On This Water

Transparency

How the score is built

The brief answers three questions: where on this water, when the tide is moving, and why — tied to a gauge, not a vibe. The calendar is the same engine stretched across a month.

7.4OF 10

Example

not a bite guarantee

Observed

  • NOAA CO-OPS tides, observed water, station wind and water temp
  • NWS hourly (U.S., including Puerto Rico) and Open-Meteo (Bahamas, Mexico, Seychelles)
  • USGS GNIS names — pins snapped to Feature IDs when the hydro layer has them
  • NOAA ENC wrecks and FKNMS legal polygons

Inferred

  • Habitat × tide: flood the grass, drain the creek, wrecks on the fall
  • Wind setup/setdown: observed minus predicted. On Texas this often is the tide
  • Species thermal windows and seasonal peaks
  • Bahamas and Mexico tide is a modeled M2 — labeled, not a gauge

Method tax

  • Fly and kayak pay above ~16 mph
  • Wade needs standing water
  • Skiff loses skinny flats at dead low
  • Jetty likes midday current. Spin is what you do when the day does not allow the fly
  • Offshore (troll / deep jig) wants wind a boat can stand and hides the grass marks on purpose

Official layers we still want live

  • TPWD coastal ramp inventory via TxGIO (data.geographic.texas.gov). TPWD Coastal REST still requires a token. Access pins here are curated from the published launch directory.
  • Texas GLO Beach & Bay Access from glo.texas.gov. Hub item is cited; a public REST query was not open without their token.
  • NPS Padre Island driving/camping closures — nps.gov/pais. We cite the rule; the park API needs a key.

Scores are 1–10. They are not bite guarantees. A 9 in August heat still means go early. A 3 after a norther still holds fish in the gut if you already know the water.