What it is, how the score works, where the data comes from
BC Fishing Weather is a free marine-conditions tool for the British Columbia coast. It answers one question — is it a good day to fish here? — for 57 places, from Juan de Fuca Strait and the Gulf Islands up through the Strait of Georgia, the north Island, the west coast and Haida Gwaii. For each spot it combines live wind, waves, tide, tidal current, barometric pressure, moon phase and time of day into a single fishing score, and shows the wind field on an interactive map, the tide curve, the current turns at the passes, the 7-day outlook and the regulations that apply.
The score is a weighted blend of six factors, and the weights are published on every page rather than hidden: wind 30%, waves 25%, tide movement 13%, moon 12%, time of day 12% and pressure 8%. Two safety caps override the arithmetic — 15 knots of wind or 3 ft of sea drops any spot to a low score no matter how good the other factors are — because comfort and safety come before the bite. Where a location is bound to a tidal pass, the tide factor reads the measured current speed instead of inferring movement from tide height. It is a judgement, not a guarantee, and the page says so; the value is in making every input visible so you can argue with the number.
You can see the live freshness of every feed, and the model’s current error against each buoy, on the data status page.
Most marine forecast sites show you a model. This one checks the model against reality: it records what the forecast said for each buoy’s location and later compares it with what the buoy actually measured, so every buoy page carries a running accuracy record — how many knots the forecast has typically been off, over how many verified predictions. It also treats regulations and tidal currents as first-class, per-area data, and it leads with safety (an ECCC wind warning outranks any number the site computes).
Nothing here is invented. Where a tide station returns nothing, the chart says “unavailable” rather than drawing a plausible curve; a buoy that has stopped reporting shows no conditions rather than a stale number; a location with no verified tidal-current station is told so, with the distance to the nearest one, instead of borrowing a slack time that would be wrong. Boundaries, bindings and station codes were verified against the source agencies, not guessed.
The site covers 29 fishing areas and 28 tide stations, plus per-area regulation pages, per-species guides, live buoy pages and weekend/tomorrow rankings. The caches refresh automatically — buoys every 15 minutes, marine warnings hourly, forecasts every three hours, tides and regulations daily — so the information stays current without manual work.
It is for recreational anglers and small-boat operators on the BC coast. It is not a navigation tool and not a substitute for the official marine forecast, current charts or the Sailing Directions. Always check Environment Canada’s marine forecast and confirm regulations on DFO before heading out.
Questions or corrections: info@bcfishingweather.ca. See also the privacy policy and full list of locations.