Experience-informed flow ratings

Understand, report,
improve

River Check pairs measured river flows with practical planning bands. Ratings begin with broad river-size guidance or station-specific fishing knowledge, then become better supported as anglers share real experiences that can be checked against historic gauge data.

Help strengthen the evidence behind a rating. After fishing a river, report the flow and describe the conditions you found. Each report helps River Check learn how measured flows translate into real fishing conditions, improving the model for everyone over time.

LowBelow the preferred flow range, but may still be fishable.

IdealWithin the preferred flow range, though other conditions still matter.

HighAbove the ideal range, but still within the established high-flow allowance.

MarginalAbove the established High range. River Check cannot confidently assess fishability here; conditions are increasingly location- and method-dependent.

UnfishableFar below the preferred range or extremely elevated. Fishing may be impractical, but this is not a safety judgement.

The model today

Practical starting points, refined by real experience

River-by-river flow assessment

River Check starts with the river’s size, then looks more closely at each monitored system using historic gauge patterns and available published sources. AI-assisted analysis uses this evidence to propose practical fishing-flow bands. The bands describe the flow measured at the named gauge; they do not identify a fishing reach or imply access. Marginal begins immediately above the established High band. Its upper boundary is either set by an administrator or calculated at a percentage above the high band depending on the size of the river or stream. Confidence remains developing until the bands are supported by local fishing experience.

AI-assisted · developing

Fishing-experience bands

Where an administrator has direct knowledge of a river, station-specific bands can replace the size-class baseline. These judgements are subjective, but usually more useful because they reflect how that particular water has fished at known flows.

Station specific

Validated river experience

Fishing reports are checked against the nearest historic gauge reading within 36 hours. A match allows for normal rounding and gauge variation: currently the greater of 0.25 m³/s or 15% of the historic reading. This is a practical evidence check, not proof of conditions at every point on the river.

Improves over time

Confidence

How much evidence sits behind a rating?

Confidence describes the basis for the flow bands, not a guarantee that the river is fishable.

Developing
AI-assisted, system-specific bands based on river size, historic flows and published evidence, awaiting local fishing validation.
Community informed
Generic bands supported—or replaced—by validated real-world fishing experience.
Admin set
Station-specific bands set by an administrator.
High confidence
Admin-set bands plus validated experience that supports them. Conflicting reports are flagged for review rather than overwriting the bands.