TidelineHow Tideline NZ works
Tideline NZ puts LINZ's tide predictions for 310+ New Zealand ports on your device, working offline, with your own fishing spots and a log of what you catch there. Here's how each part works, with short clips of the app where watching is quicker than reading.
This help is for Tideline NZ 1.7, on every store.
The clips were recorded from a test build of Tideline 1.7.2 on an Android phone, with made-up spots and catches. The white circle shows where a finger presses. They play while they're on screen, with no sound.
Your spots
Save a spot
A spot is a place you fish, launch or dive, saved on the map with a name, an icon, a colour and your notes.
Long-press (right-click on Windows) the map where it is. The New spot sheet opens with the nearest tide port already chosen. Give it a name, pick an icon and a colour, and add notes or fields such as species, depth and bait, or fields of your own. Save, and its pin is on the map. The clip is the whole round trip.
The map's Add a spot button adds one where you are, under a cross you move the map to, or from a mate's QR code: see Add a spot. Every spot you save is listed in Spots, the fourth view beside Chart, List and Map (see My spots).
Spots are kept on your device. There's no account and no sync.
Add a spot: where you are, the cross, or a code
The pin with a plus on the map, just above the locate button, is Add a spot. Besides a long-press (right-click on Windows) on the map, it has three ways in:
- Pick on the map puts a cross in the middle of the map, and the cross stays still while you move the map under it. Drag the map until the place is under the cross (zoom in to aim closer), then Save here, and the New spot sheet opens for it. It works that way round because a fingertip covers the very place you're aiming at; under a still cross you can see it. Cancel leaves without adding anything.
- Pin where I am saves a spot where you are, from your device's location, so location has to be on and allowed. It's saved at once with the date and time as its name and the nearest tide port, and its sheet opens so you can rename it. Undo, on the message, takes it straight back off. On a phone it needs no mobile signal. A PC places itself by Wi-Fi, which can be well out: when the position is rough, the message says by how much, and Move on the spot's sheet puts it right.
- Scan a spot reads a spot a mate shows you as a QR code, live with the camera or from a photo or a picture of the code (see Send a spot to a mate). On a PC it's there when the PC has a camera.
The Spots view has the same three, in the row at the foot of its list.
My spots: every spot and the log
My spots is where all your spots, and the log of every catch and note, come together. It's Spots, the fourth button beside Chart, List and Map, and it stays as you left it, search and all, while you look at the tides. The pins button on the map, in the column on the left under the map key, opens it too, and so does Open My spots in Settings. The port list shows your most recent spots at the top, under My spots.
- Spots: search by name, notes or any field, and sort by most recent, by name, or by nearest once the map has found where you are. Tap a spot to show its tides; the pencil edits it and the bin deletes it, after asking, with Undo, and it waits 30 days in Recently deleted.
- Log: every catch and note from every spot, newest first, with search, catches or notes on their own, and what your catches have in common across all your spots.
- Add a spot from here too, the same three ways as the map's button (see Add a spot).
- Back up, export or import: Back up everything, Restore a backup, and GPX and CSV files (see Back up, move and export).
A spot's tides are its port's
Tideline's tides are LINZ's predictions for ports, so every spot takes its tides from a tide port: the nearest one when you save it, or another you choose with Change on its sheet. Pick the port on your water when the nearest one is across land in another harbour.
Tap a spot's pin for its card: the next tide at its port, the height now, and Edit, Log and More. The spot is then the one showing, so the header reads its name with "Tides from Mahurangi Harbour" under it, or whichever port it uses. More opens the tide now, the sun and the moon, and View chart goes to the day's chart.
Bite times, sunrise and sunset are worked out at the spot itself. The tide times and heights are its port's. When the nearest port is more than 30 km away, the spot's sheet says so, because the water where you are may not follow the port's times.
Home screen widgets, notifications, the Windows mini window and the watch all follow a spot's port while the spot is showing.
Marine reserves on the map
The shield button on the map shows or hides New Zealand's marine reserves and the Hauraki Gulf's high protection and seafloor protection areas. Tap one for its name, what kind of area it is and what that means for fishing.
A spot inside one, or within 100 m of its edge, says so on its sheet.
Boundaries are indicative, and some places have their own rules. Check DOC's page before you fish. DOC's pages: marine reserves and the Hauraki Gulf's protection areas.
The boundaries come from the LINZ Data Service (Department of Conservation data), licensed for reuse under CC BY 4.0, and arrive with the tide data, so they're there offline too.
The log
Log a catch or a note
Every spot has a log of catches and notes, newest first, with photos. There are three ways in:
- With a spot showing, tap the "Log a catch at" button on the tide card, which names the spot.
- Tap Log on the spot's map card.
- Open the spot and use Add catch or Add note on its Log tab.
A catch starts at now; change the date and time for one from earlier. Add the species, size, weight, bait, method and whether it was released, or fields of your own, and up to 6 photos.
Each entry keeps what was predicted for its time: the tide at the spot's port (the height, rising or falling, how long since the last high or low, springs or neaps), and the moon, bite time and part of the day at the spot. They're predictions, not measurements.
Open an entry and tap one of its photos to see it full screen, with the next and previous, and zoom in for a closer look.
Photos stay on your device, with their location and camera details taken out. On a phone, Tideline explains the camera once, before it first asks for it.
My spots has a Log tab too: every entry from every spot, with search. Deleted entries wait 30 days in Recently deleted.
What works here, and Tell me when it matches
After 3 catches at a spot, its Log shows What works here: what those catches had in common, as counts, such as "4 of 6 on a falling tide, 1 to 3 h after high". A line only shows when at least half the catches share it. It counts your own catches; it isn't a forecast.
Once they share a pattern, Tell me when it matches sits underneath and says what it looks for. Turn it on, and Tideline sends an alert the evening before a day with those conditions, with the times they hold.
Alerts go at the send time under Settings, Notifications, which also lists every spot with alerts on, up to 10. An alert names the spot, so your device's lock-screen settings decide whether that shows while it's locked. Tap it to open the spot.
Catches logged with tides from a different port are left out, and the switch says so. Notifications have to be allowed; on Windows they arrive while the PC is on.
Sharing and backups
Back up, move and export
In My spots, Back up, export or import has Back up everything, which saves your spots, log and photos to one file to keep somewhere safe. On a phone or tablet it goes to the share sheet, and Tideline then asks whether you saved it; on Windows it's a Save dialog.
Restore it on any device with Tideline 1.5 or later. If something in it differs from what's there, it asks once: Keep mine, Use the backup's, or Keep both.
Export spots as GPX, for chartplotters and boating apps that read it, or as CSV for a spreadsheet, and import GPX or CSV files. An import never replaces a spot without asking. The log exports as CSV too.
There's no account and no sync. Android's own backup to your Google account includes your spots and log, but not the photos, when that backup is on. On Windows, uninstalling Tideline NZ removes them, so keep the backup file somewhere else.
Tides and charts
Ports, pins and the map
Tap the port name at the top to change port. Search finds places, harbours and your spots: "kaipara" lists the 12 Kaipara Harbour ports, though none of them is called Kaipara.
There are 17 standard ports with LINZ's full predictions, and 305 secondary ports whose times and heights are LINZ's corrections to one of them. That standard port can be a long way off: the Kaipara Harbour ports work from Port Taranaki.
On Chart and List, the row of buttons under the view buttons holds the standard port's secondary ports, so the one next door is a tap away.
Long-press (right-click on Windows) a port in the list to pin it, so it's one tap away: see Pin the ports you use.
The map shows 310+ tide stations. Tap a pin for the next tide and the height now, then More for the chart. The location button shows where you are and offers the nearest tide port; tap it again to go back to your spot or port.
Depths, rocks and wrecks
Two buttons in the map's column on the left, under full screen, turn on LINZ's nautical chart data, simplified for this map. Each is off until you turn it on, and stays as you leave it.
- Depths draws depth lines and charted depths in metres below chart datum, drying heights, unsurveyed areas and dredged channels, more of them as you zoom in.
- Rocks and wrecks marks rocks, wrecks, foul areas, foul ground and fish havens as LINZ charted them.
The first time you turn each one on, a note says what it leaves out: "Depths are a guide only" and "Rocks and wrecks are a guide only". The map key lists every line and symbol, with More about depths to read the note again.
With Depths on, tap the water, zoomed in, for its charted depth range. With Rocks and wrecks on, tap a rock or wreck for what's charted there. A readout inside a marine reserve or protection area names it too. Depth on tap, under Settings, Map, turns these off.
Not for navigation: tide times are predictions, and the map's depths, rocks and wrecks are simplified from LINZ's chart data, last published in 2023. On the water, use an official chart.
Depths, rocks and wrecks: contains data sourced from the LINZ Data Service licensed for reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Pin the ports you use
Pinned ports are your regulars, kept in the port list's Pinned section so they're one tap away. Long-press (right-click on Windows) any port in the list, standard or secondary, to pin it. The same again unpins it, and so does the crossed-out pin at the end of a pinned row. Up to 5 can be pinned: with 5, unpin one to add another.
If you have saved spots, Pinned sits just under your most recent ones.
Two other places do the same. The Tide progress sheet (tap the ring beside the summary) has a pin at the top for the port showing. Settings, Pinned locations, lists your pins with an Unpin button each, and a search to add more, with no long-press needed.
Your pinned ports are also the ports these can show:
- A home screen widget follows the app or shows one of your pinned ports. On Android you choose as you add it; to change it, long-press the widget and tap its settings icon (Android 9 and later). On an iPhone, touch and hold the widget and tap Edit Widget.
- On Windows, the mini window's right-click menu has Show tides for, with your pinned ports.
- On a Wear OS watch, the Tideline tile's arrows step through Follow the app and your pinned ports.
If you unpin the port a widget or the mini window shows, it follows the app until you pin that port again.
Pinning a port isn't Pin where I am, which saves a spot (see Add a spot). Pinning doesn't add notifications for a port, and Back up everything doesn't include your pins.
Chart, list and reminders
The chart shows a day's tide, with the highs and lows marked and a dot for now. Drag across it to read the height at any time (on Windows, move the mouse over it). The arrows step a day; the date takes you back to today.
Tap the ring beside the summary for the height now, how far through the tide you are, and the sun and moon.
The list has every high and low for weeks ahead. Set your launch threshold in Settings, from 0.5 to 5.0 m: a dashed Launch line marks it on the chart, an anchor marks each tide above it in the list, and the Launch filter shows only the launch windows.
Share the next tide from the header, or long-press (right-click on Windows) a tide in the list to share that one.
The bell on a tide at least 30 minutes away sets a reminder 30 minutes before it; tap it again to cancel. Under Settings, Notifications, Tideline can also send an evening summary of the next day's daytime high tide and launch window, and alerts for king tides and big spring tides, about once a month, the evening before.
On Android 12 and later, Exact times asks Android to send them at their set time.
Bite times, springs and neaps
Spring and neap describe how big the day's tides are: how far the water rises and falls. The moon sets it, not the season. Springs come around the new and full moon, neaps around the half moons, and the tide swings from one to the other and back about every two weeks. The badge runs from Spring tide through Mid-range to Neap tide.
Bite times are off until you turn them on under Settings, Chart display. They show as green bars under the chart: majors, the taller bars with a fish, about two hours while the moon is overhead or underfoot, and minors, about an hour around moonrise and moonset. They're brighter around the new and full moon, the same moon that makes spring tides.
Bite times are a fishing tradition worked out from the moon, the method behind the bite time tables in the fishing magazines: a guide, not a prediction.
Near-extreme shading, also under Chart display, marks 20 minutes either side of each high and low: a rough guide to when the tide is turning. Tideline predicts the height of the tide, not which way or how fast the water flows.
Good to know
Which device has what
iPhone, iPad and Mac (the App Store) and Android (Google Play) have 1.7.2, and Windows (the Microsoft Store) has 1.7.2.0.
- Home screen widgets: on Android, and on iPhone with iOS 17 or later. Each can follow the app or show one of your pinned ports.
- Windows: click where this help says tap, and right-click where it says long-press. Notifications arrive while the PC is on, even with Tideline NZ closed. A mini window and an icon by the clock are under Settings, On this PC.
- Wear OS: a watch with Wear OS 3 or later, with Tideline on an Android phone, gets a tile with the next tide and a countdown, and a complication for its watch face, each showing the app's port or one of your pinned ports. There's no Tideline watch face, and no Apple Watch app.
Offline, and where the tides come from
The tide data comes with the app, so it all works with no signal. With a connection, Tideline checks once a day for new LINZ data; Settings shows the data's date and has Sync Now.
The predictions are LINZ's: its predictions for the 17 standard ports, and its corrections for 305 secondary ports. They're predictions, not measurements: wind and air pressure can push the real tide away from them. They're not official tide tables and they're not for navigation, as the note at the foot of this page says.
Chatham Islands times are in New Zealand time: add 45 minutes for Chatham time.
There's no account and nothing to sign in to. Your spots, log and photos stay on your device unless you send a file, or your device's own backup takes them. The privacy page has the details.
Still stuck?
Email hello@sumnerd.co.nz with what you were trying to do, which device it's on, and the version, which is at the very bottom of Settings. A person reads it.
What each version added is under What's new on the Tideline page.