Methodology
Every number on the site derives from a public source or an explicit computation. Here is exactly how, how often it updates, and where it falls short.
Water conditions
Water temperature, discharge, gage height, and turbidity come from USGS NWISstreamgages (instantaneous values, polled a few times a day). Ten years of daily values establish the day-of-year norms behind “warmer than typical.” Provisional USGS data is used as-is and may be revised. A waterbody with no nearby gauge shows conditions estimated from weather, clearly labeled.
Weather & pressure
Air temperature, wind, and barometric pressure come from NOAA / NWS (api.weather.gov), cached by gridpoint. The 6-hour pressure trend is computed from the station’s recent observations.
Solunar
Moon phase, rise/set, transits, and the major/minor feeding periods are computedfrom the waterbody’s latitude/longitude and the date — no paywalled tables. Times are shown in an approximate local zone.
Stocking
Stocking events are aggregated from state fish & wildlife agencies, normalized into one schema and de-duplicated by content hash. Each event links its agency source. Waterbody names are matched to the registry by name + county; unmatched events still publish on state pages.
Lure recommendations
Recommendations come from a rules matrix (species × water temp × clarity × season → lure archetype), where every rule carries a citation to a published guide, manufacturer chart, or established reference. When exact conditions have no rule, the engine widens the bands and says so.
Download the underlying data on the data page, or see how to cite it.