About 2CastFishing

A focused tool for anglers. We bring together weather, fishing-conditions scoring, tides, regulations, and spot data in one place — without the noise, clutter, or distractions you find on most fishing apps.

Everything on this site is built around three things: helping you decide whether to fish today, know where to go, and stay legal while you do it. If a feature doesn't serve one of those goals, it doesn't belong here.

You will never see a banner ad, a pop-up, an interstitial, or a “sponsored” species recommendation on this site. We are committed to keeping 2CastFishing focused on what it's for: weather, fishing weather, regulations, and spot information for anglers. That focus is the product. Selling your attention to advertisers would wreck it.

If we ever need to keep the lights on, it will be through an optional store, donations, or paid features that don't compromise the experience for anyone — and we'll tell you exactly why before we do it.

2CastFishing is a veteran-owned small operation. The same discipline that drives military service — accuracy, accountability, doing the job right the first time — is what we bring to building this app. When we put a regulation in the database, we verify it from the source. When we make a privacy promise, we mean it. When something breaks, we fix it.

We take privacy seriously. Here's exactly what that means in practice — no marketing fluff:

• No cookies, no behavioral tracking

  We don't set cookies. We don't use Google Analytics, Facebook pixels, behavioral tracking, or anything that builds a profile of you across sites. We don't care what else you do online.

• Privacy-friendly page-visit counts

  We use Plausible to count which pages get visited and which features get used — no cookies, no IP storage, no personal identifiers, no cross-site tracking. It's how we know whether anglers actually open SpotFinder vs ignore it, which shapes what we build next. GDPR-compliant by design and visible to ad-blockers.

• Crash reports, scrubbed of identifiers

  When the JavaScript on a page crashes, we use Sentry to capture the JavaScript stack trace so we can fix the bug. We strip cookies, request bodies, IP addresses, and email fields before the report is sent. No Session Replay, no user behavior recording, no form-input capture — just the stack frame and the breadcrumbs that led to the crash.

• Your location stays on your device

  Your latitude and longitude — whether from GPS or manual entry — are stored locally in your browser. We do not save your location to our servers. We do not log it. We do not have a database of where our users fish.

  Honest caveat: when you use the app, your coordinates are forwarded once-per-request to upstream public APIs (NOAA tides, NWS weather, OpenStreetMap geocoding) so they can return data for your area. Those services have their own privacy policies. We don't retain a copy.

• No accounts, no sign-up

  You can use the entire app without creating an account or handing over an email address. The contact form is the only place we ask for an email — and only so we can reply to you.

• Your saved spots stay yours

  Spots you save on the SpotFinder map are stored only in your browser's local storage. We don't see them. We don't back them up. You can export them to a JSON file you control, import them on another device, or wipe them all from Settings — anytime.

• FishID photos aren't stored

  Photos you upload for fish identification are sent directly to the vision provider (Google Gemini or xAI Grok) for the ID and then dropped. We don't save them, we don't train on them, and we don't keep an archive. Each provider has its own privacy policy for how they handle the bytes during the identification call — we link to those in the FishID page disclaimer.

• North Carolina is now live

  Full NC dataset transcribed from the 2026 NC Recreational Coastal & Joint Fishing Waters Guide (NCDMF) plus the NCWRC inland regulations. Saltwater coverage spans the Outer Banks down to Cape Fear: Red Drum slot 18-27" TL with mandatory harvest reporting, Black Drum slot 14-25" TL with the “one over 25” bull-drum allowance, Striped Bass three-zone complex (Albemarle Sound closed / Central Southern Management Area unlawful-to-possess / Atlantic Ocean 28-31" slot), Cape Hatteras dividing line for Black Sea Bass (15/day N, 7/day S), and the active CLOSED-to-harvest species Flounder + Spotted Seatrout + Tarpon. NC tide stations from Duck (Currituck OBX) down to Wilmington (Cape Fear); NDBC buoys at Diamond Shoals, Oregon Inlet, Duck FRF, and the existing Frying Pan Shoals. Freshwater covers the 6-classification mountain trout system (Hatchery Supported / Wild Trout / Delayed Harvest / Catch & Release / Special Reg / Undesignated), Lake Gaston seasonal striper carve-out (20" min Oct 1 - May 31), and all 15+ named Largemouth Bass lake exceptions. NC is dual-agency: NCDMF (saltwater) + NCWRC (freshwater) — same pattern as Georgia. Reference cards capture the unique three-zone jurisdiction (Inland / Coastal / Joint), the Dec 1, 2025+ mandatory harvest reporting (Red Drum / Flounder / Seatrout / Striper / Weakfish), and the trout classification sign-color system. SpotFinder ships with 54 NCDMF permit reefs covering the full Atlantic coast (Cape Hatteras / Cape Lookout / Southern Onslow Bay / NC Long Bay) plus 7 estuarine sites inside Pamlico, Albemarle, Neuse, and Pungo waters.

• Georgia is now live

  52 GA DNR–verified regulations covering inshore (Red Drum slot 14-23" TL, spotted seatrout, flounder, sheepshead, black drum, tarpon 68" FL, cobia Mar 1 – Oct 31, tripletail), offshore (king + Spanish mackerel, mahi w/ headboat exception, amberjack, black sea bass, red snapper state-vs- federal split, gag grouper, red porgy, anadromous striped bass with Savannah River 27" variant), sharks (small composite, hammerheads 78" FL, prohibited reference), crustaceans + shellfish (shrimp bait/food split, blue crab w/ fluorescent green float rule, oysters, clams), and the full freshwater set including Lake Lanier landlocked striper, Blue Ridge trout, shoal bass (Chattahoochee/ Flint endemic) + the critical May 1 – Oct 31 striped-bass closure on Flint + Chattahoochee + Spring Creek protecting the Gulf-strain anadromous run. SpotFinder ships with 22 named CRD permit reefs + 8 Navy Towers. Georgia DNR is a dual-agency state — CRD (saltwater) + WRD (freshwater) — so saltwater entries link to coastalgadnr.org and freshwater entries link to gofishgeorgia.com.

• South Carolina is now live

  53 SCDNR-verified regulations covering inshore (redfish, seatrout, flounder, sheepshead, black drum, tarpon, cobia, sharks), offshore (mahi, wahoo, kings, Spanish, the snapper-grouper complex, billfish & tunas, amberjack, hogfish, triggerfish), shellfish & crustaceans, and the full freshwater set including the famous Santee Cooper landlocked striper and Upstate trout. SpotFinder ships with 41 SCDNR artificial reefs. The unique SC salt/freshwater dividing line (US-17 default + 10 named river exceptions) is built into the data model.

• Michigan + Great Lakes coverage

  Full MI DNR regulations for Great Lakes and inland waters — Lake Trout management units, Saginaw Bay walleye carve-out, Type 1-4 trout streams, Type A-F trout lakes, Muskellunge + Lake Sturgeon mandatory registration. Plus a Great Lakes water-level chart (replaces the tide chart for MI users) backed by NOAA CO-OPS stations.

• Light mode + theme picker

  A full light theme alongside the original dark one. Pick System / Light / Dark from Settings — your choice persists across visits. Daytime-readable on the boat in bright sun; dark when you're planning at night.

• Add to your home screen

  The dashboard nudges Android + iOS users to install 2CastFishing as a full-screen app on their second visit — no browser bars, instant launch, your tides and scores one tap away.

• Pull-to-refresh + freshness hint

  Swipe down at the top of the dashboard to refresh with a visible “Pull to refresh” banner — and a small “Updated 3m ago” indicator next to the refresh button so you always know how fresh the data is.

• Saved spots, sorted by distance

  A new SpotFinder list shows your saved spots closest-first with explicit miles + bearing per row. Closest fishing hole bubbles to the top when you're trip-planning on the water.

• Marker clustering at low zoom

  Pan and zoom across the whole state without the map bogging down — clusters expand into individual spots as you zoom in.

• Marine chart overlay

  Toggle from satellite to a marine chart view showing buoys, harbors, lighthouses, anchorages, and restricted zones — the same overlay used by OpenCPN and other navigation apps.

• Bathymetry / depth contours

  See ledges, dropoffs, and reef edges on the chart overlay. Structure fishing is depth fishing.

• GPX export for chartplotters

  Save your spot list as a GPX file and import directly into Garmin, Lowrance, or Simrad units.

• Spot search

  Free-text search across name, material, and description — find any spot in the FWC reef registry or your saved list instantly.

• SpotFinder — distance & bearing

  Tap any spot on the map and you'll see exactly how far it is from your current location and which compass heading to run — “1.4 mi · 098° (E)” — instead of just a dot floating on satellite tiles.

• Open spots in Apple Maps, Google Maps, or Waze

  One-tap deep links from any spot detail to your favorite navigation app. No more copying coordinates and pasting them by hand.

• FishID — photo identification

  Snap a photo of your catch and get the species identified with vision AI. Built on Google Gemini 3 Pro with xAI Grok 4 as a backup, plus a “second opinion” button to cross-check tough IDs.

• Bag Limit Tracker

  Per-species daily catch counter that auto-resets at midnight local time. Warns you as you approach, hit, or exceed the legal bag limit for your zone. Manual reset whenever you need it.

• Statewide Florida coverage

  Tides, buoys, weather, and FWC zone-specific regulations work statewide — Atlantic, Gulf, Big Bend, and the Keys. SpotFinder includes both coasts with the full 1,300+ FWC artificial-reef registry.

We've got a long list of features in the pipeline. The short version: we're a two-person team building this in our free time, so shipping is steady but not fast. Every regulation, forecast source, and station we add gets verified before it goes live — quality over speed, always.

Here's what's on the way:

SpotFinder map

• ·

  Nearest boat ramp lookup

  Every spot shows the closest FWC-listed boat ramp and how far it is — so you trip-plan from the ramp, not your house.

• ·

  Trip planner — multi-stop routes

  Chain saved spots into a route, with run distance and bearing between each leg, then send the whole thing to your nav app.

• ·

  Marine Protected Area overlay

  See no-take zones, federal sanctuaries, and Florida aquatic preserves on the map so you don't fish somewhere you shouldn't.

• ·

  Offline tile caching

  Pre-download the map tiles for an area before heading offshore where cell signal drops, so the map keeps working when you need it most.

Conditions & safety

• ·

  Live wind + wave overlay

  Visualize wind direction and sea state across the coast on the map — “is the run to that 30-mile wreck doable today?” in one glance.

• ·

  Red tide & harmful algal bloom alerts

  Banner on the home dashboard when FWC reports an active bloom near your location, especially during Gulf summer-fall season.

• ·

  Sargassum forecasts

  Offshore mat density maps so mahi anglers know where the weed lines are running.

• ·

  Lightning live overlay + proximity warning

  See nearby strikes on the map and get an alert when lightning is within 30 miles of you — the kind of heads-up that ends a trip safely.

• ·

  Sea surface temperature

  Water temp drives species behavior — kings show up around 68°F, cobia at 72°F, tarpon around 75°F.

More states coming

With Florida, Michigan, South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina shipped, here's the rollout order for the rest of the coastal southern states. Each one gets the same treatment: every regulation verified against the state wildlife agency, per-state scoring tuned to local species, NOAA buoys + tide stations registered for that coast, and the state's public artificial-reef dataset ingested into SpotFinder.

• 1.

  Alabama

  Gulf coast starting point — Alabama Marine Resources Division. Mobile Bay, the Dauphin Island offshore fishery, and one of the most aggressive artificial reef programs in the country (the AL Artificial Reef Zone covers ~1,200 square miles).

• 2.

  Mississippi

  Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. Shorter coastline but the barrier-island reefs + Mississippi Sound speckled trout fishery rival anywhere on the Gulf.

• 3.

  Louisiana

  Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries. The most complex regulatory environment on the Gulf — separate Inside vs Outside Waters, charter-specific rules, and per-basin redfish + speckled trout limits. Worth getting right because the LA marsh fishery is one of the most-fished in North America.

• 4.

  Texas

  Texas Parks & Wildlife. Most distinct bag-limit patterns in the country — separate “daily bag” vs “possession” structure for many species, plus per-water rules from Sabine to the Lower Laguna Madre. End of the Gulf-coast rollout.

App & features

• ·

  Saved spots upgrades

  Categories, photos, and (opt-in) sharing with fishing buddies — still local-only by default.

• ·

  Push notifications (opt-in)

  Tide-window alerts, severe weather, prime solunar periods. Default off, you choose what you want.

• ·

  Live cameras

  4G LTE camera feeds at popular spots so you can check conditions before driving to the water.

• ·

  2CastFishing shop

  Apparel and gear — coming when it's ready, not before.

Have something you want to see? Tell us — anglers asking for a feature is the strongest signal we have for what to build next.

Got an idea, a bug report, or a regulation that looks wrong? Tell us. The app gets better when anglers tell us what they actually need.