Your Guide to the Wild

Is tomorrow worth going?

One score, 0 to 100, for whether a fishing trip in Washington is worth taking, built from the weather, the fish, the season and the water. And when the engine can’t tell, it says so.

Check a water How the engine works

0–40Waitdo not launch, or do not bother

40–55Watchnot yet — watch it

55–70Preparego if you want to, eyes open

70–85Goworth the trip

85–100Outside Edgea rare day — go now

Scored, then fished

All field notes

What the engine called before the trip, and what the water did about it.

An angler in a green jacket and cap holds a stringer of three trout at the foot of a concrete boat ramp, with docks and the lake behind him.

Field note · 8 October 2026A lowland lake, western WashingtonRainbow trout, coastal cutthroat trout

Calm water with pines and a dry hillside on the far shore under a clear sky

Field note · 3 October 2026A lowland lake, western WashingtonRainbow trout, coastal cutthroat trout

TA on the boat holding a smallmouth bass with both hands, face blurred, dry grass and a rocky bank behind

Field note · 2 October 2026A big reservoir in the Columbia BasinLargemouth bass

Mike Outside · essayNot a Kayak DayOn judgment, limitations, and knowing when to leave the kayak on the truck Field Notes · trip reportTwo Mornings, Seven TroutA calm, crowded morning and a wet, empty one on the same lowland lake, with a rig change in between.

What it weighs

A hundred points, three questions.

Every trip gets scored against the same three questions. The weights aren’t arbitrary: they’re the engine’s actual point allocation.

of 100 points60

Is the trip worth taking?

Whether the fish are there, whether the water has a history of producing, whether the season is timed right, and what the weather is about to do.

Fish availabilityCatch historyRun timingWeather

of 100 points25

Can you actually fish it?

A perfect bite you can’t launch into is worth nothing. Crowding, ramp conditions, and how hard the day will be on you and the boat.

PressureLaunchabilityRetrieval

of 100 points15

Does it fit what you asked for?

When the engine proposes trips, how close each one comes to the water, species, time and platform you asked for. When you name the trip yourself, it fits by definition, and this part drops out.

LocationSpeciesTimePlatform

Safety comes first — always

Two things can overrule a good score outright. If the air quality is hazardous, or the conditions are genuinely dangerous, the engine returns Wait no matter how well the day scored. A 27-mile lake full of hungry smallmouth is still a no in a 35-mph gust.

Out there

Every score starts as a real day on the water.

The engine isn’t a lab project. It’s built from trips taken across the Columbia Basin, Puget Sound, and the coast: logged, scored, and checked against what actually happened. Videos when there are videos.

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