Inspiration

Our inspiration came from the hackathon prompt and our goal of finding a creative way to help a community. We started by brainstorming niche ideas and listing out our hobbies and interests. During that process, we found an opportunity to combine two of our teammates' hobbies into a project that could help fishers of all experience levels. We wanted to make fishing more accessible by helping people find good fishing spots and determine when conditions might be favorable for a catch.

What We Learned

One of the biggest takeaways from this project was how much we could learn by building something together. We divided the project into frontend, backend, and database development, allowing each team member to focus on a different part of the application while learning how the pieces connect. We gained experience working with APIs, handling and processing data, building user interfaces, and connecting different technologies into one application.

How We Built It

Our project combines fishing forecasts with a community platform. Users can search for fishing spots and view forecasts based on environmental data, including weather, barometric pressure, and wind conditions. We also plan to provide a discussion forum where anglers can ask questions, share advice, and learn from one another.

We built the frontend using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, the backend using Python and FastAPI, and the database using MongoDB. The backend retrieves data from external APIs and processes it into fishing scores to help users better understand the conditions at different locations.

Challenges We Faced

One of our biggest challenges was finding reliable APIs that provided the environmental data we needed. Since our forecasts depend on this information, we had to explore different data sources and figure out how to retrieve and process the information into something useful.

Another major challenge was backend development. Some of us were less familiar with building APIs and handling data on the server side, so connecting the frontend, backend, external services, and database required a lot of learning and troubleshooting. However, working through these challenges helped us better understand how full-stack applications are built and how different components work together.