catch guarantees.

Source licensing and attribution

Each automated data source is tracked with provenance and applicable reuse conditions. Conditional state datasets remain disabled until required license terms are accepted. Government observations and forecasts are credited to their originating agencies; site scores are derived planning products, not official agency products.

Today versus tomorrow

Fishing pages now state whether today, tomorrow, or neither has a meaningful conditions-based advantage. The comparison explains the relevant weather and water context instead of asking readers to interpret score cards themselves.

Numbers in seasonal context

When a qualified historical baseline exists, current streamflow is compared with the calendar-month median and historical band. A raw CFS value is never labeled high or low without that baseline.

Species evidence

Only species confirmed for the water from stored evidence are shown as targets. Broad temperature compatibility no longer produces public species recommendations.