Terms of service

Who can use CanI.fish

Reading this site is open to anybody, and you can report a mistake or add a water without an account.

An account is for over-18s only. When you create one you confirm that you are 18 or over and that you accept these terms, and we record which version of them you accepted and when. You can see that record, and download it, on your account. An account needs an email address we can verify, and nothing else.

We ask for 18+ because an account can upload photographs and record catches, and because the prize draw we intend to run is 18+. We do not host messaging, comments, forums or any way for people here to contact each other, every photograph is reviewed by a person before anybody can see it, and accounts are private unless their owner chooses otherwise.

You can delete your account at any time; your username is removed and your credits become “Anonymous”, while the contributions themselves stay on the site. That is set out in more detail in the privacy notice.

We may remove a username that is offensive or impersonates somebody. Removing a username does not remove the account.

Nothing here is permission to fish

Rod licences

You need an Environment Agency rod licence to fish for freshwater fish in England and Wales. It is a legal requirement, it is separate from any ticket or club membership we list, and you need it even where fishing is free. Fishing without one is an offence. Nothing on this site removes that obligation. See the rod licence guide.

What we try to do

We record where fishing waters are, who is reported to control them, and what permission each is reported to need. We show the sources behind each claim and the date it was last checked. Always check local permissions before you fish.

What we cannot promise

We cannot promise that any entry is accurate, current or complete. Some entries have never been checked by us and are marked Unchecked. Some are disputed. We provide the site as it is, and we are not liable for loss you suffer by relying on it — including being refused access, asked to leave, or prosecuted for fishing somewhere you had no right to fish. Deciding whether you may fish a place is your responsibility.

If you control a water

If we have your water wrong, use Report incorrect information. We read every report.

Contributing

Anyone can suggest a correction, or draw a water on the map. Claims about permission, controlling bodies, boundaries, prices, ticket links and all free text are reviewed by a person before they appear. Do not submit anything abusive, defamatory, or copied from a source that does not permit it.

By contributing you confirm the information is yours to share and accurate as far as you know, and you grant CanI.fish a worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free licence to use, publish, edit, adapt and sub-licence it, including as part of the database as a whole and including if that database is later transferred or sold. A shape you draw is your own approximation of where a water runs, contributed on the same terms.

Map data

Map imagery is © OpenStreetMap contributors and its tile provider. Where a water’s shape is derived from OpenStreetMap, its page says so; that geometry is available under the Open Database Licence.

Changes and contact

We may update these terms; the date above shows when we last did. For anything not covered by Report incorrect information, contact us through the address published on the site. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.

What you give us permission to do

When you send us a photograph, a correction, a new water or a catch report, you keep the copyright in it. The licence you grant us over it is the one set out under “Contributing” above, and it is the only one — there is no narrower grant for photographs.

For a photograph you also confirm, at the moment you upload it, that you took it or have the photographer’s permission, and that it shows no identifiable person who has not agreed to appear. We record which wording you agreed to and when.

Every photograph is reviewed by a person before it appears. Anybody can report one, and we will take it down while we look.

Using this site properly

Do not send us anything you know to be wrong. Fishing rights information that is wrong sends somebody where they should not go, which is the one harm this site exists to prevent.

Do not upload anything that is not yours. Do not use another club’s name. Do not use the contribution forms to advertise.

We may suspend an account that repeatedly sends things we cannot accept, and we may remove anything that breaks the above.

The prize draw

There is a prize draw for people who contribute. Entries are earned from contributions that have been accepted after review — never from the act of sending something, and never from catch reports.

The full terms will be published here before the first draw runs, and will set out who may enter, when it closes, how a winner is chosen and told, and what the prize is. Until they are, no draw has been run and nothing on this page is an offer.