About This Site
Where the Data Meets the Drift
Nerd on the Fly exists because the sites I needed when I started fly fishing didn't exist. You could find gear reviews or Instagram-worthy photos — but finding a site that told you whether the river was actually fishable today, in CFS, with a real explanation of what that number meant? That was harder.
The IT Guy Who Fishes
I've been in IT and for 20 years. I think in systems. When I started fly fishing a decade ago, I immediately wanted to understand the data behind it — not just "the fish are biting" but why, and whether I could predict it from publicly available information.
Turns out, the USGS has been publishing real-time stream gauge data for free for decades. The information to make a smart decision about whether a river is fishable has always been there. It just wasn't presented in a way that was useful to someone who doesn't speak hydrology.
This site is the resource I wished I had. It translates USGS gauge readings into plain-English condition ratings, combines that with a seasonal hatch calendar, and gives you an AI assistant that knows what the river is actually doing right now — not what it was doing last week when someone posted a trip report on a forum.
What This Site Is (and Isn't)
This site is
- → A real-time stream conditions dashboard for Colorado rivers
- → A seasonal hatch calendar with specific fly patterns and sizes
- → An AI advisor that knows the current CFS when you ask it a question
- → Beginner-focused without being condescending
This site is not
- → A gear review site or affiliate marketing play
- → A fishing report forum with week-old trip reports
- → A guide service or booking platform
- → A substitute for local knowledge (talk to the fly shop)
- → A multi-species resource — this site covers trout only
- → Professionally operated — it's a one-person project
How It Works
The stream condition data comes from the USGS Water Services API — a free public API maintained by the United States Geological Survey. The same data the National Weather Service uses. It's updated every 15 minutes and has been publicly available for decades.
The AI Hatch Advisor runs on Anthropic's Claude API (Claude Haiku). When you ask it a question, it already knows the current CFS, water temperature, the season, and what hatches are historically active on that river this time of year. It's not a generic chatbot — it has context.
The site is built on Next.js and hosted on Vercel. It's deliberately simple — no database, no user accounts, no tracking beyond Vercel Analytics.
Stream Data
USGS API
AI Advisor
Claude Haiku
Framework
Next.js
Hosting
Vercel
Stay Connected
I post trip reports, hatch observations, and data nerdery on Instagram. If you notice something wrong with the site — a gauge that's returning bad data, a threshold that's off, a fly pattern that's definitely not right for a specific river — hit me up. This project improves with feedback from people actually on the water.
Stream data provided by the USGS Water Services API. Data is provisional and subject to revision. Condition ratings are based on general thresholds and local knowledge — always exercise your own judgment before entering any river. This site is not affiliated with the USGS, Anthropic, or any guide service.