CIRAS - Frequently Asked Questions

Angler surveys consist of questions or prompts that anglers respond to about their fishing trip, usually after a fishing trip is completed. The data helps inform management actions to protect fisheries and improve angling opportunities. The data collected often includes angler satisfaction, water body visited, and fish information. If fish are caught during the trip, the angler would specify the species and size.

CIRAS is a web-based survey platform that allows anglers to submit angling data for more locations and species than ever before. CIRAS also provides anglers with access to data, submitted by anglers like themselves, through the user-friendly, interactive ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard. CIRAS is powered by anglers, for anglers, and is meant to provide anglers with information to help plan their fishing trips.

CIRAS exponentially expands the reach of CDFW’s Angler Survey Boxes (ASB), a network of more than 200 metal boxes located throughout the state where anglers can record their fishing experiences on paper survey slips. While the ASB system is typically used to evaluate trout fisheries, the modern CIRAS platform will provide anglers with an opportunity to submit and interact with information about any sport fish from any fishable inland or anadromous water in the state. Historic data from ASB’s will also be uploaded into the CIRAS ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard, providing immediate utility for those fisheries while anglers begin to populate new locations.

If you cannot find the water that you fished in the Survey portion of the CIRAS platform, please click the ‘Can’t Find Your Water?’ button, follow the prompts to enter descriptive information about the water you fished, and then please provide information about your angling outing.  

If you cannot find your water on the ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard, it is likely that no one has submitted data for that water body yet.  Please contribute data about your fishing day to start building out the utility of the ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard. 

If you cannot find your water on the ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard and are certain that data has already been entered for that water, please submit feedback using the feedback form found in the Resources menu in the upper right-hand corner of the website
 

The development of CIRAS focused on the most sought-after sport fish species, so some species may be left off the list.  If you have trip data on that species, please select ‘Other’ for the species, mention the name of the species in the ‘Additional Comments’ field, and submit it to CIRAS to increase the utility of the ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard. Additionally, if you can’t find a particular species and you believe this was an error, please consider submitting comments using the feedback form.

Currently, CIRAS is being piloted in Region 2 (North Central Region) which encompasses all or parts of 17 counties, including Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Lake, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento (east of Interstate 5), San Joaquin (east of Interstate 5), Sierra, Sutter, Yolo (north of Interstate 80) and Yuba. Anglers will be able to provide data for any fishable inland or anadromous water, statewide, once the pilot phase has concluded and CIRAS is expanded statewide.  

CIRAS is completely free to use. Anglers do not have to sign up for a subscription to access information and will not be subjected to product advertisements. 

While the new survey can be accessed using mobile devices, and was designed to accommodate mobile display, the pilot platform is not a standalone App and requires internet connectivity to submit angling data and utilize the ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard. However, CDFW plans to incorporate off-line functionality in future phases.

Anglers will be able to see what species are present, look at catch rates, size distributions, and the time of year others are out catching fish. Additionally, the ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard will display data on overall angler satisfaction with their fishing trip, satisfaction with the number of fish caught, and satisfaction with the size of fish caught. Maps within the ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard will provide information regarding topography, streets, and landmarks, as well as public boat launches. Depending on angler preferences, there are different ways to search and view data on the ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard. Anglers can choose to search for data for a particular species, body of water, or they can search for fishable waters within a user-defined geographic radius.

Historic data from Angler Survey Boxes will be uploaded into CIRAS providing immediate utility for those fisheries while anglers begin to populate new locations. A high level of participation with the CIRAS platform among the full spectrum of diverse California inland anglers will drive the quality of fishing information that CIRAS provides for new locations. If the water you are interested in is not showing up on the ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard, it means we currently do not have CIRAS data on that water. Please enter your fishing trip information to increase ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard utility.

Yes, continuing to report data from your fishing trips will ensure that there is up-to-date information on the ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard. More reports will build a data set that accurately represents the status of the fishery, relying less on spurious or ‘one-off’ entries that are much more positive or negative than what is typical. Continuing to add to the data set allows us to monitor seasonality and change in fishery trends over time.

CIRAS has a built-in data validation process. Submitted data that passes the automated validation checks is uploaded to the ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard nightly. Any data that does not pass the validation process is flagged and manually reviewed by CDFW staff.

CIRAS will complement, rather than replace, more intensive assessments conducted by trained staff. California has more than 10,000 fishable waters and limited staffing to conduct robust surveys on each water. With enough participation, CIRAS could act as an early warning indicator to help direct staff biologists to waters that require more thorough assessments. In the absence of other relevant data, CDFW uses fishing survey data submitted by anglers to inform management actions to protect fisheries and improve angling opportunities. These surveys collect data directly from anglers about the fish they catch (or don’t catch) as well as their overall angling experience during a day of fishing. This information can also serve as an alert for CDFW scientists when more robust surveys are necessary.

Yes. CIRAS is not a substitute for any of CDFW report card programs and does not meet their reporting requirements.

No. While CDFW does collect specific fishing location information provided by the angler through the CIRAS survey platform, specific locations will not be shared publicly through the ‘Ready to Fish’ data dashboard. CDFW biologists use the location data provided by anglers to better understand the angling data for that fishery and to validate that the data entered matches the water body selected in the dropdown menu.

California has more than 10,000 fishable waters and limited staffing to conduct robust surveys on each water. With enough participation, CIRAS could act as an early warning indicator to help direct staff biologists to waters that require more thorough assessments. In the absence of other relevant data, CDFW uses fishing survey data submitted by anglers to inform management actions to protect fisheries and improve angling opportunities. These surveys collect data directly from anglers about the fish they catch (or don’t catch) as well as their overall angling experience during a day of fishing.

Additionally, CDFW is dedicated to make angling opportunities more accessible and enjoyable for its constituents. CIRAS helps us do this be providing data summaries on fishable waters in the state to help anglers discover new waters and plan their fishing trips.

CDFW views these questions as an opportunity to learn more about California’s anglers and the responses will help guide an equitable distribution of resources to our constituency.

No.

CDFW welcomes feedback from the public regarding CIRAS, which can be sent through the CIRAS Feedback Form.