One place for the whole trip, written by someone who made it.
I'm Dan. Fishing Dan is the free fishing atlas I wish I'd had: the fish you can catch and when, the licence and the rules, where to fish from the bank or a boat, and the exact rigs and knots to do it. One water at a time, every figure dated and sourced.
Why I built it
It started with one trip. I was planning a few days on Lac du Bourget, the big lake in Savoie, and I had simple questions. Is it any good? What would I actually catch on my dates? Did I need a licence, where did I buy one, how much was it? Where were the good spots? Was I fishing from the bank or from a boat, and what for? Which rigs for each fish, and once I'd chosen them, what exactly did I buy, and which knot tied what?
None of it lived in one place. I stitched the answers together across a dozen sources: a tourism page, a federation PDF, a forum thread from years ago, a tackle blog, a video. By the time I had a plan, I'd done the work that should already exist somewhere. So I wrote it down properly, in the order you actually need it, and that became Fishing Dan.
It's one place for the whole trip, one water at a time. Lac du Bourget is the first, done in full. More follow when I've fished them.
Who I am
I'm an angler, not a guide service or a magazine. I've fished since I was a kid, mostly for perch, zander and pike, and I still get it wrong often enough to stay humble. I'm not sponsored, I don't run a tackle shop, and I don't have a wall of trophies to show you. What I do have is the habit of planning a trip carefully and writing down what worked, what didn't, and what I'd do differently.
Every guide here is bylined to me, because you should know who stands behind the advice you're about to act on. Where I've fished a water myself, I'll tell you plainly. Where a figure comes from somewhere official, I name the source and date it, so you can check it rather than take my word.
What you can expect
The promise
- One place for the whole trip. The fish and when, the licence and the rules, where to fish, the rigs, the knots and the kit, on one guide and its printable cheat sheet.
- Specific, not generic. Real species for real dates, the licence price with the link, named banks and launches, exact tackle sizes.
- A short, shared shopping list. The rigs reuse tackle, and a kit builder trims the list to the fish and methods you pick.
- Dated and sourced. Every licence price and season carries the date it was checked and a link to the official source.
- Free. No paywall, no account, no sign-up.
What it isn't
- Not a shop. I say what to buy and why, in plain sizes and types. I don't run a checkout and nothing here is for sale.
- Not a booking platform. I explain how to get a licence and where to hire a boat, and link you to the official source. I don't take the booking.
- Not a magazine or a news feed. No "ten best lures of the year". Every page is a reference you come back to before a trip.
The atlas grows slowly, on purpose
Right now there's one water done in full: Lac du Bourget. That's deliberate. I'd rather write one place properly than mark fifty I haven't fished. So the atlas fills in slowly, and every guide that goes live is one you can actually act on. Each new water reuses the same rig and knot library, so the libraries get richer as the map fills in.
Hear when a new water lands
I add a new place to fish every so often. Leave your email and I'll let you know when there's a new one. Nothing else, no other email.
Fishing Dan is operated by DT Global Ventures Ltd. The full company details are in the footer and on the legal pages. If you'd like to get in touch, say hello on the contact page.