Methodology

Flows, levels and water temperature

Stream flow, stage and water temperature come from the U.S. Geological Survey instantaneous-values service, read at request time and cached briefly. A water page shows only gauges that sit on that water; a gauge on a nearby but different river is never substituted, however close it is. Lake and reservoir levels come from the same service where a gauge exists. When a sensor has stopped reporting, the page says so rather than showing its last value as current.

Regulations and seasons

Rules, seasons and special regulations are those published by the state fish and game agency: in Idaho, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. We summarise and link; the agency’s own text is the rule. Check the current regulations before you fish, because emergency closures can change faster than any summary.

Access sites and boat ramps

Public access sites, ramps and facilities come from the state agencies’ published datasets, synced on a schedule and shown with their source on each site page. Photographs are from public sources and are credited where they appear. Facilities can change between syncs; treat an amenity as likely rather than guaranteed.

Hatches and forage

Hatch windows are maintained as a reviewed reference dataset for each water, built from entomological references, agency surveys and the observations of the guides and shops cited on the reports. They are seasonal expectations, not live observations: a hatch chart says when a bug is likely, and the day’s report says whether it is happening.

Fish species

Species profiles and the waters each species is associated with are compiled from agency stocking and survey records and published references, reviewed before publication. Where a species is present but rare, the profile says so.

Daily fishing reports

Reports are synthesised nightly from the published reports of guides and fly shops together with the instrument data above, and each one links its sources. How that is done, and how corrections work, is on the editorial policy page.

Guides, outfitters and fly shops

The directory is built from public licensing records and each business’s own website, and it says on each listing what has been verified. A listing with little more than a name is kept out of search indexes until it has real content, so a thin page never stands in for the business. Owners can claim and edit their listing.

How often things update

• Flows and temperatures: at request time, cached for minutes.
• Reports: nightly, when a cited source has changed meaningfully.
• Access sites and species data: on a schedule, with the date shown on the page.
• Regulations: as the agency publishes them; always confirm with the agency.

Time-sensitive pages show their own updated date. If a figure looks stale or wrong, tell us.