How to Read a Fishing Report (and Actually Use It)

Start with the score, then read why

Every water page on this site opens with an activity score from 1 (Tough) to 5 (Excellent). It is arithmetic rather than a judgment. The day starts at 3 and moves a point at a time: up for a falling barometer when heavy rain is unlikely, or for cloud and a moderate wind of 6 to 15 mph when the water is in its warm band; down for a rising barometer under a clear sky, a top forecast wind over 22 mph, a high of 98F or more when the water is in its hot band, or a high of 25F or less when it is in its cold band. The result is held between 1 and 5. Read the one-line reason printed beside it, because the same 3 can mean a quiet, ordinary day or a good sign cancelled out by a bad one.

Where each number comes from

Air temperature, wind, cloud, rain chance and pressure come from the Open-Meteo forecast model at the water's coordinates: they are model output, not a station on the bank. Lake levels and river flows come from a named USGS gauge where one exists, and the USGS labels recent readings provisional and subject to revision. Tide times on coastal pages are NOAA predictions for a named station, which NOAA says cannot include the effects of wind, rain or runoff. Water temperature is a seasonal estimate for that type of water, labeled "est." on the page, not a thermometer reading. The sources block at the bottom of each water page names the gauge and tide station and links to them.

How our data works →

The level, the windows and the species ratings

On a lake with a gauge, the report gives the level, how far it sits above or below the conservation pool, and the change over the past week; on a river it gives the flow in cubic feet per second and says whether it is steady (within 5% of a week earlier), rising or dropping. Where the gauge matches the river, a panel also places today's flow among the USGS percentiles for that date. The solunar windows are the moon's transits, rise and set calculated for that water, and they do not change the score. Each species rating starts from that species' usual activity for the month and moves half a step with the day's score.

Recent days and the week ahead

Under the report, the water log rebuilds the previous three days from that day's readings, and the week planner scores today and the next six days with the same rules. The planner runs on forecasts, so its later days deserve less trust than tomorrow; check again before a long drive. Angler reports, reviewed by a person before they appear, sit beside the log and are the only part of the page written by someone who was on the water.

See a water log in action →

A worked example

Take a hypothetical August day on a Texas reservoir such as Lake Conroe, where the estimated water temperature sits in the hot band above 80F. The forecast high is 94F, the barometer moves less than 1.5 hPa between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., and the top wind is 9 mph. None of the rules fires: the high is below 98F, pressure is steady and the wind is moderate, so the score stays at 3 and, because the water is hot, the verdict reads "Fair. Fish early or late." The level line might say the lake is 0.70 feet below pool and easing over the week. The species ratings equal their usual August values, since a 3 neither raises nor lowers them. Everything beyond that, where to start and what to throw, comes from your knowledge of the lake.

Lake Conroe daily report → · Water temperature by species →

What the report cannot tell you

The score applies the same rules to every water, so it knows nothing about a local hatch, a bait migration or where the fish were yesterday. The estimated water temperature follows the calendar and will not register a cold snap. A forecast model can miss wind in hilly terrain, a gauge describes the water at its own location, and a tide table is a prediction. Four questions are worth asking of any fishing report, ours included: does it say which date it describes, does each number name its source, does it say which figures are measured and which are modeled or estimated, and does it change when conditions change?

All covered waters → · Our data methodology →

Common questions