Frequently Asked Questions

Thalweg is a privacy-first fishing intelligence platform that consolidates real-time water conditions, weather forecasts, and tide predictions for Pacific Northwest anglers. It also includes a private catch logging feature called "The Locker" where you can securely record your fishing trips.

Thalweg is built for privacy-conscious anglers in Oregon and Washington who are tired of checking multiple government websites before every trip. Whether you fish for steelhead, salmon, trout, or bass, Thalweg brings all the environmental data you need into one dashboard.

Yes, Thalweg is completely free to use. We do not charge subscription fees or display advertisements. The core features including the dashboard, catch logging, and maps are available at no cost.

Thalweg is currently available as a web application that works on any modern browser (desktop and mobile). Native iOS and Android apps are in development and will be released soon. Sign up for our newsletter to be notified when mobile apps launch.

Thalweg (pronounced "TAL-veg") is a geographic term for the line of deepest points along a river channel. It represents the path where water flows fastest—and often where fish are found. We chose this name because it captures our focus on river conditions and fishing intelligence.

Your data is protected by Row Level Security (RLS) at the database level. This means:

• • Only you can access your catch logs and personal data
• • Even our team cannot view your private fishing data
• • All data is encrypted in transit and at rest

No. Your catch logs are 100% private and cannot be viewed by other users. There are no public profiles, leaderboards, or sharing features. We built Thalweg specifically to keep your fishing data private.

Row Level Security (RLS) is a PostgreSQL database feature that enforces access control at the row level. When you query the database, RLS automatically filters results to only return data that belongs to your user account. This provides security at the database level, not just the application level.

No. We never sell, share, or provide your personal fishing data to third parties. We use third-party infrastructure providers (Supabase, AWS) to host the service, but they do not have access to your data content. See our Privacy Policy for complete details.

Yes. You can export your complete catch history at any time. You can also delete your account and all associated data through your account settings. Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.

We aggregate data from trusted government agencies and open data providers:

• • USGS NWIS: Water flow, temperature, turbidity, gage height
• • NOAA Weather: Forecasts, barometric pressure, precipitation
• • NOAA CO-OPS: Tide predictions for coastal areas
• • Open-Meteo: Additional weather visualization data

Water conditions from USGS are updated every 15 minutes. Weather forecasts are refreshed hourly. Tide predictions are loaded daily. The dashboard shows the last update time for each data source.

The map feature supports offline use with PMTiles technology—you can download map regions for areas without cell service. However, real-time data (water conditions, weather) requires an internet connection to fetch updates.

Thalweg covers rivers and waters in Oregon and Washington where USGS and NOAA have monitoring stations. This includes major rivers (Columbia, Willamette, Deschutes, Skagit, Skykomish, etc.) as well as many smaller streams and coastal areas.

The Locker is our privacy-first catch logging feature. It allows you to record your catches with details like species, location, gear used, and photos. When you log a catch, we automatically capture an environmental snapshot of conditions at that time—helping you understand what conditions work best.

Thalweg works on any modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) on desktop or mobile devices. For the best experience, we recommend using the latest version of your browser with JavaScript enabled.

Bug reporting will be available when the app launches. We will provide multiple channels for reporting issues at that time.

The Thalweg codebase is currently private, but we believe in transparency. We openly document our technology stack, data sources, and privacy practices. We may open-source portions of the codebase in the future.

If data appears outdated, it could be due to: (1) USGS or NOAA station outages, (2) your browser cache, or (3) temporary connectivity issues. Try refreshing the page. If the problem persists, check the station status on the USGS or NOAA websites.