Before you begin

1. Terms of use & community standards

This journal and guide are operated by John Rapp for the Kayak Fishing Journal Community. Contact wvkayakanglers@gmail.com for support, privacy requests and reports of inappropriate content.

You remain responsible for fishing permits, regulations, access permission, fish handling and safe kayak operation. Wear a PFD, assess actual conditions and avoid hazards. Maps, illustrated positions, forecasts and ChatGPT-derived technique suggestions are informational starting points; they are not navigation, emergency advice, verified fish locations or a guarantee of safe water or fishing success. Angler-supplied lure selections do not imply endorsement of our suggested presentations.

Submit only material you own or have permission to share. Do not publish harassment, threats, hate, sexual material, another person's private information, fabricated fishing observations or unlawful content. New and changed public reports require owner review before appearing. Readers can report a story or hide its author on their device. The operator may reject content, remove fabricated research and suspend public posting.

You keep ownership of your content. You permit us to store and process it to provide the features you select, and to display the public version only when you choose publication. Social sharing sends the content you select to your chosen service and is governed by that service's policies.

Reports and comparisons depend on incomplete, self-reported observations. Best Five measurements represent selected fish, not every catch. Trips where a method was used do not establish the catch rate for that method or prove cause and effect. Check and correct your records before relying on results.

Watch imports supplement your answers; they do not replace form responses. Manufacturer software, export formats and menus change. Export availability and catch pins, photos, voice notes or environmental fields are not guaranteed. Complete the report and add photos to capture the most detail. Retain your original watch exports.

2. Privacy policy

What we collect and why

Private journal records include the trip answers, conditions, equipment, notes, optional location/waypoint information, watch data and photos you submit. Photos may contain location and capture-time metadata. We use these to save your trips, build reports and provide personal comparisons. We do not continuously track your device in the background. Location access is requested when you choose a location feature; selected photos and files can also contain location data.

ChatGPT sign-in supplies an account identifier and email for account access and cross-device synchronization. A hashed journal identity connects your records. Profile names, photos, teams and sponsors are optional. A browser journal uses a secret browser key instead of an account login. The optional community-update list stores the contact details you enter with its separate permission. Feedback stores your comment, selected area, optional rating, optional reply email and app build.

Optional usage counting records daily activity totals and approximate city/state/country when supplied by the hosting network. These totals are not unique visitor counts, are not linked to signup records, and do not retain IP addresses or visitor identifiers in our usage tables. Counting starts only if you enable it; browser privacy signals disable it. Hosting and authentication providers may process network/security information under their own policies.

Optional report Likes use a randomly generated browser key to limit a browser to one like per public report. The server stores a hash of that key with the report reference; only total like counts are public. The browser remembers which reports you liked. These reactions are not linked to your journal account. Clearing browser storage or using another browser can reset this preference; counts are not verified unique people.

Who receives data

The operator can access stored records for service operation and support. OpenAI Sites and its Cloudflare-backed hosting/storage process the service's records and files; ChatGPT provides authentication. Optional conditions and terrain lookups send selected trip coordinates/time or gauge identifiers to relevant NOAA, USGS, Open-Meteo and mapping/data services. Embedded videos and external links connect to their providers when used. We do not sell your personal journal data. Public sharing and research contributions are separate choices described below.

Optional fish photo recognition, when activated, sends a separately confirmed photo to Fishial for species suggestions. The recognition copy has location metadata removed; visible people and scenery remain. The service may retain images under its account configuration and policies. Your trip, coordinates, notes and account identity are not included in that recognition request. Nothing is sent merely by choosing a photo. You must confirm a suggested species before it changes your fish entry; the offline comparison guide does not send photos.

Storage, security and retention

Online data is transmitted over HTTPS. Private record access is checked against your signed-in identity or browser-journal key. No storage or transmission method is completely secure. Device copies use browser storage and can be lost if storage is cleared, the app is removed or the device fails. A saved-on-device notice does not mean the account has received the report; check the sync confirmation. Keep your own exports and photos. The website source backup is not a backup of your journal.

Private records remain until you delete them or request deletion. Deleting a trip removes its private record, stored associated photos and public copy; previously contributed research is handled under section 3. Deleting your journal account removes the account's trips, profile, public copies, stored photos, identifiable research source records and contact/feedback records matching its authenticated email. Minimal non-content closure hashes and imported-journal mappings remain to prevent old offline queues from recreating deleted records. Unlinked anonymous submissions cannot be identified from your account; contact us with enough information to locate them. Aggregate usage counts are not account-linked.

Offline copies on another device may remain until that device reconnects; you can clear that browser's site data after exporting anything you need. Providers may retain limited operational backups or legally required records under their retention processes. We do not promise immediate erasure from provider backups.

3. Collective knowledge & research

Research participation is optional. Private journaling does not automatically contribute your trips. Before contributing, review the data preview and give separate permission. A contribution includes recorded fishing observations, catches, bait details, conditions, equipment, exact GPS and photo location/timestamps where recorded. Account/profile details, companion names, the personal written recap and photo image files are excluded from the research payload. Avoid personal information in fishing observations.

With ongoing research updates enabled for a contribution, saved corrections to its source trip update the same research record. Older snapshot-only contributions remain under their original permission until you explicitly update them. Public comparisons show anonymous grouped statistics rather than individual research records or precise locations. Exact research records remain accessible to the operator; we do not currently provide external researchers an automated data-access service.

Deleting an individual trip retains its previously contributed research knowledge so methods, conditions, locations and seasonal patterns can continue to inform comparisons. Confirmed fabricated data should be reported to the operator for removal. Account deletion converts account-linked research into permanent combined seasonal counts of trips and catches grouped by water type, clarity, methods, species, structure and broad condition ranges. The source records, identifiers, exact dates, GPS and free text are removed. These retained summaries are separate from personal trip records. Account deletion and verified privacy/deletion requests are handled separately as explained above. Contact us to stop future research processing or request deletion; no separate Withdraw button is needed in the trip form. We may retain genuinely non-identifiable aggregate results where permitted; exact GPS and linked records are not treated as anonymous simply because a name is missing.

Community fishing learning summaries

The Learning section combines original survey recommendations with anonymous statistics calculated from voluntarily contributed research. Public trip comparisons require at least five eligible contributions from three linked contributing accounts; each published subgroup must independently meet that minimum. Survey choices describe preferences, while trip results describe reported observations. Private journals are not automatically added. Learning summaries omit names, account references, individual research records, notes and exact coordinates.

The administrator can create a calculated draft or, when the owner has connected AI writing, send only this anonymous aggregate evidence to OpenAI to draft a lesson with storage disabled in the request. AI drafts require administrator review before publication. Updated evidence hides an old approved summary until it is reviewed again. Missing historical coverage remains unavailable; published associations do not establish causes or guarantee catches.

4. Your choices & help

• Browse the guide without joining the update list.
• Keep reports private, or separately preview and request public sharing.
• Choose research contributions separately from publication.
• Use device settings to change location/photo permissions.
• Turn optional usage counting on or off in More.
• Use Delete journal account & data online, or contact support for privacy, correction, research-processing and update-list removal requests.

General acknowledgment does not authorize optional data sharing, marketing, usage counting or device permissions. Material changes will be dated and may require another acknowledgment. Our privacy disclosures must match the features actually offered.

Profile photos on Trip Cards

For new Angler Profiles, “Use my profile photo by default on Trip Cards when I haven’t submitted any trip photos” is checked by default. Submitted trip photos take priority. When no trip photos are submitted, your saved profile photo may be used as the Trip Card’s main image. Uncheck the option in Angler Profile and save to stop this use on future card displays. Without an eligible photo, the card uses river artwork. This setting alone does not publish your photo, profile or reports; public sharing remains a separate choice. Images already downloaded or shared are not changed by turning this setting off.

Angler Directory visibility

Registered anglers with saved names are included in the public Angler Directory by default. “Exclude my profile from the Angler Directory” is unchecked by default. Check it and save to exclude your profile. Uncheck it and save to appear again. The card and full profile automatically use your current saved name, hometown, About me, profile photo, social links, and team, sponsor, club and fishing-trail names, logos and website links. Directory cards show four summary totals from saved trips: trips, recorded catches, hours fished and largest recorded fish. Unknown measurements remain unrecorded; anglers with no trips show zero trips, catches and hours. Profile images shared through the directory have embedded metadata removed.

Account email, private journal text, companion names, catch photos, routes, exact GPS and unshared reports remain private. Only separately approved Community Reports and Trip Cards are linked from your profile. Check the directory exclusion option and save to remove the listing; separately published reports remain until you manage their sharing. Existing listed profiles update automatically. Existing saved profiles with names, including older profiles, are included in the directory under this default. Anglers can exclude themselves in Angler Profile. Account deletion removes the directory listing and visibility preference.

Platform activity totals

The operator can view aggregate account, profile, saved-trip, reported-catch, publication and research-contribution counts in a private administrator dashboard. Signed-in account counting stores an internal account hash and first-recorded date, without a separate contact list. Deleted accounts are excluded. Non-identifying platform totals may be used to describe the program to business partners; private journal stories, contact details, photos, exact locations and account identifiers are not part of those summaries. Optional website usage counting remains separate. Counts reflect server-saved records and may be incomplete for older registrations or trips that have not synced.

Member benefits & optional partnership metrics

Community partners may offer registered members a discount or other benefit. Offer codes and full terms are delivered after sign-in and are not included in the public partner listing. Benefits are provided by the partner, subject to its stated terms and expiration. We do not verify purchases or calculate actual savings. Selecting “I used this offer” records one self-reported use per account and partner offer using an internal account reference; it does not send the partner your account details.

Optional anonymous usage counting also covers partner-card views, partner-link clicks and member-benefit views. These are event totals, not unique people or guaranteed advertising reach. A separate, off-by-default checkbox under More → Privacy preferences enables signed-in activity and returning-member counts using an internal account hash and UTC day. It uses a rolling 90-day window; older rows are removed on subsequent activity or dashboard refresh. Turning it off requests removal of your account’s activity rows when connected. Browser privacy signals suppress optional counting. Account deletion removes linked activity and reported benefit-use rows. Partners receive only non-identifying summaries selected by the operator, not private journal records, contacts, locations or member identities. Our partnership program is designed around member benefits rather than collecting partner payments.