What is Fish or Pass?
A daily report card for Southern California saltwater fishing: a score out of 100 and a one-word verdict for the water you can reach.
What is Fish or Pass?
Fish or Pass is a paid web app that gives Southern California saltwater anglers a daily read on whether the fishing is worth the trip. For a species and a patch of water, it gives a Bite Score out of 100 and a one-word verdict: Catching, Fishing or Pass. It is built and operated by Set Sale Marine in Newport Beach, California.
Who is it for?
Southern California anglers deciding whether to go and where, on a private boat, on a charter, or from a pier or the shore. Boat owners can save their boat: the score stays the same, and water they cannot reach that day goes grey on the chart.
What does it cover?
The Southern California Bight: Point Conception to the Mexican border, the Channel Islands and the offshore banks. It grades bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna, yellowtail, dorado, calico bass, rockfish, and marlin daily, and has port guides for Santa Barbara, Channel Islands, Marina del Rey, San Pedro, Long Beach, Newport, Dana Point, Oceanside, and Point Loma.
How does the Bite Score work?
It weighs 6 signals for each patch of water and each species: recent activity, water temp and breaks, structure and depth, kelp and bait, sea conditions, and tide and current. They come from real, mostly public sources, including ocean-temperature and weather models, tide and surface-current data, seafloor charts and recent fishing reports, and every read carries a confidence indicator.
How is it different from a fishing report?
A fishing report says what was caught. Fish or Pass treats that as one signal among several, and also reads the water itself, so you get a read on every patch of water, including ones nobody reported from. It also marks its own homework: yesterday's card is graded against what the boats actually caught, and the last week of those grades is on the home page.
What does it cost?
The Angler plan is $149 a year, with a 7-day free trial on a first subscription. A card is taken up front, and cancelling during the trial costs nothing. A demo on the home page needs no account: it is the real chart and report card, running on a sample day from a couple of weeks back.
What can't it know?
It grades conditions, and it does not promise a fish. It cannot see bait that showed up an hour ago, a boat that just worked a spot, or how you fish on the day. It is not a safety or navigation tool and does not replace NOAA marine forecasts, charts or your own seamanship. For regulations and marine protected areas, CDFW is the authority, and the Coronado Islands are Mexican waters that need a Mexican licence.
See today's read on the water
Start a free 7-day trial. Card up front, nothing charged until it ends.