How to Read Your FishIntel Report

What is in a FishIntel report?

Every morning FishIntel builds a report for the water you picked. It reads the satellites, the buoys, the National Weather Service marine forecast and the weather and wave models for your zone, finds where temperature, color and current line up, and writes it up the way a captain would tell you at the dock. It is written for your zone, not for the whole coast.

What does the day rating mean?

The rating is about the day on the water, not the fishing. It reads EXCELLENT, GOOD, FAIR or POOR from the seas, the wave period, the wind and any marine advisory, for the daytime window (6 AM to 8 PM). The day takes the worse of the seas and the wind. A single hour over 20 knots counts as FAIR on wind when that day's National Weather Service forecast stays under 20 knots with no advisory, and counts in full on days the forecast does not reach.

Period matters because the same height rides differently. A long swell under 8 ft can ease the seas by a step. Short, steep chop of 3 ft or more holds the day to FAIR at best, and steep seas of 5 ft or more make it POOR. A marine advisory or warning makes it POOR whatever the numbers say.

The reason line under the rating names the figures that set it. On the sample day the zone wave read was 3.7 ft every 4.9 seconds, with east to southeast wind near 20 kt and a Small Craft Advisory until 8 PM. The advisory alone makes the day POOR. Run through the rule, that reads:

POOR: Small Craft Advisory until 8 PM (National Weather Service)

A rating is a start. You still read the forecast and the advisories, and you still hold the numbers against your own boat. A rating never tells you it is safe to go.

How do I read the three spots?

The report ranks up to three places inside your zone’s circle, best first, where several favorable things stack in the same water: a temperature break, a color change, a current edge. If a spot sits outside your circle, the report marks it “outside your zone.” A much longer run has to be clearly better than a nearer spot to outrank it.

Beside each spot you get the run in nautical miles from a named landmark, or from the center of your zone, and the spot’s center in degrees and decimal minutes, ready for a plotter. Paid reports can also be exported as GPX.

On the sample day, spot one was the ESE drop-off seam, 11.4 NM out, where a temperature break, a chlorophyll front and an eddy overlapped on 239 ft of water. Spot two was South salinity-edge water, 30.8 NM out, a current edge, an eddy and a salinity gradient on deeper bottom. Spot three was the Southwest eddy seam, 40.5 NM out, with low confidence because it rested on an eddy and a salinity gradient only, and the report said so. The report tells you how much weight each one has, so read the reasoning and not just the order.

How to run them. Start at the nearest. Work the edge itself rather than the middle of either side, and fish both sides of it. When the water changes, a color line moves, the temperature drops off or the current slacks, move to the next spot instead of waiting on the first.

What do the charts show?

Trust the charts on your dashboard. Each one is dated, and it shows the newest satellite pass there is. The pictures in your email are a snapshot: they carry the words “Current as of” and a time, and they do not update. Satellite color is often a day or more old under cloud, so the report states how old each layer is.

What do the species labels mean?

Each species gets HIGH, MODERATE or LOW for the day, with a short reason: the water temperature against that fish’s band, the season and how the water is set up today.

Calibrated means a temperature band was checked against a season of observed water from the fishery. In the Florida Keys that is Mahi, Wahoo and Sailfish, from 100 days of observed sea surface temperature recorded between 4 April and 27 July 2026. Drafted means the band comes from published fisheries sources and has not yet been checked against local water. Every report says which one applies to your zone, so treat a drafted band as a careful starting point and lean on the season as much as on the number. Some fish, like swordfish, are not driven by surface temperature at all, and the report says that instead of inventing a band. The species pages show the bands.

What should I do the night before and the morning of?

1. Night before

   open Upcoming Days and read tomorrow’s rating and its reason line.

2. Night before

   open your dashboard and read the live marine alerts, wind and seas for your water, then hold them against your own boat’s limits.

3. Morning

   when your report lands (paid plans: by 6 AM your time), read the Conditions Summary first (the sample report calls it The Short Version), then the three ranked spots.

4. Morning

   check the age of the charts. Anything the report calls old gets less weight.

5. Before you leave the dock

   put the three spot centers in your plotter and pick the nearest as your first stop.

6. Before you keep a fish

   confirm current seasons, size limits and bag limits with the agency.

Where do I ask a question?

Paid readers can ask the FishIntel assistant on Telegram about their own zone in plain language, for example “where’s the bite today?” or “how far is the Gulf Stream edge?” It answers from your zone’s report, not from a general chatbot. Set it up under Account in your dashboard.

Everyone can write to us at support@fishintel.ai or use the contact page.