There’s an app for everything these days and fishing is not an exception. These top 5 fishing apps can be a huge help to make your next fishing trip more successful and a few of them give you a place to brag about your catch as well.
- For the the best way to know what's biting near you: Fishbrain
- For comprehensive nautical charts: Navionics
- For knowing when fish are most active: Fishing Points
- For free hourly weather forcasts: The Weather Channel
- For free satellite imagery of any body of water in the world: Google Earth
Fishbrain
Top features: Fishbrain is a social app that let’s anglers post the pictures and locations of catches that other angler can view and filter by. Trying to find where a certain species is biting? Zoom in on your area in the map, filter by species and scroll through recent catches to find your best bet for catching one of your own. The app also features a built in hourly weather forecast that lists temperature, precipitation, wind speed and direction, air pressure, tides and more
How much does Fishbrain cost? The base version is free and includes the basic map, weather forecast, community feed and more. The Pro version unlocks more catch information, depth contours to find fish-holding structures, customizable waypoints to find your way back to a favorite spot and more. Upgrading to pro costs $12.99 if billed monthly or $79.99 if billed annually which works out to $6.67 monthly.
Navionics
Top features: The Navionics app puts comprehensive nautical charts in the palm of your hand. With SONARCHART™ 0,5 m bathymetry charts, official unaltered NOAA charts and a variety of map overlays including satellite imagery, relief shading and sonar imagery, the Navionics app make it incredibly easy to chart your route. Plus, with the ability to set your boat size, cruising speed and more, Navionics can estimate your travel time and fuel consumption for any trip.
How much does the Navionics app cost? A year subscription for a given region costs $49.99. The most popular region subscription includes lakes, rivers and coast marine charts for the U.S. & Canada.
Fishing Points
Top features: Fishing Points is an all-in-one fishing forecast app that provide fish activity ratings, nautical maps, tides and a way to log and save locations and pictures of your best catches. It’s great for salt and freshwater anglers
How much does Fishing Points cost? The base version of the app is free and provides a ton of great forecasting options. The premium version unlocks advanced fish activity tracking, nautical maps, unlimited location saving and more for $9.99 if billed monthly or $49.99 if billed annually which works out to $4.17 per month.
The Weather Channel
Top features: The Weather Channel app can be a huge help in planning your day on the water. Even though most fishing apps have weather data built in, it doesn’t hurt to double check conditions with another weather forecast to give you the most success and make sure you avoid unsafe conditions on the weather. The app can also send you push notifications for your area so you have a heads up when conditions will change soon.
How much does The Weather Channel app cost? It’s completely free!
Learn More and Download for iOS >
Learn More and Download for Android >
Google Earth
Top features: Google Earth is often overlooked but is an incredibly powerful tool for anglers. Fishing a new lake for the first time? Pull it up on google earth and get an idea of where you might want to go based on the satellite imagery. Google Earth also allows you to look at old satellite images which can be a huge help if you can find shots of when the water level was lower than the current levels. Brush piles or other cover that are visible in the low water level images but are submerged by the current water level can be a gold mine and give you a great starting spot on a new body of water.
How much does Google Earth cost? All features available for free!
Learn More and Download for iOS >
Learn More and Download for Android >
With these apps you have a ton of information in the palm of your hand. All that’s left to do is get out there, start casting and catch something!
Need More Help?
West Marine is the perfect place to get ready for your next fishing trip. We offer free line spooling and locally assorted tackle in most of our stores to gear you up for what’s biting in your area. Plus, with a huge selection of fishing gear and plenty of anglers on our crew, we have the know-how you need to get ready. Find your store here.
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