Privacy Policy

The Short Version

• You can browse the entire site without an account. There are no accounts, logins or payments on this site.
• If you fill out one of our forms, what you enter is emailed to us so we can read and respond to it. Filling out a form does not subscribe you to our email updates.
• If you choose to subscribe to our email updates, we use MailerLite to manage your subscription. You can unsubscribe at any time.
• We use Google Analytics to understand how the site is used. Google Analytics uses cookies.
• We do not sell your personal information.

Information You Choose to Give Us

We only receive personal information from you when you send it to us through one of the site's forms or subscribe to our email updates:

Contact form

Your name, email address, your reason for contacting us and your message.

Submit a Tournament

Your name, email address and relationship to the tournament, plus the tournament details you provide: its name, dates, city or location, state, official website or event page, and any additional information you add.

Become a Contributor

Your name and email address, where you fish most, a description of your fishing experience, the ways you'd like to contribute, and optionally a website or social profile link and any additional information you add.

Email subscriptions

Your email address, plus any location or interest information you choose or that is associated with the subscription form you use (for example, a state), and any other subscription preferences we specifically ask for. See Email Updates and Subscriptions below.

Please don't include sensitive personal information (such as financial, health or government ID information) in a form submission. We don't ask for it and don't need it.

How Form Submissions Are Handled

When you submit a form, your submission is sent as an email to our inbox using MailerSend, an email delivery service. The email is set up so that we can reply directly to the address you entered. Form submissions are not saved in a database on this website. Submitting the Contact, Submit a Tournament or Become a Contributor form does not subscribe you to our email updates; subscribing is always a separate choice.

Tournament details you submit (such as a tournament's name, dates, location and website) may be used to create or update a public tournament listing on the site. Your own name and email address are not published.

To limit spam, our forms include a hidden field that automated bots tend to fill in, and we temporarily use your IP address to limit how many submissions can be sent in a short period. That IP address check happens in memory on our server and is not saved as part of your submission.

Email Updates and Subscriptions

You can choose to subscribe to email updates from Find Fishing Spots, such as upcoming fishing tournaments, fishing information and resources, and other Find Fishing Spots news. Subscription forms may be location-based: for example, if you subscribe from a Florida tournament page, your subscription may be associated with Florida so we can send you Florida tournament updates rather than updates about places you didn't ask about. This location is the one you choose or the one tied to the form you use. We do not use precise GPS or device location to segment our email lists.

We use subscription information to:

• Send the fishing and tournament updates you requested.
• Send content relevant to the location or interests you selected.
• Manage your subscription and preferences.
• Understand basic email engagement.
• Improve our emails and content.

We use MailerLite, an email marketing service, to manage our subscriber list and send these emails. MailerLite processes subscriber information on our behalf. Our marketing emails may include standard email analytics that let us and MailerLite see things such as whether an email was delivered, whether it was opened and which links were clicked.

You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time using the unsubscribe link included in those emails. Unsubscribing from marketing emails does not stop us from replying to a message or form submission you sent us.

Information Collected Automatically

Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager

We use Google Tag Manager to load Google Analytics 4 on the site. Google Analytics collects information about how visitors use the site, such as the pages you view, how you arrived at the site, the type of device and browser you use, your approximate location (for example, city or region, derived from your IP address), and how you interact with pages. We use this information in aggregate to understand which content is useful and to improve the site.

We do not send the contents of your form submissions, your name or your email address to Google Analytics. You can learn more in how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Hosting and server information

Like most websites, our hosting provider automatically processes technical information when your browser requests a page, including your IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time of the request. This is used to deliver the site, keep it secure and troubleshoot problems.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

The site's own features do not rely on cookies or on storing information in your browser. Google Analytics, however, sets cookies (such as cookies named “_ga”) to recognize returning visitors and measure how the site is used.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and the site will continue to work. You can also install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on to stop Google Analytics from collecting information about your visits.

Third-Party Content on Our Pages

• Images in articles are delivered from the content platform we use to manage our content (Sanity). When your browser loads these images, Sanity receives standard technical information such as your IP address.
• YouTube videos appear in some articles. They use YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode and only load when you scroll near them. Once a video loads or you play it, YouTube (Google) may collect information according to its own privacy policy.
• Google Maps links on fishing spot pages open the spot's coordinates in Google Maps. Nothing is sent to Google Maps unless you click the link.

How We Use Information

• To read and respond to your messages.
• To review tournament submissions and create or update tournament listings.
• To review contributor applications and follow up with you.
• To send email updates you subscribed to and manage your subscription preferences.
• To correct and improve fishing spot, tournament and other site information.
• To understand how the site is used and improve it.
• To protect the site against spam, abuse and security problems.
• To comply with legal obligations.

Service Providers and Sharing

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own advertising. We use the following service providers to operate the site, and they process information on our behalf as described above:

• Vercel — website hosting.
• MailerSend — delivers website form submissions (Contact, Submit a Tournament and Become a Contributor) to our inbox.
• MailerLite — manages our email subscriber list and delivers our email updates and other marketing emails.
• Google — Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager (site analytics) and YouTube (embedded videos).
• Sanity — content management and image delivery. Form submissions are not stored in Sanity.

We may also disclose information if we believe it is required by law or necessary to protect our rights, property or safety, or those of our visitors or others.

How Long We Keep Information

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including responding to requests, maintaining appropriate business records, providing subscriptions you requested, complying with legal obligations, and resolving disputes.

Form submissions are kept in our email inbox on that basis. Subscriber information stays with MailerLite while your subscription is active, and after you unsubscribe it may be retained as reasonably necessary to keep a record of your unsubscribe request (so we don't email you again) and to comply with applicable law. Google Analytics data is retained according to our Google Analytics settings. You can ask us to delete information you have sent us (see Your Choices below).

Security

The site is served over HTTPS, and the credentials used to send form submissions are kept on our server rather than in your browser. No website or email system is completely secure, however, so we can't guarantee the security of information you send us.

External Links

The site links to other websites, such as tournament organizers, government fishing agencies and other sources. We don't control those sites, and their own privacy policies apply when you visit them.

Children's Privacy

Find Fishing Spots is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

Your Choices

• You can use the site without giving us any personal information.
• You can unsubscribe from our marketing emails at any time using the unsubscribe link in any of those emails.
• You can block or delete cookies in your browser, or opt out of Google Analytics as described above.
• You can ask us to access, correct or delete information you have sent us through a form by contacting us.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional privacy rights under local law. Contact us and we will respond to your request as required by the laws that apply to you.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as the site changes. When we do, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page.

Contact Us

Questions about this Privacy Policy or a privacy request? Reach us through our Contact page.