Fifteen free tools for freshwater and inshore anglers. Start with your location to estimate today's water temperature from real weather, then feed those conditions straight into the bait selector. Build your line by species, technique, and water clarity — color included. Estimate fish weight, spool capacity, drag, and trolling depth, plan around the solunar calendar, check today's activity forecast, and dial in hooks, sinkers, knots, rigs, rods, and lure colors — without a single sign-up.
Water temperature drives everything — and you can estimate it from the weather. Enter a city or ZIP to pull real air temperatures, wind, and pressure from Open-Meteo (free, no key), or type in the last few days' air temps yourself. Nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere except the weather lookup itself.
No location yet — the estimate below is running in manual mode. Type a city or ZIP and look it up, or just edit the air temperatures directly.
Water is slow to warm and slow to cool, so today's water temperature mostly reflects the last several days of air temperature, not this morning's reading. This estimator builds a lagged average (yesterday and the day before count most, today counts least), then adjusts for the water body: a shallow pond tracks air closely and warms past it in the sun, a deep reservoir or spring-fed stream holds cold far longer, and moving river water sits in between. The result is a range, labeled as an estimate — expect it to be within a few degrees for the upper layer of most lakes and ponds, and treat it as a starting point, not a thermometer.
Depth matters too: the estimate describes the surface-to-mid layer where most fish are caught. In summer, deep water below the thermocline can be 15–25°F colder than the surface — one reason deep, cold refuges hold fish in a heat wave.
Typically within about 3–6°F for the upper layer of lakes and ponds after several stable weather days. It's least accurate right after a major front, on very windy days that mix the water column, and on spring-fed or dam-release waters, which follow their source more than the weather.
Water holds far more heat per degree than air and mixes slowly. A lake is a giant heat battery: it charges over days of warm weather and discharges over days of cold. That's why a single cold night barely dents water temperature, but a week-long cold snap changes everything — and why fall fishing stays good after the first frosts.
No. If the weather service can't be reached (no signal at the ramp is common), the tool runs fully in manual mode: type the average air temps for today and the past three days from any weather app and you get the same estimate. Your location is never stored — it's only used for the one weather lookup.
Choose your target species and the conditions you're facing — water, wind, weather, pressure, even the moon. Baits are ranked for that exact combination, live bait and artificials side by side, with the color to throw, how to fish it, and why it works.
Every species has a core set of proven baits. Each one is scored against your inputs: baits that shine at your water temperature and around your cover score highest, with depth zone, current, season, and time of day adjusting the order. Temperature matters most — a bass burning calories in 72°F water will chase a spinnerbait that a 45°F bass won't move two feet for.
Wind is a feature, not a bug. A moderate or strong wind blowing into a bank or point pushes baitfish and insects with it, and predators set up facing the buffet — that's when spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and crankbaits shine, and when heavier baits that cast and stay in contact beat finesse. Glass-calm days flip the logic: fish get spooky, and slow finesse presentations tight to cover win. Wind blowing off your bank pulls food away — expect fish to slide deeper or move to the windward side.
Pressure and fronts set the mood. Falling pressure, especially ahead of a storm, is the classic feeding window: fish get aggressive and chase. The day after a cold front — high, rising pressure and bluebird skies — is the toughest window in fishing: slow down, shrink the bait, and pitch tight to cover. Every recommendation includes a retrieve and speed, and the selector slows those retrieves down automatically in post-frontal conditions and speeds them up pre-front.
At night, think silhouette and sound. The selector rates night visibility from the moon phase and cloud cover. On bright full-moon nights fish see well and dark baits (black, black-and-blue) read as clean silhouettes against the sky — topwater over moonlit flats can be electric. On a new moon under clouds it's nearly pitch black down there: baits that thump, rattle, or push water (buzzbaits, big-bladed spinnerbaits, rattling jigs) get found, and glow accents help for walleye and catfish.
Color follows clarity. In clear water, fish inspect a bait closely, so natural baitfish and crawfish patterns win. As water stains, brighter chartreuse, gold, and firetiger help fish find the bait. In muddy water, fish hunt by vibration and silhouette — dark colors like black and junebug, plus rattles and blades, beat realism every time. Heavy rain and runoff shift your effective clarity one step dirtier than what you selected, because that's what the fish are actually swimming in.
Live bait usually out-catches artificials for beginners and for finicky fish in cold water, because it's the real thing. Artificials cover more water, let you target active fish faster, and are required in some waters. The selector ranks both so you can choose based on your regulations and how the fish are feeding.
Fish are cold-blooded — their metabolism tracks water temperature. Below about 50°F most species feed slowly and want a small, slow presentation near the bottom. In the 60s and 70s they chase. The same lure that works in June can be useless in January.
Pick the closest relative: musky behave like pike with bigger baits, white bass like small stripers, and most sunfish species follow the panfish picks. Scale bait size up or down to match the forage in your water.
Builds a complete line setup — main line material, pound test, leader decision — and the line color that makes sense for your water, with the reasoning spelled out.
Line color is a visibility trade-off between you and the fish. Fluorocarbon refracts light at nearly the same rate as water, making it the hardest line for fish to see in clear water — clear and light blue-green lines are next. Green line blends into vegetation and algae-tinted water. In muddy water, fish can barely see any line, so visibility to you matters more.
Color disappears with depth. Water absorbs red light first — red line looks gray by about 10–15 feet down — then orange, then yellow. Green and blue penetrate deepest, which is why blue-green lines stay visible (to you) longest at the surface but tint deep water naturally. Hi-vis yellow or chartreuse braid is the pro choice for line-watching techniques like finesse jigs and crappie fishing: you see the twitch, and a clear fluorocarbon leader keeps the fish from seeing anything.
In clear water or around abrasive cover, yes — braid is highly visible and cuts easily on rock and wood. A 3–8 ft fluorocarbon or mono leader handles both problems. In muddy water or heavy grass, tying braid direct is fine and gives you maximum power to pull fish out.
Braid: thinnest, strongest for its diameter, no stretch, floats — best sensitivity and hooksets at distance. Fluorocarbon: nearly invisible, sinks, abrasion-resistant, some stretch — best as leader and clear-water main line. Mono/copolymer: cheapest, most forgiving stretch, floats — best for crankbaits and topwater where stretch keeps hooks pinned.
Red is the first color filtered out as light passes through water, so red line fades to a dull gray within roughly 10–15 feet in clear water. That makes red a decent low-visibility choice at depth — but at the surface or in the shallows it's as visible as any other color.
No scale? Measure length and girth, release the fish fast, and get a solid weight estimate from species-specific formulas used by state agencies and tournament trails.
Weight grows with the cube of a fish's dimensions, which is why girth — squared in the formula — matters so much. The standard form is weight = (length × girth²) ÷ divisor, and the divisor changes with body shape: a deep, thick bass divides by 800, a long skinny pike by 1,000, and a heavy-shouldered catfish by 750. Two fish of identical length can differ by pounds based on girth alone.
The result is shown as a range, not a single number, because condition varies — a pre-spawn female full of eggs weighs far more than the same fish in late summer. Measure girth just in front of the dorsal fin, where the body is thickest, for the most accurate estimate.
Within about 10% for a fish in normal condition — close enough for bragging rights and release records. It won't replace a certified scale for a state record, and very fat or very skinny fish will land at the edges of the range shown.
Wrap a soft tape (or a piece of line you measure later) around the fish at its thickest point, usually just ahead of the dorsal fin. Keep it snug but don't compress the body, and measure a released fish quickly and wet-handed to protect its slime coat.
Roughly — average-condition fish follow predictable length-to-weight curves — but length alone can't tell a chunky 18-incher from a spawned-out one. Girth is what makes this estimator trustworthy, so it's worth the extra five seconds.
Your spool is rated in yards of one line diameter. Enter that rating and the diameter of the line you actually want to spool — the calculator converts it, because capacity follows diameter, not pound test.
A spool holds a fixed volume of line. Capacity scales with the square of diameter: halve the diameter and the spool holds roughly four times the yardage. That's the whole trick behind braid. A typical 20 lb braid is about 0.009" thick — the diameter of 6 lb mono — so a spool rated for 150 yards of 12 lb mono swallows around 265 yards of 20 lb braid, while being far stronger.
Quick braid-to-mono equivalents worth memorizing: 10 lb braid ≈ 2 lb mono diameter, 20 lb braid ≈ 6 lb, 30 lb braid ≈ 8 lb, 50 lb braid ≈ 12 lb. Going the other way, stepping up to thick mono or fluoro eats yardage fast — check before you spool a small reel with 20 lb fluoro.
Yes, on most reels. Braid is expensive and a full spool is rarely needed — 100–150 yards of braid over cheap mono backing is standard. Backing also stops braid from slipping on the spool under load, a classic cause of "broken drag" that isn't.
Both are printed on the spool itself or the reel box, usually as yards/pound-test (e.g. 150 yd / 12 lb). Line diameter is on every line package and the manufacturer's site, in inches or millimeters (0.30 mm ≈ 0.012").
The formula assumes line packed at rated tension with no gaps. Soft hand-winding, thick knots, and line memory all waste space. Wind braid on under firm tension — ideally with the line running through a wet cloth — to get close to the calculated number.
Enter your line's pound test and get your strike and full drag settings. Set with a scale once, and you'll never guess — or lose a fish to a locked-down or feather-light drag — again.
Drag should slip before your line, knots, or rod reach their limit — and the weakest link is almost never the line's printed rating, it's the knot, which typically costs 10–30% of line strength. Setting strike drag at 25–30% of pound test leaves a safety margin while still applying enough pressure to tire a fish. "Full" drag — pushing the lever or button past strike — is reserved for stopping a fish headed for cover, and even then shouldn't exceed about half the line's rating on a sustained run.
Set drag by pulling line through the rod guides with a spring or digital scale, rod at a fighting angle. Pulling straight off the reel by hand under-reads, because guide friction adds real resistance when a fish runs.
Snap-offs on the hookset and at boatside, pulled hooks, and broken rods — the drag exists to be the fuse in the system. Most "the line just broke" stories on fresh line are actually drag set by feel at 60–80% of line strength.
Weak hooksets, fish reaching cover before you can turn them, and endless fights that exhaust fish you plan to release. If you can't gain line with the drag slipping slightly on your hardest crank, you're close to right.
As a fish takes line, the spool diameter shrinks and effective drag rises — the same setting pulls harder on a half-empty spool. Ease off slightly during long runs, and tighten only to stop a fish short of structure. On lever-drag reels that's exactly what the strike-to-full range is for.
Estimate how deep your lure is actually running based on line type, amount of line out, boat speed, and what's on the end of the line — so you can put the bait in front of suspended fish instead of guessing.
Four things: line drag, weight, speed, and line out. Thinner line cuts the water with less resistance, so the same lure runs deeper on 20 lb braid than on 17 lb mono — and wire or lead core sink by their own weight, roughly 5 extra feet per color (10 yards) of lead core at typical walleye speeds. More line out means more depth up to a point, after which line drag flattens the curve. Faster speed lifts most rigs; slower lets them sink.
The classic reference is the rule of thumb for snap weights: at 100 feet of line out, a 2 oz snap weight on braid at 2.5 mph runs near 40 feet. Deep-diving crankbaits add their own rated dive on top of line angle, which is why a long lead of thin braid is the cheapest way to fish deep without weights.
Troll over a flat, known depth and let line out until the lure ticks bottom, noting the line-counter reading. That calibration point for your exact setup is worth more than any chart — record it in a notebook by lure and speed.
Small differences add up: spool fill changes effective diameter, one reel's counter may be off, and the outside rod on a turn travels faster and rises. Calibrate counters by measuring out 100 feet on land, and expect spread on turns.
Yes — it's the cheapest depth you can buy. Dropping from 17 lb mono to 20 lb braid can add 20–30% more depth to a diving crankbait at the same line-out, because there's simply less line for the water to push against.
Enter a date and your location's coordinates to get sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset, the moon's phase and illumination, and the solunar major and minor feeding periods for the day — plus a 1–4 fish activity rating.
If you've already looked up a place in the Location & Water Temperature tool above, this fills in its coordinates. Otherwise, coordinates for any lake are one search away ("lake name + coordinates").
Major periods last about 2 hours, centered on the moon passing overhead (upper transit) and directly underfoot (lower transit, roughly 12 hours 25 minutes later). Minor periods last about 1 hour, centered on moonrise and moonset. The day's activity rating rises when the moon is new or full (its illumination near 0% or 100%) and when a major period overlaps sunrise or sunset — the combination long considered the strongest window in solunar charts.
All times here are computed in your browser from standard solar and lunar position approximations and shown in your local time zone. They're accurate to a few minutes for the sun; moon times from this simplified model can be off by up to roughly 10–15 minutes — good enough to plan a trip, not to navigate by.
The roughly two-hour window centered on the moon being directly overhead or directly underfoot (on the opposite side of the Earth). Knight's theory holds that fish and game feed most actively then. Minor periods — about an hour around moonrise and moonset — are the second-best windows.
Solunar charts weight the days around the new and full moon heaviest because sun and moon gravitational effects align (spring tides in salt water) and because Knight's original tables scored those days best. In fresh water the practical effect is mostly brighter nights (full moon) changing feeding times — another reason the rating is a guide, not a guarantee.
Search the lake name plus "coordinates," or long-press / right-click the lake on any map app — it will show the latitude and longitude. Enter longitude as a negative number anywhere in the Americas and Europe west of Greenwich.
One score for today's fishing, 0–100, built from the factors that actually move fish: barometric pressure and its trend, the front you're in, wind, water temperature, and the moon. It shows you which factors are helping and which are hurting, so you can plan around the bad ones.
Pressure and fronts weigh most. A falling barometer ahead of a front is the classic feeding window; the high, rising pressure behind a cold front is the toughest fishing there is. Water temperature sets the metabolism ceiling — no pressure pattern makes a 45°F bass chase like a 72°F one. Wind helps up to a point: a light-to-moderate chop breaks up the surface, pushes food toward windward banks, and makes fish less wary; a gale just makes fishing miserable. The moon is the smallest factor in the score on purpose — it's a tiebreaker, not a driver. (Not sure of today's pressure or temperature? The Water Temp tool at the top of this page fetches both from your location.)
80+ (excellent) is rare and worth dropping plans for. 60–79 (good) is a normal good day. 40–59 (fair) means fish are catchable with slower, tighter presentations. Under 40 (poor), expect a grind — target the dawn/dusk windows and the deepest, heaviest cover near feeding areas.
Absolutely — the score describes average fish activity, not your results. Post-frontal days (the lowest scores) still produce for anglers who downsize, slow down, and fish tight to cover. Local knowledge of one good spot beats a generic forecast every time.
They answer different questions. This forecast rates the whole day. The Bait Selector assumes you're going anyway and ranks baits for the exact conditions — on a "poor" day it steers you to the slow finesse and live baits that still get bit.
Pick your species and how you're baiting up — get the hook style and size range that match. Too-small hooks tear out or get swallowed; too-big hooks kill bait action and get ignored.
Hook sizing runs backwards, and it trips up everyone once. In the plain numbers — 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1 — the bigger the number, the smaller the hook: a size 10 is a tiny panfish hook, a size 1 is a solid bass hook. Then the scale flips into "aught" sizes, written 1/0, 2/0, up to 8/0 and beyond — and there the bigger the number, the bigger the hook. So the full ladder runs …6, 4, 2, 1, 1/0, 2/0, 3/0… with 1/0 just one step above size 1. Visually, each step changes the hook's gape (throat width) by roughly 1–2 mm — a size 6 gape is about 1/4", a 2/0 about 7/16", a 5/0 about 5/8". Sizes also vary a little between brands and styles, so compare gape to your bait: the gape should be wide enough to fit the bait and still expose the point.
Circle hooks for anything fished on a slack or unattended line (cut bait, live bait on the bottom, kids' rods): the fish hooks itself in the corner of the jaw as it swims off, which means fewer gut-hooked fish and easier releases — just reel down, never jerk. J hooks where you set the hook yourself on a tight line: jigs, plastics, and actively worked baits.
Usually a hook that's too small for the bait, or a bite detected too late — the fish swallows the bait whole before you feel anything. Size up, keep the line tighter, and switch to circle hooks for bait fishing; all three cut gut-hooking dramatically.
Less than size and sharpness. Black nickel and bronze disappear fine; red hooks are marketed as "looking like blood," which is unproven — but they're harmless. What matters: chemically sharpened points, and wire thickness matched to your drag. A fine-wire hook penetrates at low pressure but can straighten on a big fish with heavy drag.
The right weight is the lightest one that does the job: holds bottom, keeps a float upright, or keeps a rig down trolling. Too heavy kills bait action and bite detection; too light never reaches the fish.
Egg and no-roll sinkers slide on the line so a fish can take bottom bait without feeling the weight — the default for catfish and Carolina-style rigs. Bank sinkers are cheap and fine for still water. Pyramid sinkers dig their corners into sand and gravel and hold in current and surf where round weights roll away. Bullet weights are streamlined cones that slip through grass and wood for Texas and Carolina rigs. Split shot crimp on for float rigs and subtle depth tweaks — small ones (BB, 3/0) fine-tune a bobber so only its tip shows. Drop-shot weights pinch on with a clip and are meant to snag and tear off, saving the rest of the rig. Note: several states and federal refuges restrict lead tackle (especially small sizes that birds ingest) — tungsten and tin are drop-in alternatives where lead is limited.
You should feel a distinct "thunk" and then steady contact as you slowly lift the rod. If the rig keeps drifting downstream or the line angle keeps increasing, you're under-weighted — step up half an ounce at a time. If you can't feel bites at all, you're probably over-weighted.
A float is balanced when the weight under it almost — but not quite — sinks it: the tip sits low with just a little showing. Lying flat means too little weight (or your weight is resting on bottom, which is fine if that's where the fish are). Fully submerged means too much weight, or a fish is holding your bait up — watch for that one, it's a bite.
No — past about 45 ft, returns diminish and heavy weights deaden everything. In deep water the better fixes are thinner line (less water drag) and slower boat drift. Weight is the last lever, not the first.
Every knot weakens line — the only question is by how much. Pick your line and what you're connecting, and get the knots worth tying, ranked, with the strength each one keeps and a step summary.
Percentages are the line strength a well-tied, wetted, properly seated knot typically retains in published break tests — your mileage varies with line brand, diameter, and how carefully you tie. Three habits matter more than knot choice: wet the knot before cinching (friction heat is fluorocarbon's enemy), seat it slowly and evenly, and retie after every few fish or any nick or wind-knot. A perfect Improved Clinch beats a sloppy anything.
The Palomar. It takes ten seconds, works in mono, fluoro, and braid, keeps ~95% of line strength, and is nearly impossible to tie wrong. If you learn a second, make it the Double Uni for joining a leader.
Braid is slick and has no memory, so knots designed for mono (especially the plain clinch) can slide right out. Use braid-proven knots — Palomar, Uni with extra wraps (6–8 instead of 4–5) — and leave a longer tag end. A tiny drop of super glue on the finished knot is a common belt-and-braces fix.
For braid-to-leader connections you'll cast all day, yes: it's the slimmest strong connection there is, so it flies through guides without the tick-tick-tick of a Uni bump, and it tests at or near 100% of the leader's strength. For a leader you'll tie once from a boat, the Alberto gives you 90% of the benefit at a tenth of the tying time.
Pick a proven rig and get the full build: every component with sizes, the order to assemble it in, and how to fish it. All of these are tied with components most tackle boxes already hold.
Every rig is an answer to three questions: where should the bait sit (on bottom, just above it, suspended at a set depth), how much should the fish feel (nothing — sliding weights and leaders — or your direct contact through the rod), and what will it snag on (weedless hooks and streamlined weights in cover, exposed hooks in open water). Once you see rigs that way, you can adapt any of these: shorten a Carolina leader in cold water, upsize a slip-float stop for deeper sets, swap a jig for a plain hook and minnow. The assembly order listed always works from the reel outward — main line first, terminal hook last.
Shorter (12–18") in dirty water, heavy cover, and cold water — fish are close to the weight and less leader-shy. Longer (24–36"+) in clear water and for finicky fish, where the bait needs to move and drift naturally, well away from the hardware.
No — only where something spins or twists the line (Carolina rig, spinning baits, trolled spoons) or as a stop for a sliding weight. Every extra connection is a weak point and a bit of visible hardware; skip swivels on Texas rigs, drop shots, and jig rigs.
Most tackle shops sell pre-tied Carolina, catfish, and high-low rigs. They're fine for occasional use, but tying your own lets you control leader length, hook size, and line quality — and a pre-tied rig's weakest knot is one you didn't tie. For the rigs you fish weekly, tie your own.
Rod specs decoded: pick your species and technique and get the power, action, length, and line/lure ratings to shop for — and whether spinning or casting gear suits it better.
Power is how much force it takes to bend the rod — ultralight through extra-heavy — and it should match the weight of your baits and the size of your fish. Action is where the rod bends: fast-action rods flex mostly in the top third (sensitive, powerful hooksets — for jigs and plastics); moderate-action rods bend through the middle (forgiving, keeps treble hooks pinned — for crankbaits). A medium-heavy/fast is the classic bass jig rod; a medium/moderate is the classic crankbait rod. Length trades leverage for control: longer casts farther and moves more line on the hookset, shorter is more accurate around docks and trees.
For most freshwater fishing: a 6'6"–7' medium-power, fast-action spinning rod rated for 6–12 lb line and 1/8–3/8 oz lures. It handles panfish to bass, live bait to small lures, and it's the combo every other rod you buy later will specialize away from.
Neither; they split by bait weight and accuracy. Spinning gear casts light baits (under ~1/4 oz) farther, skips baits under docks, and never backlashes — the finesse and beginner choice. Baitcasting wins with heavier baits and line, pinpoint casting, and winching fish from cover. Most serious anglers own both.
They're the design ratings: line rating (e.g. 8–17 lb) is the line range the rod is built to protect and load with, and lure rating (e.g. 1/4–3/4 oz) is the bait weight it casts best. Fishing far outside either range is how rods break on hooksets and casts — the blank is only guaranteed inside its ratings.
Pure color physics: tell it your water clarity, the depth you're fishing, the light, and what the fish are eating — and get colors that still read as that forage at that depth. (The Bait Selector above picks the bait; this one picks what color it should be.)
Water absorbs light wavelength by wavelength. Red disappears first — a red lure looks gray-brown by about 15 ft in clear water. Orange goes next (~25 ft), then yellow (~40 ft). Green and blue penetrate deepest, which is why the underwater world is blue-green and why blue, green, and UV-reactive colors still show color in deep water. Two consequences anglers use: at depth, match brightness and silhouette, not surface color; and don't fear red hooks or baits in the shallows, where red is fully visible and reads as blood or gills. At night, color nearly stops mattering — fish see contrast. Black and other dark colors win because they draw the sharpest silhouette against the dim sky, which is why black topwaters and black-and-blue jigs are night standards. In muddy water, the same logic applies in daylight: dark silhouettes, then bright chartreuse and white, which reflect the most available light.
Most freshwater game fish have color vision tuned to the blue-green-yellow range and many see into the near-UV — they likely notice contrast and brightness more than exact hue. That's why two shades of "shad" rarely matter, but natural-vs-flashy and light-vs-dark matter a lot.
A natural baitfish pattern (white/silver or translucent shad), green pumpkin (the universal crawfish/vegetation color), and black-and-blue (muddy water, night, and heavy cover). Add chartreuse for stained water and you're equipped for roughly 90% of conditions.
Glow genuinely helps at night and in deep, dark water — charge it with a light and it adds visibility fish can use, especially for walleye and catfish. UV-reactive finishes reflect UV light that penetrates deeper than visible reds, and many fish can see it; the honest verdict is "plausible and sometimes clearly better" rather than magic.
Last updated: October 20, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Fishing Calculators ("this site"), operated by David Pagola of North Carolina, handles information when you visit. The short version: the tools on this site run entirely in your browser, and we do not collect, store, or sell personal information.
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Fishing Calculators was built and is maintained by David Pagola of North Carolina. It started with a simple frustration: good fishing decisions — which bait, which line, how much drag, how deep the lure is really running — come down to a handful of formulas and judgment calls that shouldn't require a paid app or a spreadsheet.
The site now offers fifteen free tools: a location-based water temperature estimator that pulls real weather, a bait selector that scores roughly sixty baits against species, water temperature, clarity, wind, fronts, barometric pressure, and even moon phase for night fishing, a full line builder with color guidance, and calculators for fish weight, spool capacity, drag settings, and trolling depth — plus solunar fishing times, a daily activity forecast, and hook, sinker, knot, rig, rod, and lure color selectors. Every tool explains the reasoning behind its answer, because a number you understand is worth more than a number you merely trust.
Everything runs in your browser, free, with no accounts and no sign-ups. If a tool helped you — or got something wrong — David would like to hear it: dpagola00@gmail.com.
The fastest way to reach the site is by email:
Email: dpagola00@gmail.com
Corrections are especially welcome — if a formula, a recommendation, or a regulation note looks off for your waters, say so and include the details. Questions about specific fish, lakes, or trips are hard to answer individually, but errors and tool suggestions go straight into the work queue. There is no contact form on this site; the email link opens your own mail app, and nothing is collected through this page.
Last updated: October 20, 2026
Everything on Fishing Calculators is general fishing guidance based on widely used formulas, published tables, and common angling practice. It is provided for planning and education, and it is not a guarantee of results: fish behavior varies with the water, the weather, fishing pressure, and a hundred variables no calculator can see.
Water temperature, fish weight, trolling depth, spool capacity, sunrise/moon times, and activity scores on this site are modeled estimates with real error ranges, which each tool labels. Solunar feeding periods in particular are a long-standing angling tradition that has not been scientifically proven. Verify critical numbers — especially fish weight for records and any measurement that matters — with a proper instrument.
Always check your local fishing regulations before you fish. Seasons, size and creel limits, gear and bait restrictions (live bait, lead tackle, hook counts, and multi-hook rigs are restricted in some waters), and license requirements differ by state, province, and individual body of water, and they change. Nothing on this site overrides a regulation, and a tool recommending a bait or rig does not make it legal where you are.
Fishing involves water, weather, boats, and sharp hooks. Check marine and weather forecasts, wear a life jacket where conditions call for one, and use ordinary care. This site provides no safety certification or instruction.
The location lookup uses the Open-Meteo weather service, and advertising is served by Google AdSense; this site is not responsible for the content or availability of third-party services.
Last updated: October 20, 2026
By using Fishing Calculators ("this site"), operated by David Pagola, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the site.
This site provides free fishing calculators, selectors, and educational guidance. Tools run in your browser; the site is offered "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose. We may change, add, or remove tools at any time without notice.
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To the maximum extent permitted by law, David Pagola is not liable for any damages arising from use of this site or reliance on its estimates and guidance, including lost fish, gear, time, or fines resulting from a user's failure to check applicable regulations.
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute arising from this site will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in North Carolina.
These terms may be updated; the current version will always be posted here with its date. Questions: dpagola00@gmail.com.