RiverFinn
Features
Everything a stretch of river can tell you.
Each of these is in the app today. None of them invents a number. Everything in the first two groups is free on every account; the third group is RiverFinn Pro.
What the river is doing
Free on every accountOn every water RiverFinn covers, in every state it covers — no selection, no previews and no locked stretches.
Live streamflow
The latest discharge from the gauge on the reach, checked every 15 minutes, with the station's own observation time and a link to it. A gauge that stops reporting is labelled stale, never guessed.
RiverFinn Conditions Score
Flow, trend, temperature and wind against the reach's species profile, with the plain-English reasons behind the number. Only when enough is measured; a hard limit like a 70 °F reading caps it.
Flow trend and flow-vs-normal
Rising, falling or stable over the last six hours from the same gauge, and how today's CFS compares with the station's long-term record for this date where enough years exist.
Water temperature, where a verified thermometer reports
From a thermometer on the water, with its own observation time — about two thirds of RiverFinn's reaches have one. The rest say "no live reading" rather than modelling a number from the air.
Weather
National Weather Service forecast for the reach: highs, lows, wind and rain chance for today and the weekend.
Condition history
Seven days of measured water temperature, including each day's high, plus the recent condition record — so today's reading has something to sit against.
Map, status and nearby waters
Every RiverFinn water on one map with its status and any closure, and the ones near you ranked by conditions balanced against distance inside the drive preference you set. Distance is measured in a straight line — RiverFinn has no routing data and never claims a drive time.
Get directions
One tap opens the reach's verified coordinates in Apple Maps on iPhone or Google Maps on Android — never a guessed spot, and never the gauge instead of the water. The button appears only where RiverFinn has verified coordinates.
Saved waters
Keep the rivers you fish: 3 on the free plan, unlimited on Pro. Your safety notifications, weekend outlook and Finn all start from them.
Data source transparency
Every screen can show where each number came from, when it was observed and when RiverFinn last checked — with a link to the official page so you can check RiverFinn against the source.
Seasonal fisheries
On a steelhead or salmon river the fish decide the day, not the gauge, so RiverFinn rates the water rather than the fishing: flow, temperature and weather with their own read, plus documented run timing and its source where an agency publishes one. RiverFinn has no run-arrival data and never guesses at it.
Ask Finn
A fishing guide that answers from RiverFinn's data about any water RiverFinn covers, and tells you when something is not measured. 5 questions a day on the free plan.
Whether it is safe and legal to fish
Never part of a subscriptionShown to every account and sent as a notification to every account, on the waters you save.
Advisories & closures
Mandatory closures, restrictions and voluntary advisories read automatically from the Colorado, Montana and Washington wildlife agencies, with the agency's own wording and link. Michigan and Oregon reaches link to the agency's own page, because those agencies publish no per-reach notices RiverFinn can read.
The 70 °F warm-water stop
A measured reading at or above the verified stop puts the reach in AVOID and outranks the rating, however good the rest of the numbers look. Warm-water thresholds are the one temperature alert every account receives.
Unconfirmed water temperature
If a thermometer goes quiet after a reading at or above the stop, RiverFinn holds the warning rather than quietly withdrawing it — and once the reading is too old to count, says it cannot confirm the water until a fresh one arrives. A dead sensor is not a cold river.
Regulations
The standing rules for the stretch — gear, seasons, designations — from the managing agency, with a link and a reminder to confirm before you fish.
Safety notifications
A new closure or advisory, a regulation change, a warm-water warning, and reminders for a trip you have planned — as notifications on your phone, on every plan. Regulation-change alerts cover Michigan, the one state whose rulebook RiverFinn can read.
Where, when and how to fish it
RiverFinn ProNot more rivers — every water is already free. This is what RiverFinn works out on top of the readings.
Best Fishing Windows
The hours of today the forecast favours, with every hour inside an agency restriction window removed. Worked out on the server from wind and rain probability across daylight — a language model is never asked to choose the hours, only allowed to explain them.
Fishing Plans: flies and techniques
Today's measured conditions turned into flies worth tying on for this reach and the technique they suggest, with the reasoning. Grounded in RiverFinn's own data and checked against it — never a hatch nobody observed.
The full score breakdown
Every factor behind a rating, the threshold it was measured against, and the sourced rule that set the threshold. The rating and its reasons are free; these are the workings.
Weekend Rankings
Your saved waters compared and ranked for the days ahead, with the ones an advisory affects called out separately rather than quietly dropped.
Finn comparisons and unlimited questions
No daily count, two rivers in one question, and "where should I go tonight?" answered as a ranking of the RiverFinn waters near you.
Trip Planner
Tell Finn the day. RiverFinn picks the water and the hours, keeps the plan on a calendar beside your own events, and flags it if the conditions move before you leave.
Smart alerts and your own thresholds
Conditions improving, flow on the move, a station going quiet, your weekend ranking — plus up to four thresholds of your own on each water, tuned to the numbers you care about. Safety alerts are in the group above, and are free.
Unlimited saved waters
Follow every river you care about rather than choosing three.
Know before you go.
Free on every RiverFinn water, in full. Save the rivers you fish, ask Finn, and see what the water is doing before you drive.