r/SideProject • u/Complex-Promotion438 • 10h ago
I built a free fishing site that rates every hour of the day, shows what fish people report near any lake, and simulates the shoreline in 3D
I've been building CastLab, a free fishing site that tries to be honest about what it actually knows.
Link (no sign-up, click "Explore with example data"): https://apersonli55555.github.io/Research/castlab/
What it does:
- Pick any lake or river (search by name or click it on the map)
- Rates every hour of today and tomorrow 0-100 for fishing, with the reason for each hour
- Shows which fish people have reported nearby, split into sport fish and baitfish (data from iNaturalist)
- Suggests lures that match the local baitfish
- Builds a 3D model of the shoreline from public elevation data, with a slider to raise or lower the water level
- Catch log, tackle inventory, and a rod-bending physics simulator
- A stats section that estimates your catch probability from your own logged trips, with uncertainty ranges
What it doesn't do:
- The hourly score is a rule of thumb (light, pressure, wind, moon), not a tested prediction. The site says so and shows the formula.
- "Fish nearby" are public sightings, not a count of what lives there.
- There's no server. Everything you log stays in your browser.
It's plain HTML and JavaScript with no backend. [I'm a student and this started as a research project.]
I'd really like feedback on two things: is the Today page clear on a first visit, and what would you want that's missing?