Method & sources
How our fishing calls work
Every “I’d go” on this site is computed from public marine data, then written up in plain English. This page shows exactly which feeds, how they are weighted, and where our judgement replaces the maths.
Where the data comes from
| What | Source | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Wind, temperature, cloud | MET Norway LocationforecastHourly forecast for the county forecast point, licensed CC BY 4.0. Hourly for about 60 hours, then 6-hourly with the hours between interpolated. | Refetched per conditions cycle, cached a few minutes |
| Swell and wave height | MET Norway OceanforecastHourly significant wave height at the nearest sea point, licensed CC BY 4.0. | Refetched per conditions cycle, cached a few minutes |
| Tide times and heights | Marine Institute (ERDDAP) tide predictionsModelled predictions for the Wicklow and Dublin Port stations. Live gauge readings are not used in the score. | Refetched every six hours, with the last good series kept while it still covers today |
| Conditions narrative | Anthropic (Claude)Writes the plain-English summary only. It never sets the verdict, the score, the lead mark or the window, those are computed before it is called. | Per conditions cycle; the page still works when it fails |
| Coast chart | Drawn by us, no map serviceEach mark sits on its named stretch of coast, never on a pin. No mark coordinates are published anywhere on the site. | Rebuilt with every score |
The verdict card on the home page carries a “Conditions updated” stamp showing when that call was generated, in Irish time. If a feed fails we say the ranking is unavailable rather than showing you an older answer as if it were current.
How a mark is scored
Three factors, wind 40, tide 35, season 25 Each is scored 0 to 1 for your window, then combined. The result is shown as a number out of 100. The season factor also weights diurnal species down at night and nocturnal species down in bright daylight, using the primary target species on each mark.
Wind also caps the whole score. When the wind fit falls short of a good wind, the weighted total is scaled down with it, to as little as 30% of itself in the worst wind, so a hard onshore day cannot be rescued by a good tide and season.
This is a conditions score, not a catch probability. It measures how well the forecast wind, tide, swell and season suit this mark for your window. It does not know whether fish are there, and a perfect score on an empty beach is still a blank.
- 40%WindDirection against the mark facing
- 35%TideWhere the cycle sits in your window
- 25%SeasonWhether the target species is on, weighted by daylight overlap in your window
Component scores appear on the plan and mark pages as Wind · Tide · Season out of 100, e.g. Wind 84 · Tide 92 · Season 90. Swell is not a fourth weight: it modifies the wind term on exposed marks when onshore wave energy is high, and is shown separately as a safety readout.
On this coast most marks face the same way, so scores cluster. When the top marks sit within a point or two of each other the number is not the deciding factor and we say so: the reason is what matters. Treat the score as a tiebreaker, not a verdict.
How a score becomes a verdict word
The number out of 100 is rounded first, then the word is chosen from it. That order matters: it means the word you see always agrees with the number you see, at every value.
- 85 and aboveExcellent
- 70 to 84Good
- 55 to 69Mixed
- 0 to 54Poor
These bands apply to a single mark in a single hour, the mark card and the hourly band. The whole-coast verdict for the day uses a separate, more generous table, because “is the coast worth fishing today” is a different question from “is this mark good at 7pm”.
Wicklow and Dublin are ranked separately
The 20 Wicklow marks and the 17 Dublin Bay marks each carry their own decision, scored on their own model. We never rank a Dublin mark against a Wicklow one, because the two coasts do not share shelter, tide timing or access.
Wicklow marks are walked and verified in person. Dublin Bay marks are researched from documented sources and labelled as such, so you know which kind of confidence you are reading. See editorial standards for how corrections are handled.
Calculated versus curated
Computed from data
- The verdict tier (Excellent / Good / Mixed / Poor)
- Every mark score and its rank for the window
- The best window and the second window
- Tide state, phase and the high/low times inside your window
- Which species are in season this month
Written and reviewed by us
- Mark access, parking, terrain and hazard notes
- Bait, rig and method suggestions per mark
- Species identification, habits and local behaviour
- Safety warnings and who each mark suits
- Regulation values, checked against the Irish Statute Book and EUR-Lex
42 species profiles carry season, bait and method detail. Where a species has a legal bag limit, minimum size or closed season, that value is treated as regulated source data with a citation and a checked date, not as editorial copy.
What this cannot tell you
A model reads wind, tide and season. It does not know that the water coloured up overnight, that a netter worked the beach on the last ebb, or that the fish simply are not there. Forecasts also drift: a call made at breakfast for a midnight window is working from a forecast, not an observation.
Conditions on the shore change faster than any forecast. Check the sea yourself before you commit, and never fish a rock mark alone in swell.
Common questions
- What does the conditions fit number mean?
- This is a conditions score, not a catch probability. It measures how well the forecast wind, tide, swell and season suit this mark for your window. It does not know whether fish are there, and a perfect score on an empty beach is still a blank.
- How are wind, tide and season weighted?
- Three factors combine: wind about 40%, tide about 35%, season about 25%. Each is scored 0 to 1 for your window, then combined into a number out of 100. Swell modifies the wind term on exposed marks; it is not a fourth weight.
- Where does the weather and tide data come from?
- Wind and marine swell come from Open-Meteo. Tide height and phase use Marine Institute gauges, with Dublin Port timing for the Bay coast. If a feed fails we say ranking is unavailable rather than showing stale data as current.
- How does a score become Excellent, Good, Mixed or Poor?
- The number out of 100 is rounded first, then the word is chosen from it, so the word always agrees with the number. Excellent is the top band, then Good, Mixed and Poor.
- What is the difference between Wicklow and Dublin Bay marks?
- Wicklow marks are field-verified with live ranking. Dublin Bay is live too, ranked on Bay weather and Dublin Port tide, scored separately from Wicklow. Howth and Dún Laoghaire pier access is field-verified.
Put it to work
See the daily call
The plan names the mark, the window and what to bring.