FAQ

Questions about Thalweg Fishing.

How conditions, private records, Catch Cards, group outings, and Trip Sharing work.

Using Thalweg Fishing

What is Thalweg Fishing?
Thalweg Fishing is a digital fishing tool for Pacific Northwest anglers. Check weather and water conditions, keep private fishing records, plan trips, and share updates with your group or selected contacts.
Which devices can I use?
Use Thalweg Fishing on iPhone, Android, and the web with one account. Create your account in the phone app, then sign in on the web with the same account. Offline use is supported in the phone app.
Is Thalweg Fishing a social network?
There is no public catch feed, public spot map, follower system, or public profile. Fishalong lets you share updates with members of an outing. Trip Sharing lets selected contacts follow the trip details you choose to share.
Can I customize trip checklists?
Yes. Keep reusable personal checklists for leaving home, getting set up at the water, leaving the water, and getting back to the car. Start with suggested items, edit them, or create your own lists. These personal checklists are not automatically shared with your group or Trip Sharing contacts.

Your records and privacy

Are my fishing records private?
Your catches, notes, photos, and marked spots stay private unless you choose to share them. Thalweg Fishing does not post your catches or fishing spots to a public feed or map. Sharing a Catch Card does not give anyone access to the Journal entry behind it.
Does Thalweg Fishing use my records for its own fishing research?
No. Thalweg Fishing doesn’t use your private fishing records for its own research, reports, or recommendations, or combine them with other anglers’ records for those purposes. Processing your records to provide features you request, such as your Journal or a Catch Card, is separate from company fishing research.
Does private mean my records stay only on my phone?

No. Your account connects your records across your devices. Records can sync and remain private without being posted publicly. The Privacy Policy explains storage, service providers, account access, and deletion.

Privacy Policy
Does joining an outing share my Journal?
No. Joining a Fishalong outing does not open your Journal to its members. You choose which catches and observations to share with the outing. Personal trip recording, Fishalong location sharing, and Trip Sharing are separate choices.

Conditions, sources, and regulations

Where do readings and forecasts come from?
Sources include USGS for river readings; Open-Meteo for local weather forecasts; NOAA and the National Weather Service for tides, currents, river forecasts, and marine weather alerts; Fish Passage Center and DART for fish-passage counts; and state agencies and tribal sources for stocking and hatchery information. Source names and update times help you distinguish readings, modeled forecasts, predictions, and reports.
Will I see the same information for every place?
No. It depends on the gauges, tide stations, and agency sources available for that place. Some places have several readings and reports; others have fewer. Water clarity refers to turbidity readings, not a visual inspection. Tide information uses the stations mapped to that place.
How do preferred-condition alerts work?
Set a minimum, a maximum, or both for river flow, water level, water temperature, air temperature, wind, or fish-passage counts. An alert is triggered when a reading enters the conditions you specified. These are your preferred conditions, not a fishing recommendation. Turbidity readings and tide predictions are separate from these alert controls.
Which fishing regulations are included?

Regulation summaries and change notices cover Oregon fishing information from ODFW and eRegulations. Open the summary for a place or regulation zone, review current and upcoming changes, and follow links to the agency source.

Regulation-change alerts apply to the places you follow in Oregon that are linked to an approved source. Washington and Idaho summaries aren’t included at launch.

Always check the linked official source before fishing; a summary is not a fishing-legality decision.

Does Thalweg Fishing tell me when or where to fish?
You make that decision. Thalweg Fishing shows readings, forecasts, reports, and your preferred conditions alongside your own records. Readings can lag, forecasts can miss changes, and reports can become stale. Source names and update times help you judge the information.
Can I use it outside the Pacific Northwest?

The product focuses on Pacific Northwest fishing. Some sources have wider coverage, but the information available varies by place. Ask us about a river, lake, or fishing spot.

Contact us

Journal and offline use

What conditions are attached to my records?
Your entries keep weather, water readings, and tide information for each entry’s time and place. What’s included depends on the source data available. A missing reading isn’t treated as a measured value.
What can I do without a signal?
In the iPhone and Android app, record catches, notes, and photos, and start, rename, extend, or end a personal trip without a connection. Changes wait on your phone and sync when a connection returns. You can also read regulation summaries already stored for the places you follow. Fresh readings and forecasts need a connection. Offline web use is not supported.
Does recording my trip share my location?
No. Private trip recording does not automatically share your route with contacts or a Fishalong outing. Location sharing is a separate choice with its own controls.

Catch Cards

What can I include on a Catch Card?

Choose a catch from your Journal, then select its photo and the catch, gear, lure, condition, and trip details to include.

Leave location hidden, show a state, region, or water name, or explicitly confirm exact coordinates. Time can stay hidden or show the month or season, part of the day, date, or exact date and time.

Trip titles, water names, and times are separate choices. They can still appear when the catch’s location or time is hidden. Review the finished card before sharing.

Does a Catch Card remove location information from my photo?
The shared image removes GPS and other embedded photo metadata. A photo can still reveal a place through its visible background. On an iPhone with iOS 17 or later, or an Android phone with Google Play services, you can blur or replace the background. On any phone, you can make a card without a photo. Background editing may leave visible clues, so inspect the final card. You can also create a photo-free card on the web.
How do I send a Catch Card?
Share the finished image from your phone or download it from the web for a text, group chat, or social post. It is an image, not a link into your Journal. Recipients can keep or forward the image; changing your Journal or sharing settings does not recall copies they already have.

How Trip Sharing works

What do I share with my contacts?
Set a planned return time and choose the contacts who can follow your trip. You choose what each sharing link shows, including trip status and the location details you allow. You can send a check-in and pause or resume new location updates. Sharing does not automatically open your whole Journal.
When do sharing and overdue alerts begin?
Your trip must reach Thalweg Fishing before contacts can follow it or receive overdue alerts. A trip started offline stays on your phone until it syncs. If you change the return time or end the trip offline, the shared trip still uses the last synced details until that update arrives.
What happens if I am overdue or lose signal?

After your trip has synced, Thalweg Fishing can mark it overdue and notify selected contacts even if your phone has lost signal. New check-ins, location updates, and trip changes still need a connection to arrive.

Notification delivery depends on the services and connectivity involved. Trip Sharing is not an emergency service and does not guarantee message delivery, dispatch, or rescue. There is no satellite-messenger connection or SMS alert service.

Who can open a Trip Sharing link?

People with a Trip Sharing link can view the details allowed by that share without signing in. Send links only to the intended contacts. Revoke the share to end access.

Pausing location sharing stops new location updates; it does not revoke the link or remove information already disclosed. Ending your trip also does not revoke the link. Revocation cannot recall screenshots or other copies a contact has kept.

Does a check-in end my trip?
No. A check-in is an update, not confirmation that the trip has ended. End the trip when you are finished. Trip Sharing does not run recurring check-in alarms or treat a voluntary check-in as clearing an overdue trip.

Fishalong group outings

What can my Fishalong group share?
Schedule an outing, see who has joined, and share catches and observations with everyone in it. The group map shows the meeting point and members’ latest shared locations. Send a Regroup request when you want everyone to meet at that point. You choose whether to share your location or add a phone number members can use to contact you.
Does the group map always show where everyone is?
It shows members’ latest shared locations, which can be delayed or stop updating. In the phone app, background location updates depend on permission and the operating system. On the web, location sharing needs the outing page open and visible. Check each location’s time rather than assuming it is current.
Is Fishalong the same as Trip Sharing?
No. Fishalong is for communication and coordination among people in an outing. Trip Sharing gives selected contacts a view of your personal trip status and the details you choose to share, with an alert if the trip becomes overdue. You can use either feature without opening your private Journal to the group.

Updates and support

How do I get launch updates?

Get launch news, feature news, and special offers from Thalweg Fishing. Send an email request to support to join the list.

Request launch updates by email
How do I report a problem or ask a question?

Tell us what happened, which place or reading was involved, and what you were doing.

support@thalwegfishing.comContact page

Need a direct answer?

Contact us with a product question, a source correction, or a question about a place you fish.

Contact Thalweg Fishing