The Free, Ad-Free Weather App We Pay For: Salty Forecast

Quick answer: Salty Forecast is a free hyperlocal weather app built for people who fish and boat Florida's Gulf coast. There are no ads, no signup, and no email to hand over — Lasbury-Tracy Realty pays for it and hosts it as a service to the community, so your neighbors can check whether the tide is moving without wading through advertising first. It covers 27 towns from Crystal River down through Englewood, Boca Grande, and Naples to Key West, plus St. Augustine and four spots in north Georgia.

Why there are no ads

Most weather apps make their money one of two ways: they show you ads, or they collect your data and sell it. We didn't want either for our neighbors. So instead of pointing people at an app that wants their email and their location history, the firm decided to pay for one outright. Salty Forecast has no ads, no account to create, and nothing tracked and sold. You open it, you get your answer, you go fishing. That's the whole idea.

What it actually tells you

The app pulls the real numbers a boater or angler checks before heading out: NOAA tide predictions, hourly wind and gusts, water temperature, and offshore swell with 90 days of history. There's animated radar, storm risk, and live red tide sampling straight from Florida Fish & Wildlife. If you want to see today's Englewood fishing weather or pull up the Englewood tide chart before you load the boat, it's a couple of taps.

How the daily scores work

Salty Forecast scores the next seven days for both fishing and boating. Each score is built from tide movement, wind, seas, sky, the barometric trend, and the moon — and the app explains every score, so you're not just trusting a number. A good tarpon morning and a rough afternoon chop show up as different scores on the same day, which is usually what you need to know.

The part that matters in the passes

Anyone who runs Stump Pass or Boca Grande Pass knows the water can turn ugly fast. The usual culprit is wind fighting the tide — when a stiff breeze blows against an outgoing tide through a narrow pass, it stacks up steep, close-together waves. Salty Forecast watches for exactly that and warns you when the wind and tide are working against each other, so a rough ride through the pass isn't a surprise. It's the same reason the Boca Grande page is worth a look before a run down to the Pass.

Red tide, when it's around

Red tide comes and goes on this coast, and it's worth knowing before you plan a beach day or a fishing trip. The app shows live water-sample data from Florida Fish & Wildlife, so you can check the Englewood Beach red tide report instead of guessing.

How to get it

Salty Forecast runs in your phone's browser and installs to the home screen like any other app — open it and add it to your home screen. An iPhone app is in the works. It's free, and it stays free.

Local since 1951

Lasbury-Tracy Realty has worked this stretch of the Gulf coast since 1951, and a lot of what we love about living here happens on the water. Paying for a clean, honest weather app felt like a small, useful way to give something back to the community we've served for over 70 years. Give it a try, and pass it along to anyone who fishes or boats. Questions about the area, on the water or off it? Call (941) 474-5585 or visit ltrhomes.com.