GuidedFloats is organised around the water, not the port. Every water in the directory gets a page of its own: what the gauge is reading right now, which fish are in it, when the seasons open, where you can get on, and which guides fish it for a living.
Here is how the whole thing fits together — where the numbers come from, how a guide ends up listed, and what happens when you log a trip.
How it works
Four steps, start to finish
You can use GuidedFloats without an account. Logging trips and earning badges is the part that needs one.
- Step 1
Find your water
Start from the water rather than the town. 1,169 waters across 50 states, each with its own page — or start from the fish in the species library and work back to the water.
- Step 2
Read the conditions
Discharge and water temperature come straight from the USGS gauge on that water and refresh every 15 minutes. Today’s flow is shown as a percentile against the long-term median for this date, so the number actually means something.
- Step 3
Go — guided or on your own
Each water lists the guides and outfitters who work it. Claimed profiles take booking requests; the rest link straight to the business. Licence requirements and state regulations are one click away, from the agency that writes them.
- Step 4
Log the trip
Add your photos and species and the water goes on your map. Each species a moderator can see in a photo earns a badge, and logging a cleanup earns River Keeper for that water. State tiers arrive at 5, 10 and 25 waters.
What is in it
The directory today
These numbers are read live from the site, not typed into this page.
The conditions
Where the numbers come from
Nothing on a water page is a guess. Flow and temperature are federal gauge readings, passed through untouched.
The USGS gauge
A federal streamgage on that water reports discharge in cubic feet per second, and water temperature where the sensor exists.
Every 15 minutes
A job on our server pulls the latest reading for every gauged water and compares it with the long-term median for today’s date.
The water page
Flow, temperature and a percentile that tells you whether today is high, low or ordinary for the season — with the time it was read.
A flow number without a timestamp is a hazard, not information. Every reading on this site carries the moment it was taken, and a gauge that has stopped reporting says so rather than showing you a stale figure.
A water page also has to earn its place in search. Each one is scored on whether it has a live gauge, a temperature series, real access notes, guides who fish it, species coverage, a photograph and writing worth reading — and pages below the threshold are kept out of the index until they are worth landing on. The full list of feeds and agencies is on data sources.
For guides and outfitters
How a guide ends up listed
A river with no guides on it is useless to everybody, so we do not wait for sign-ups.
- Step 1
We build the profile
From public records — state outfitter registers, licence lists and the business’s own site. Business-level information only: name, town, phone, website, the waters worked. Never personal details.
- Step 2
You claim it
One form, free, and the profile is yours to correct and to take booking requests through. Ask for it to be removed instead and it goes, without an argument.
- Step 3
You pick a plan
Stay free and pay commission only on bookings that come through us, or take a premium profile for a lower rate and more distribution. Founding guides who claim before 1 March 2027 get their first season free.
10% commission on bookings made through GuidedFloats. Nothing else.
7% commission, or $468 a year. Better placement in listings and faster booking requests.
7% commission across a whole shop, with every guide on the roster under one account.
One flat price, no bidding. Premium buys distribution and speed, and it lists above free profiles — but never above another premium profile. We do not auction the top of a river page to the highest bidder, and we will not send anyone an invoice until they can see their own traffic and lead numbers. Full detail on the guides page.
Why we do it
Cleaner water for our children
We are a for-profit company on a mission to leave our rivers, streams and lakes cleaner than we found them. That is not a line in a footer; it is built into the product. Logging a cleanup earns a River Keeper badge for that water, guides who do the work get promoted for it, and the feed on every water page shows who is looking after it.
There is a River Keeper badge waiting on all 1,169 waters. See the board.
Meet the founder
Built by an angler, not a booking desk
A lifelong angler who caught his first fish in Missouri at the age of two, Austin built GuidedFloats after one too many disjointed searches for a guide on new water. Every catch photo on the home page is one of his.
Read his story →The business
How we make money
Two lines, both published, no third one hiding. A commission on guide bookings that come through GuidedFloats — 10% on the free plan, 7% on premium — and the optional monthly subscription for that premium profile. We do not sell ads, we do not sell your trip log, and we do not restate fishing regulations; we link to the agency that writes them.
Go deeper
The rest of the platform
State Programs
Master angler awards, slams, trophy citations and paddling trails — 122 of them, with what each one asks of you.
State Licenses
What a license costs and who issues it, for all 67 authorities — state, territory, federal and tribal.
Journal
Reading water, packing right and going guided, written by people who actually float.
Contact