Fishing intelligence
Every depth map now ranks the species that live there, from the depth and bottom they like, the water the satellites see today, the season and the tide, and draws where to look. Open a map and tap Fish.
Live maps
The tab shows the water today (temperature, clarity, plankton, fishing-zone index), the species ranked for that map, a heat map of where to look and the best spots with reasons.
Species
Depth band, temperature, bottom, bait, best tide and light, and where to read the rules. Peak months are shaded; this month is marked.
Albula vulpes
The grey ghost of the flats: fast, spooky, and the reason people come to the Keys and the Bahamas with a fly rod.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay Everglades, Bahamas
Trachinotus falcatus
The hardest trophy on a flat. Deep body, black fins, impossibly picky.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay Everglades, Bahamas
Megalops atlanticus
The silver king. Six feet of chrome that leaves the water when hooked.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay Everglades, Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle, Bahamas
Albula glossodonta, A. virgata
Bigger and spookier than its Atlantic cousin, on flats with volcanoes behind you.
Regions: Hawaii
Centropomus undecimalis
Linesider. The mangrove ambusher of South Florida and the Gulf.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay Everglades, Southwest Florida
Sciaenops ocellatus
Copper backs and black tail spots over knee-deep grass. The everyman's flats fish.
On live maps: Florida Bay Everglades, Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle, Biscayne Bay
Cynoscion nebulosus
Spotted, soft-mouthed, delicious. Lives over the grass flats you paddle across.
On live maps: Florida Bay Everglades, Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle, Biscayne Bay
Paralichthys spp.
Flat, camouflaged and lying on the sand edge of the channel you just paddled through.
On live maps: Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle
Archosargus probatocephalus
Convict stripes and human-looking teeth. The piling fish of winter.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay Everglades, Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle
Caranx hippos
The bulldog. When the water is boiling under birds, it is usually jacks.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay Everglades, Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle, Bahamas
Lutjanus griseus
Grey snapper. Everywhere there is shade and current, from mangrove roots to the reef.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay Everglades, Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle, Bahamas
Ocyurus chrysurus
The Keys' reef classic: yellow stripe, chum slick, fast light-line fishing.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Bahamas
Lutjanus analis
Pink-red snapper with a black spot, as much at home on a flats edge as on the reef.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Bahamas
Mycteroperca and Epinephelus spp.
The heavyweight of the ledge. Hooks you to the rock in one turn of the tail.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle, Bahamas
Sphyraena barracuda
The winter flats fish nobody plans for and everybody enjoys. Fast lure, wire leader.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay Everglades, Southwest Florida, Bahamas, Florida Panhandle
Caranx spp.
Hawaii's shoreline royalty. Papio in the channel at dawn, ulua on the ledge at night.
Regions: Hawaii
Lutjanus synagris, Rhomboplites aurorubens
The pan snappers of the patch reefs. Easy, plentiful, good eating.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle, Bahamas
Lachnolaimus maximus
Hog snapper. Pig-snouted, pink, and the best thing to come off a reef on a spear.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle, Bahamas
Panulirus argus
Bugs. Not a fish, but the reason half the Keys is in the water in August.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Southwest Florida, Bahamas
Trachinotus carolinus
The best eating fish on the beach, found where the sand fleas are.
On live maps: Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle, Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay
Scomberomorus maculatus
Spots, speed and sharp teeth. The spring and autumn run everybody can reach from a kayak.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay Everglades, Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle
Scomberomorus cavalla
Smoker kings along the reef edge, where the clear water meets the green.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle, Bahamas
Coryphaena hippurus
The blue-water sprinter of the fronts. Marked here only where the index points offshore.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Florida Panhandle, Bahamas
Rachycentron canadum
Brown bomber. Looks like a shark, fights like a jack, eats like a snapper.
On live maps: Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay, Southwest Florida, Florida Panhandle
Paralabrax clathratus
Southern California's kelp bass. Every boiler rock and kelp edge holds a few.
Regions: SoCal Channel Islands, California North
Paralichthys californicus
The flat ambusher of the Pacific sand, a prize for any kayak angler.
Regions: SoCal Channel Islands, California North
Sebastes spp., Ophiodon elongatus
The rockpile fish of the Pacific: colourful rockfish and the big-mouthed lingcod under them.
Regions: SoCal Channel Islands, California North, Oregon Washington
Amphistichus and Hyperprosopon spp.
The Pacific beach fish, available all year to anyone with a light rod and sand crabs.
Regions: SoCal Channel Islands, California North, Oregon Washington
Oncorhynchus kisutch, O. tshawytscha
Summer ocean salmon at the river mouths and tide rips of the Pacific northwest.
Regions: Oregon Washington, California North
Morone saxatilis
The northeast's fish. Lives along every rocky point and sand flat from the Chesapeake to Maine.
Regions: New England, Chesapeake Mid-Atlantic, Carolinas Georgia, California North
Pomatomus saltatrix
Choppers. Nothing on the northeast coast hits harder for its size.
Regions: New England, Chesapeake Mid-Atlantic, Carolinas Georgia, Florida East Coast
Centropristis striata
Blue-black bruisers on every rock pile. Great eating.
Regions: New England, Chesapeake Mid-Atlantic, Carolinas Georgia, Florida East Coast
Tautoga onitis
The structure specialist of the northeast rocks. Crabs, patience, heavy drag.
Regions: New England, Chesapeake Mid-Atlantic
Paralichthys dentatus
Fluke. The doormats lie on the sand edge of the channel in summer.
Regions: New England, Chesapeake Mid-Atlantic, Carolinas Georgia
Cynoscion regalis
Tiderunner. Purple and gold on a spring evening in the back bays.
Regions: Chesapeake Mid-Atlantic, New England, Carolinas Georgia
How it works
Every pixel of a depth map is read for its depth and the shape around it: a shallow flat, a sloping edge, a channel deeper than its surroundings, a drop-off, the shoreline, rough bottom, deep water. Each species weights those classes.
Sea-surface temperature and its 7-day change, the anomaly versus normal, clarity (how far you can see), plankton and the fronts where they change sharply, refreshed daily for every region.
Peak months per region, the species' tide (incoming, outgoing, moving, high, low) read from the tide curve of the nearest station, and the light (dawn, day, dusk, night) from the sun.
Each species has a depth band, a water temperature range, the kind of bottom it hunts (flats, sloping edges, channels, drop-offs, shoreline, rough bottom, deep water), a preference for clear or coloured water, peak months by region and a favourite tide and light. The depth map tells us the depth and the bottom shape at 10 to 20 m resolution; satellites give the water temperature (5 km, daily), clarity and plankton (2 km) and where temperature and colour fronts sit. All of this is multiplied into one likelihood for every pixel of the map.
No. It is a planning aid: where the water and the bottom match what a species likes today. Fish move, bait moves, and your presentation matters more than any map. Treat a high score as "worth a look", not as a promise.
NOAA CoastWatch satellite products: the blended global sea-surface temperature analysis (5 km, gap-free), the temperature anomaly versus the long-term normal, gap-filled chlorophyll and water-clarity fields from the VIIRS and OLCI sensors (2 km), refreshed daily. Fronts are the sharp edges in those fields; the fishing-zone index combines plankton level and the distance to the nearest front, the method fisheries agencies use for potential fishing zones.
Every species page points to the state or federal agency. Seasons, slots and bag limits change every year and differ by zone; we quote the common ones as a reminder, never as the rule. Always check before you keep a fish.
35 species and groups along the US coast, the Gulf, the Caribbean, Hawaii and the Pacific coast: flats and skinny water, inshore, bays and inlets, reef, rock and wrecks, surf and beaches, edges and blue water, pacific coast, northeast coast.
Species preferences are expert estimates from the fisheries literature and angling practice, not measurements at your spot. Likelihoods are a planning aid, not a catch prediction. Regulations change yearly: verify with the agency linked on each species page.