Everything about seasons, limits and closures on this site is republished from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. We reproduce what WDFW printed, we do not interpret it, and we never invent a season we cannot find.

Regulations change at any time, including in-season emergency rules that can close a water the same day. A page here may not reflect a change yet. Before you fish, confirm the rules on the official WDFW pages linked at the bottom of every page. If this site and WDFW disagree, WDFW is right.

You are responsible for holding the correct licence and endorsements and for fishing within the rules that actually apply where you are.

Bite windows, scores, run comparisons, alerts and condition readings are calculated from public observations — hatchery counts, creel reports, tides, river flow and weather — and from reports anglers post here. They describe what the data suggests. They are not a guarantee that fish will be there, that the weather will hold, or that conditions will be safe, and the methods behind them change as we improve them.

Decisions about your own safety on the water — weather, bar crossings, river levels, boat handling — are yours, and this site is not a substitute for a marine forecast or your own judgement.

Counts and catch rates come from agency reports and are stored as published. Agencies revise their own numbers, and a figure here can change when they do. Anything we derive from those numbers — a change since the last report, a comparison between years — is computed from the published figures and shown as our calculation, not theirs.

• You must be at least 13 years old to create an account.
• Keep your sign-in details to yourself; you are responsible for activity on your account.
• Give an email address and phone number you actually control — that is where alerts go.
• Do not use another person's identity, or a username meant to impersonate someone.
• Do not scrape, hammer or attempt to break the site, or resell access to it.

You can close your account yourself at any time from Settings → Delete account.

Catch reports, photos, videos, comments, messages and anything else you submit (“your content”) remain yours. We do not claim ownership of them.

So that we can run the site, you give WA Fish Forecast a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, resize and re-encode, display and distribute your content on and through the service, and to show public reports, photos and videos when promoting the service — including on WA Fish Forecast’s own social media accounts — credited to your username, with a link back to your report where the platform allows one. That includes using a photo or video from a public report inside a short video we make, alongside our own narration and fishing information about the water you caught it at. We do not read your written report aloud or put your words in it; what is said is the facts of the report — who caught what, where, when and on what. Only public reports: one marked private is never used this way. We may let the providers that run the site for us (hosting, storage, moderation) handle your content only to do that work.

Your reports make the forecast better. You also allow us to analyse the details in your reports — species, number caught, water, date, time of day, tackle and conditions — and to combine them with other anglers' reports and public data to build and improve forecasts, scores, statistics and models. What we derive this way is aggregated and does not identify you or reveal an exact spot, and it may be kept and used after the original report is deleted.

When you delete a report or your account, it is taken off the site. Copies can remain for a short time in backups, in a moderation record where the law or a safety issue requires it, and in aggregated figures that no longer identify you. A promotional post already published on another platform is not ours to unpublish from your account — deleting a report stops us using it again, and we will take down a post we made from it if you ask and the platform still allows it.

You confirm that you have the right to post your content — that the photos are yours or you have permission to share them, and that the people in them are happy to appear.

A report marked private is never shown to other people, including its photos and the place name you gave. You allow us to include its catch details in aggregated, de-identified figures in the same way as public reports, without ever showing the report or its location.

• False reports. Made-up catches, someone else's fish posted as yours, inflated counts, or reports posted to game the leaderboard or points.
• Sexual content, graphic images of people, hate, harassment, threats or bullying.
• Other people's personal information — their home, their plates, their contact details — or photos of people who have not agreed to be posted.
• Advertising, spam, or links posted to sell something.
• Anything that infringes someone else's copyright or other rights.
• Content that encourages breaking fishing regulations or other laws.

Photos of fish, including cleaned and bled fish, are fine — that is what the site is for.

We screen photos and video frames automatically before they are published, and readers can report anything that gets through. We may hold, hide or remove any content, and remove points or leaderboard standing earned from it, when we believe it breaks these terms or puts someone at risk. We are not obliged to review everything that is posted, and we do not endorse what anglers post — reports are the views of the people who post them.

If you think something of yours was removed by mistake, email hello@wafishforecast.com and a person will look at it.

We may suspend or close an account that posts false reports, breaks the posting rules repeatedly or seriously, attacks the site, or impersonates someone. Where it is safe and practical we will tell you why. If a paid account is closed for breaking these terms, the subscription is cancelled and the remaining period is not refunded unless the law requires it.

Angler+ is optional. Everything the site publishes about fish counts, regulations and conditions stays free, as do the catch reports anglers post; a subscription pays for being told when to go without having to look.

On the website, payment is taken by Stripe, which acts as our payment processor. Entering your card means you also accept Stripe's terms, and your card details are held by Stripe rather than by us — we never see them. In the iPhone and Android apps, Angler+ is usually bought through the App Store or Google Play and charged to your Apple Account or Google account under Apple's or Google's terms; when the app sends you to the website instead, it is paid by card through Stripe as above.

• Free trials. On the website, a trial needs a card, converts to the plan you chose when it ends unless you cancel before then, and is available once per person and card. In the apps, trials and who can have one are set by Apple or Google.
• Recurring billing. Whichever plan you pick renews automatically until you cancel. A season pass renews annually; a monthly plan renews monthly.
• Cancelling. Cancel any time. Settings → Angler+ shows how yours was bought. If it was paid by card, cancel it there; if through the App Store, cancel in your iPhone's Settings → your name → Subscriptions; if through Google Play, in the Play Store under your profile → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions. Access continues to the end of the period you have already paid for, and you are not charged again after that. We do not pro-rate part-used periods.
• Failed payments. If a renewal fails, Stripe — or Apple or Google, for one bought through their store — retries. If it keeps failing, the subscription lapses and the account returns to the free plan — your saved spots and history are not deleted.
• Price changes. If a price changes, it applies from your next renewal, never mid-period, and you will be told before it takes effect so you can cancel.
• Refunds. Ask. If the site was broken, or you were charged for something you did not get, we will sort it out. Beyond that, refunds are at our discretion and statutory rights are unaffected. For a subscription bought through the App Store or Google Play, refunds are handled by Apple or Google — ask them.
• Taxes. Prices are shown excluding any sales tax that may apply; any tax is added at checkout.

Cancel before deleting your account. Deleting the account does not automatically cancel a live subscription, and we would rather you were not billed for a service you have closed.

Angler+ members and free accounts can share a personal invite link. When someone who is new to WA Fish Forecast creates an account through that link and makes their first Angler+ payment, the person who invited them and the new member each receive a credit worth one month of Angler+ at the monthly price.

• Card on file. Credits are applied only to an account with an active Angler+ subscription and a card on file. They come off your next bills, and your subscription then renews and is charged as usual unless you cancel. If you invite a friend before you subscribe, your credit waits until you do.
• Google Play and the App Store. If you subscribe through Google Play or the App Store, the month is given by moving your next billing date there back by 30 days instead of as a credit. A friend who subscribes this way qualifies once their first payment has been taken after any free trial. The App Store allows two such extensions a year; a month beyond that is given when the App Store next allows it.
• Limits. You can earn up to 12 months of credit in any 12 months. Credits have no cash value, cannot be transferred, and are not refunded if you cancel.
• Fair use. Inviting yourself, creating accounts to earn credits, or sharing your link through spam does not qualify. We may withhold or remove credits that were not earned under these terms, and may change or end the program; credits already applied stay applied.

Alerts tell you when new fish counts, creel reports or stocking reports are published for waters you follow, based on the data we have at the time. How often they arrive is up to you, and the rules that decide what is sent may change. Alerts depend on email, text and push delivery, which we do not control end to end. We send them promptly, but we cannot guarantee that every message arrives, arrives in time, or that fishing is as good as the data suggested — do not rely on an alert as your only source for a decision that matters.

Text alerts are part of Angler+. They stay off until you switch them on and confirm your number with a code we text you. The program is WA Fish Forecast alerts: texts about the waters and species you have asked to hear about — new fish counts, creel reports and stocking, and the best time to go.

• How often. Recurring, and at most one alert text a day. Switching texts on also sends a one-time code and a confirmation.
• Cost. We do not charge per text. Message and data rates from your carrier may apply.
• Stopping. Reply STOP to any text to cancel. We send one confirmation and nothing after it. Reply START to resume. You can also switch texts off on your alerts page.
• Help. Reply HELP, or email hello@wafishforecast.com.
• Your number. Texts go only to US and Canadian mobile numbers, and only to a number you control.

How signing up works, and an example of every kind of text we send, are on the text alerts page. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. How we handle your number is set out in the privacy policy.

WA Fish Forecast is independent. It is not endorsed by, affiliated with or operated on behalf of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA, USGS or any other agency whose public data it uses.

Fish counts, creel reports and regulations come from WDFW; tides from NOAA; river flow from USGS; weather from Open-Meteo; and map tiles from OpenFreeMap. We do not control those sources, and they can be late, revised, incomplete or unavailable.

Some tackle has a Shop link to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, WA Fish Forecast earns from qualifying purchases; it costs you nothing extra and does not decide what anglers report using. Links to other sites are provided for convenience, and we are not responsible for them.

Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.

The site is provided as-is. Data sources go down, agencies change their formats, and pages can be unavailable or incomplete. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for losses arising from using the site, from missing or delayed alerts, from content other anglers post, or from relying on information here instead of the official source — including any citation, fine or penalty resulting from fishing outside the rules.

WA Fish Forecast is owned and operated by WA Fish Forecast LLC, a Washington limited liability company. “We”, “us” and “our” in these terms mean WA Fish Forecast LLC.

These terms can change; the date at the top says when they last did, and we will tell account holders about changes that matter before they take effect. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Washington.

Questions go to hello@wafishforecast.com. See also our privacy policy.