About

USTideCharts started as a tool for one question: should I go fishing today, and when. It scores tide movement, time of day, moon phase, wind, and water temperature for every spot it covers, and tells you the best two-hour windows.

The obvious next question is what to bring. That is this store. Every product page here connects back to conditions — what the gear is for, and when it earns its place in your bag.

We are a small operation, so we do not pretend to carry everything. What we carry is chosen against a specific coastline: California surf and bays, where the fish are halibut, surfperch, corbina, calico, and spotted bay bass, and where the wrong gear is usually gear designed for Midwest largemouth.

Two rules govern the catalog. First, salt-facing specs are non-negotiable — sealed bearings, plated hooks, anodized aluminum. Untreated hardware fails in one season and we will not sell it. Second, if we think a product is a bad buy, we say so on the product page rather than quietly leaving it out. Our 45 qt cooler page is the clearest example: it exists, you can order it, and we explain why you probably should not.

Right now we source from established manufacturers and ship from their warehouses. Over time the plan is to move the categories where it matters most — braid, hooks, rig kits, and soft plastics — onto our own specifications, so we control the hook plating and the color palette rather than accepting whatever a generic supplier ships.

Questions about gear, an order, or a spot you think we should cover on the tide site: contact us.