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How it works

Fishing Codex — fishing logbooks, from the anglers who keep them.

Fishing Codex is a fishing logbook app for iOS and Android, plus fishingcodex.com where anglers publish entries from their logbooks and other anglers read them. In the app you log catches with their conditions, keep a private map and history, join crews and enter events. On the website you unlock published entries and Local Intel, and publish your own.

Your logbook, and everything it remembers

  • A free private logbook for every catch: every entry a pin on your own map, seen by nobody but you.
  • Add a photo from twenty-five years ago and the app works out the moon, and the tide where the water is tidal, for the day it was actually taken.
  • A free one-day weather-and-sea forecast on every entry and on any point you aim at, computed for that exact location anywhere on earth and readable offline from your last sync. App Pro opens the full fourteen days.
  • Set the wind, swell and rain you can fish in and each day gets a weather answer against your own limits: Good weather, Fair weather or Rough weather. Open any entry and the app compares each coming day with that one catch, marking its tide, moon, feeding window and barometer lined up, near or apart; App Pro opens the days ahead.
  • Claim free entries and unlock entries from other anglers' logbooks. The entry arrives with its exact location on your private map in the app, and the forecast, the tides and Best fishing times then run on it like one of your own catches.

Publish your logbook: knowledge shared, and paid for

  • You already write it down. Publishing is the step where what you wrote down helps somebody else, and you choose entry by entry what goes out and what stays yours.
  • Free entries can be claimed by any angler; paid entries earn you money each time somebody unlocks one.
  • Every unlock pays you directly: single entries from $2.99 (the buyer's forever), a live logbook subscription (monthly or yearly), or the whole logbook forever. Money lands in your own Stripe account.
  • Fishing Codex takes the standard 15% platform fee; payment-processing (Stripe) fees also apply, so anglers typically net around 80%.
  • Entries are unlocked on fishingcodex.com with the same account as the app, and your conditions and tips travel with them.
  • Publishing an entry protects roughly 500 m around it: twelve months for a paid entry, ninety days for a free one.

The four parts, in one look

Private map

Your own catches as pins, plus every entry you have claimed or unlocked. Nobody else sees it.

Public map

A wide area showing where anglers are active, for browsing before you decide anything.

Feed

Public catch posts and photos, in the app.

Published logbooks (fishingcodex.com)

Entries and Local Intel that anglers have chosen to publish: free to claim, a single unlock, a live logbook subscription, or the whole logbook forever.

Frequently asked questions

7 groups. Jump straight to one, or type to filter.

The basics

What is Fishing Codex?

Fishing Codex is a fishing logbook app for iOS and Android, plus fishingcodex.com where anglers publish entries from their logbooks and other anglers read them. In the app you log catches with their conditions, keep a private map and history, join crews and enter events. On the website you unlock published entries and Local Intel, and publish your own.

Is the app free?

Yes. The private logbook, the map, worldwide tides and moon, a one-day forecast on every entry, basic Best fishing times, following anglers, crews, events and free claims cost nothing. There is no card, no trial and no paywall on your own logbook. App Pro is an optional subscription for the full forecasting.

Does it work without signal?

Yes. Once you have signed in once, entries save to your phone first and sync when you're back in range. The map, tides and moon all keep working offline.

Do I need an account?

Yes, so your logbook is backed up and the social features work from the first minute. After that first sign-in the logbook, map, tides and moon all work with no connection; claiming and unlocking need one.

What lives where?

One account across four surfaces. The app is your logbook, your private map, conditions, crews and events. The website is where entries and Local Intel are published and unlocked. The public map shows a wide area where anglers are active. Your private map shows your own catches plus everything you have claimed or unlocked.

What language does it run in?

Every language Stripe supports, on the app and the website. The app follows your phone's language and you can pick a different one; dates, numbers and money follow the language in use.

Fishing Codex is new. What does starting now get me?

The community is small, which means an angler who starts publishing now builds their readership before the field is crowded. There is also a one-time global 120-day window in which pre-app catches you import can be published. That advantage is real now and naturally fades as the platform grows.

Your logbook, conditions and importing

What does an entry actually record?

The photo, species, method, length and weight, date and place, plus the conditions at that moment: moon phase, wind, swell, rain and pressure, and tide state where the water is tidal.

How does the forecast work?

Every entry and every point on your map carries a 14-day weather-and-sea forecast for that exact location anywhere on earth, computed from openly licensed global weather models, the same models the major forecast providers use. The first day is free; App Pro opens days 2 to 14. It stays readable offline from your last sync.

How do tides and moon get filled in?

Automatically, from the date, time and place, including imported photos, so a catch from twenty-five years ago gets its tide and moon worked out for the day it was taken. Tide is worked out on your phone, so it keeps working with no signal at all. Where the data is weak, in an enclosed estuary or a tidal river, the app says the confidence is lower rather than inventing certainty, and still water gets no tide rather than one borrowed from a distant coast.

What are Best fishing times?

Around thirty days of fishing windows for your area. Each day shows the weather window, Good weather, Fair weather or Rough weather against the limits you set, and how many of your own entries line up with it, beside the feeding windows as real times, sunrise, sunset and the moon. The first three days are free; App Pro opens the full range plus the species and starred views.

Can I bring catches from photos or another app?

Yes. Import from your camera roll, and from GPX, KML and CSV files including fishfinder and chartplotter waypoint exports. A quick-tag step lets you name species across a whole batch at once.

What is the Species Codex?

Your own record per species: how many you've caught, your first, your personal best, the methods, and the patterns behind them, all built from your own catches.

Does the app record tracks?

Yes. Every recorded track backs up to your own account and comes back on a new phone. A track is visible to you alone and appears on no map but yours.

What is on the private map?

Your own catches as pins, plus the entries you have claimed or unlocked from other anglers. Nobody else sees it. You can draw a search ring from 100 m to 500 km and count what's inside it.

Crews and events

What is a crew?

A group you fish with. Every account owns one from day one, and the official Fishing Codex crew is open to everyone from the start; any other crew is reached by its link or code. Catches, species questions, rig talk, polls and a weekly quest all live there. Crew size is public; crew level counts things the crew actually did.

Can I be in more than one?

As many as you like. You can leave any crew except your own.

Do I lose control of my crew?

No — you're always the owner: approve members, remove anyone, and your other groups run exactly as they are.

What kinds of events are there?

Competitions, challenges, meet-ups and guided trips. Who is in - just you, your crew, your mates, or anyone at all - is a separate question the organizer answers when they set it up. The official Fishing Codex crew always has a rolling monthly Species Slam running: free, public, worldwide, open to every angler.

Where are events created?

On the website, for a crew you own or co-host. You join, watch the live board and enter your catches from either the app or the web.

How are catches checked?

Every event says so on its own page: measured in the app with a photo and a measurement, judged by the organizer from photos, officially verified by a weigh-in or a scorer, or the honour system, where nothing is checked.

What happens to an event when it ends?

Entering closes when the event ends. The winner is named, everyone who took part is told the results are in, and the page freezes into a permanent public results page at the same address — the winner’s numbered badge links to it forever.

Reading other anglers' logbooks

What do I get when I claim or unlock an entry?

The entry, its photos, its notes and the conditions it was caught in, plus its exact location, on your private map in the Fishing Codex app.

What does the public map show?

A wide area showing where anglers are active. It's there for browsing before you decide anything.

Where do I unlock entries?

On fishingcodex.com. Free entries can be claimed there or in the app. The app's only purchase is App Pro.

How do free claims work?

Every account can claim free entries every day, up to a daily limit. Each claim lasts five days, then the entry leaves your map. You can claim it again after that, with every claim counting against that day's limit. There's no lifetime cap.

What's the difference between the tiers?

A single entry is yours forever. “The logbook, live” is a subscription giving you an angler's bundle plus their free entries for as long as it runs. “The whole logbook, forever” is one payment for everything they've published and everything they publish later. Local Intel is sold on its own.

What if the angler deletes their account?

What you bought stays yours. A permanent snapshot of the entry is stored at the moment of purchase, and photos a paying buyer depends on are kept for them.

Can I get a refund?

Refunds are issued where the law requires them. Sales are otherwise final, and the Refund Policy has the detail.

Refund Policy

When does access end?

A free claim ends after five days. A subscription runs to the end of the period you've paid for. A single entry and whole-logbook access are permanent.

Publishing your logbook and getting paid

What can I publish?

Entries you captured with the app camera, any time, and Local Intel about any water you know. While the one-time 120-day early-adopter window is open, imported entries can be published too, up to fifty live at a time.

Can I publish from my laptop?

Words can be written on your laptop or phone. Photos go through the Fishing Codex app on your phone first — import them there, then pick them here.

What does Fishing Codex charge?

Fishing Codex takes the standard 15% fee, plus Stripe and card processing fees (anglers typically net around 80%). The money goes straight into your own Stripe account.

Angler Guide

What can I charge?

From $2.99 up. You set the price, and you can cap how many copies of a single-entry listing sell.

What happens to the area around a published entry?

It's protected: roughly 500 m, for twelve months on a paid entry and ninety days on a free one. Unlist and the protection ends early.

How do reviews work?

Only people who claimed or bought something can review it. Each entry and each Local Intel carries its own stars, and your angler page shows the average across everything you've published, with the count beside it.

Are there badges for publishing?

The generosity badges, Sharer, Local Guide and Community Pillar, come from the free entries you list. The Founding Contributor badge goes to the first fifty anglers to publish anything, numbered in order.

App Pro

What does App Pro add?

The full 14-day forecast, including the days ahead on each entry’s Compare days, the full Best fishing times range plus the species and starred views, advanced statistics, and 10 GB of cloud backup for everything you store (photos, clips and tracks) instead of 200 MB.

Do I need it?

No. The core app is free forever and App Pro never gates your own logbook.

How do I cancel?

In your device's subscription settings, like any App Store or Google Play subscription. You keep Pro until the period you paid for ends.

Account and policies

How old do I have to be?

13 to have an account. 18 to publish anything as an angler and to be paid.

Can I delete my account and export my data?

Yes to both. Export from the app; delete from the app or the website. The Delete Account page has step-by-step instructions and a table of what is deleted and what is retained.

Delete Account guide · Web account settings

How do I get help?

The Support page routes you and answers the common account, purchase and privacy questions.

Support

Still curious?

Browse published log entries, read the angler guide, or get the free app and start your own private logbook today.

We're building this in the open. If something's missing or wrong, tell us at hello@fishingcodex.com.