The Bite: Shore Fishing Tides

Tide times, wind and rain radar for surf, pier and back bay anglers on the Mid-Atlantic coast.

Most fishing apps are built for offshore boats. The Bite is built for the water close in — the beach, the pier, the jetty, the sound and the back bay. One screen that tells you whether tonight is worth the drive.

KNOW WHEN TO GO
Your tides come from the NOAA station nearest your water, not a regional average. The Bite reads the turn — the window either side of high and low when the water is actually moving — and flags it as prime when that turn lands on dawn or dusk.

• High and low tide times and heights, and the next turn counting down
• Prime windows where the tide turn meets first or last light
• A seven-day tide and conditions forecast
• Water temperature and which way it is trending
• A daily score for how the conditions are shaping up

SEE THE WEATHER YOU ACTUALLY FISH IN
• Live wind across the whole coast, drawn as a field you can read at a glance
• Wind at each spot you have saved, called out as onshore, offshore or alongshore
• A blown-out warning before you load the truck
• Rain radar with two hours of history, so you can watch a squall's track and speed
• Two hours of radar forecast, so you can see where it is going
• Drag the timeline to any minute, or press play and watch the loop

FIND STRUCTURE
• Reefs, wrecks and artificial structure marked on the map
• Save your own spots, drop a pin anywhere, and name them how you talk about them
• Pin a spot to its own tide station for the days the nearest one is the wrong water

KEEP A LOG WORTH KEEPING
• Log a catch in seconds with species, size, spot and the conditions at the time
• See what is running nearby from what other anglers are catching this week
• Your catch log is yours

WHAT PEOPLE CATCH HERE
Striped bass and rockfish, red drum, speckled trout, bluefish, summer flounder, cobia, pompano, sheepshead, tautog, Spanish mackerel, black sea bass, weakfish, Atlantic croaker, spot, kingfish and whatever else shows up in the wash.

WHERE IT WORKS
The Bite covers the coast from New Jersey to South Carolina, ocean side and inshore: Sandy Hook and the Jersey shore, Cape May, the Delaware beaches, Ocean City Maryland and the bays behind it, Annapolis and the upper Chesapeake, the lower Chesapeake Bay, Virginia's Eastern Shore, Virginia Beach, Sandbridge and Back Bay, the Outer Banks from Duck and Nags Head down through Avon, Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras, Roanoke and Pamlico Sound, the Crystal Coast, Wrightsville Beach and Cape Fear, and the Grand Strand at Myrtle Beach.

BUILT ON THE WATER, NOT IN AN OFFICE
The Bite is built by one angler who fishes these beaches, and it changes because people who use it say what is wrong with it. Tide stations have been moved, windows retimed and whole features added off a single message from someone standing on the sand at four in the morning.

FREE
Free to download, and there are no ads in it.

Setting up takes an email and a password. That is so your spots and your catch log follow you to a new phone instead of living on one device — nothing is sold and nothing is shared.

Tides and conditions come from NOAA and the National Weather Service. Radar comes from the NEXRAD network. Always check the official marine forecast before you go out, and keep an eye on the water.