With the rise of the smartphone there has never been more information available at your fingertips. There’s an app for almost every type of activity, including fishing; but what are the best apps to help you catch more? We asked the species-mad anglers on The Big Lerf Group on Facebook for their favourites
FISH BRAIN
An American app that works well in the UK too. It has a reasonable amount of free access, but like most of the apps here, to get the best from it you will need to pay. The app helps you log catches and record the information from the photos. There’s a great community aspect to it, and you can make your catch locations public if you wish. This way you can see where fish are being caught and when. There are weather forecasts and ‘Bitetime’ which gives you recommended times to fish for each species, plus lots of other features. Josh Pickett says, ‘Fishbrain is valuable for logging your catches, as it will automatically record wind direction, pressure, weather, and temperature, just from the location and date you input. Convenient if you want to build a pattern of bite conditions for upcoming competitions.’
Cost – £149.89 a year (often less with offers) or £12.49 a month. Three-day free trial available. https://fishbrain.com
NAUTIDE
A deceptively clever app, with an almost intimidating amount of information stored on it. This app isn’t about logging catches, but it is about working out the conditions to help you catch. Think of it like a tide times app that also tells you every other piece of forecast information you may need. There’s even a fish activity predictor, based on Solunar Theory. The app is usable without paying, but it does show occasional annoying ads. It is cheap for the year though, especially considering the amount of information that is on it. Josh Fletcher says ‘I genuinely think this app played a huge part in the run of 70cm-plus bass I had over a short space of time. There’s so much information to be gathered from just one app’.
Cost – £20.99 a year or £3.79 a month. Seven-day free trial available. https://nautide.com
NAVIONICS
A website and app that is almost essential for boat fishing, it has some very useful features for the shore angler too. Unfortunately, almost all of those features are behind a paywall, so you will have to pay to get the best out of it. The app asks you to subscribe to the marine charts, with the UK, Ireland and Holland being the most useful to our readers. Relief shading is incredibly useful for assessing new venues, how safe it is to reach them, and what the seabed looks like. Carl Doble says, ‘for the reef shading overlay, the app can be a godsend when fishing new ground’
Cost – £39.99 a year. Seven-day free trial available.
WINDY
Although a fairly simple app with one main focus, checking wind direction and strength, this is one of the most popular apps used by sea anglers. It is mostly free, with some premium options behind a paywall, but there are no ads and it is very accurate. You can track weather fronts, pressure changes, swell direction, rainfall and more. The very best part is the visualiser that helps you see how the weather will affect the particular spot you want to fish. No angler should be planning a trip without checking this app before. Tim Brewer says, ‘the app is perfect for checking wind and swell directions with the handy visual map’
Cost – £34.90 a year (one off payment), or £22.99 a year if you subscribe.
INATURALIST
This isn’t a fishing-focused app, but a citizen science one, and best of all, it is free. You can log your catches through the app, so they can be added to the database of species seen in that area. What it is most useful for, though, is research. You can check which species have been seen in any part of the world, and photos often accompany this. It is usually quite accurate and not just for fish either; literally any flora and fauna can be logged through it. So it is helpful to see what you can expect to encounter, especially if you are generally interested in nature as well as angling. Donny Midas says ‘A few of us use iNaturalist heavily to research where a species has been caught, or what has been caught/seen where you are going’.
