I Built a Trip Optimizer to Skunk-Proof Your Next Trip

The worst trip in this sport is the one where you fly halfway around the planet, drag your gear through three airports, take a week off work, and then look at empty water for six straight days. I've been on that trip. So I built something to stop it from happening again.

It's called the Trip Optimizer, it's live now at trips.spearfactor.com, and it's free.

Try it before you read another word. I'll wait.

The Idea Came From a Listener

Real quick — the spark for this came from Michael in Singapore. He listens to the podcast, sent me a message a while back with one of those simple "wouldn't it be cool if there was a thing that…" ideas. I took his thought, ran with it, and the whole optimizer is built around what he asked for. Mahalo Michael — this one's because of you.

A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Here's exactly how to use it, start to finish, in less than two minutes. I'll walk it through with a real example: planning a yellowtail trip for June–July.

Step 1 — Open the Tool

Head to trips.spearfactor.com. You'll see this:

Two ways in: pick a location, pick a species, or both. Pick whichever you've already got in mind. If you know where you want to fish but not what's biting, start with location. If you've got a target species but no location, start there. If you know both — great, the tool gives you a full window analysis for that combo.

Step 2 — Pick Your Target

Start typing a species name and the autocomplete pulls up matches with scientific names so you don't pick the wrong one (there are a lot of yellowtails).

138 species in the catalog right now — California staples, the full Sea of Cortez set, Hawaii pelagics, Atlantic snappers, NZ endemics, Med reef fish, the works. Click the one you want.

Same flow for location: drop a pin on the map or type in a coastline. 325 spots worldwide — Cabo, La Paz, Cortez, Catalina, Channel Islands, Mag Bay, Cedros, São Tomé, Bijagós, Sodwana, Cape Town, Cornwall, Tonga, Cook Islands. Your spot is probably in there.

Step 3 — Set Your Travel Window

Pick the date range you can travel. The wider the range, the more options you give the optimizer to find good windows inside it.

Hit Find My Trip.

Step 4 — Read Your Top Match

In a few seconds you'll get your number-one pick — the best window inside your range, the projected water temperature, the moon phase you'll be walking into, and a tide chart for the trip.

For yellowtail in June–July, the tool sent me to Lord Howe Island, AU, July 13–19. Southern Hemisphere winter is yellowtail prime time there. The tide chart shows the tidal range across the trip and the moon panel shows a waxing crescent — dark-moon-leaning, which yellowtail like.

Step 5 — Check the Full Ranked List

Scroll down and you'll see the rest of the top picks:

Each spot gets a likelihood ring — that's a relative score. The #1 match in your query is your best window; the others scale down from there. It blends tide strength, dark-moon nights, water temperature, and species behavior into one read.

In my yellowtail run: Lord Howe at 92%, Bahía Asunción at 90%, Magdalena Bay at 89%, Lizard Island and Point Reyes at 88%. Five solid options across two hemispheres, all in one query.

Step 6 — Tap Details to See Why

This is the part I use the most. Tap Details on any spot and you get the full breakdown of why it ranked where it did.

For Lord Howe, the panel shows:

• Best multi-day window — exact dates

• Moon transition — what phase you'll dive across

• Spawning / feeding window — when species concentrate to spawn or feed (fish are denser and more predictable then)

• Iconic destination boost — Lord Howe is a top-3 yellowtail spot in the world, so the tool adds a small priority boost

• Limiting factor — water temp is the thing holding the score back here; it's almost perfect, just a hair cool

Now I know exactly what's working in my favor and what isn't — instead of trusting a black-box number.

How I Use It

A few examples of how I run it for myself.

"I want to go somewhere in three weeks — where?" Pick a species, set the dates, and the tool ranks every applicable hotspot worldwide. Sometimes it tells me everywhere is mediocre and I should stay local — that's actually useful information. A skipped trip beats a skunked trip.

"I'm going to Cabo. When?" Pick the spot, leave the dates wide open, let it pick the species. It tells me which months stack up — peak pelagic in summer, striped marlin in winter — and the best multi-day windows inside those months.

"I want to spear [species]. When and where?" This is the one I run the most. Pick the species, leave both location and dates open. The tool walks the entire calendar across every spot in the catalog and shows you when that fish is most catchable globally — and which hotspots top the list in each window. So if I plug in white seabass, it tells me April–June at the Channel Islands backside is the play. If I plug in cubera snapper, it points me at Panama in June. If I plug in dogtooth tuna, it sends me to Tonga in August. One species, full year, sorted by where the fish are actually catchable.

"I'm fishing the Channel Islands this Saturday." Same flow but tighter. Tells me what's biting, what the water temp will be, and which moon I'm walking into. Quick gut-check before I roll out.

What I Hope You Get Out of It

Honestly? Three things.

Stop wasting trips. The "I went and the conditions were terrible" trip is the worst experience in this sport. The optimizer won't fix the weather, but it'll tell you when the weather is statistically going to be on your side.

Plan smarter. Even if you know your home waters cold, the tool earns its keep on destinations you've never been. I never would've known the Mag Bay striped marlin run hits hardest in late October without doing a stack of homework. The tool just tells you.

Stack the small wins. Even at a great destination, the right week inside the right month is the difference between an okay trip and the trip you'll talk about for the next five years. Tide phase, moon phase, the specific aggregation week — that's what the optimizer lines up for you.

The Tool Isn't Magic

A couple of honest things.

These are model estimates. The optimizer blends tide, moon, temp, and species behavior into a probability score. They are not a guarantee. Local intel and recent dive reports always trump a number on a page — verify with people on the ground before you book a flight.

The species data is built from the spear targets I know matter. If you fish a spot and a species I missed is the actual top target there, hit the feedback link inside the tool and tell me. I read every one of those.

It's early access. I've validated it against my own home waters and a stack of fishing reports across nine regions. It's accurate where I can check it. There are still edges — that's why your feedback matters.

Try It

trips.spearfactor.com — free to use right now.

Stress-test it on a spot you know cold. If it surfaces the right species in the right window, cool. If it doesn't, hit the feedback link and tell me what's wrong. Then try it on a spot you've been curious about and see if it gives you something to plan a real trip around.

And again — thanks to Michael in Singapore. If something on the podcast sparks an idea, don't sit on it. Reach out. This is what comes of one good message.

The fish are out there. The trick is showing up the week they're catchable.

— Bret

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The Trip Optimizer is part of SpearFactor.com. For real-time dive conditions, hit conditions.spearfactor.com. More guides and podcast episodes on the blog.