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• This roundup has been updated with new apps

Are you itching to go fishing? We compiled a handy roundup of the best fishing apps to help you charter a fishing boat or plan your next trip to the lake. And if you’re looking to display any of these apps on a large screen for easy viewing on the water, perhaps one of the best Android tablets will fulfill your needs.

Fishbrain

Crowdsourcing is a useful tool for something like reporting awesome fishing spots, which is why Fishbrain is one of the most popular fishing apps on Android. You can use the community’s reporting to find quality places to fish and to dive into what bait works well in those spots and at what times during the day. Heck, you can even chat with other anglers to pick up a few tips. If you’re short on equipment, there’s a store built in that carries more than 350 fishing brands (an app has to make money somehow, amirite) that you can order directly through the app.

Fishbrain is a one-stop shop for all your fishing needs, whether that’s general information, community discussion, or equipment purchases. The app is available for free, though you can pick up a few perks if you choose to subscribe to Pro for $10 a month.

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GoWild Hunting Fishing Outdoor

Those interested in finding like-minded anglers to converse in a digital social space will want to check out GoWild Hunting Fishing Outdoor. It’s the Twitter of the fishing world, where you can build a feed of your fishing adventures to share with others doing the same. There’s also a store component paired with gear reviews, so there’s a focus on researching and purchasing new gear.

So if you’d like to break it big as a social media influencer in the fishing world, perhaps GoWild Hunting Fishing Outdoor is where you’ll catch your break.

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Anglers’ Log – Fishing Journal

If you find many of the apps on today’s list too complicated or too stuffed with features, maybe Anglers’ Log is more your speed. This is a simple yet useful journaling app to catalog your catches while also keeping track of the location, bait, and size of the fish. This information can then be shared with friends in the app, and you can even store photos of your catches to show off.

Anglers’ Log is free to use and is open source, which means you can contribute to its development. While the Play Store states there are Pro features, there no longer appears to be any way to pay. So it seems the app has gone free in the buildup to its 2.0 release, which means it’s a perfect time to check it out.

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Fish Angler

Fish Angler is a crowdsourced tracking app where users can report their catches while marking them on the map to ensure other anglers can profit from this shared info. Open the GPS map, and dive into the catches logged to get an idea of the better spots to go fishing for your next outing. Fishing forecasts are also part of this info and give a better read on the best spots and times to fish, which is handy for planning a weekend trip.

The app acts as a personal log of your best catches and spots. Like social media apps, you can share your logs with your followers or follow others you admire. The most impressive bit is that this app is free. If you’re looking for something comparable to Fishbrain but don’t want to pay for a subscription, Fish Angler will float your boat.

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BassForecast

This app is for all you bass fanatics. Powered by AccuWeather, BassForecast combines weather and bass data—such as the times fish feed—and suggests the best times to fish. You can plan out your bass fishing trips to increase your odds of catches and plan extended trips with the app’s 10-day forecast.

Much like a weather app, a subscription is required if you want to unlock 10-day forecasts, the cover selector, and other premium features. A monthly sub is $2.99, and you can snag a yearly sub for $9.99.

Fish Deeper

Now that we’ve covered a few crowdsourced apps and a forecast app, it’s time to check out one of the better depth map apps. Fish Deeper offers detailed weather forecasts and more than 50,000 global lake depth maps. The combination of depth maps and weather patterns can help you uncover the best spots to plan fishing trips.

What’s great is the app isn’t limited to people with boats. If you use a Deeper castable sonar with the app, you’re covered on the shore, on the ice, or in the middle of your favorite lake. The Fish Deeper app, combined with sonar, lets you uncover what’s going on in the water. Heck, you can use a castable sonar to build your own depth/fishing maps, which is about as hands-on as it gets.

So whether you require forecasts and depth maps or are looking to create your own with a third-party castable sonar, Fish Deeper will get you where you need to go.

Fish Rules

Those interested in saltwater fishing will want to check out Fish Rules. The app lists each state’s regulations, ensuring you stay on the law’s good side by understanding which fish are in season and how many you’re allowed to keep. This wouldn’t be a fishing app if it didn’t offer data on thousands of fishing posts, so you can perfectly plan your next seaworthy outing.

The app is free to use, though there’s a yearly Pro subscription that’s $29.99. This sub unlocks many features, like the ability to save location spots while removing the app’s advertisements. You can trial the Pro plan for seven days to make sure you enjoy what’s available before committing to the full price.

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RiverFlows

Sure, lakes and oceans are properly covered with the above apps, but you may be wondering about rivers. Well, RiverFlows is a simple app that reports river and lake levels, which is handy for fishing as well as a slew of other sports. So, while this isn’t a dedicated fishing app, per se, it’s a handy tool to have at your disposal if you often wonder what the local levels are around your favorite fishing spots.

What’s great is that this app is open source and free, using data from USGS, NOAA, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Plus, the app includes a handy widget, so you can view your local water levels without dipping into the app.

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ANGLR

ANGLR is another all-in-one app, like Fishbrain and Fish Angler, and it can hold its own with its wide selection of features. The app was recently overhauled with a fresh UI, so it is actively developed, alleviating any worries that the money spent won’t be worth it. All the tools you need to plan and research are included, with tons of maps to explore with GPS route planning. You can record your catches while sharing your tips with users, and just about every style of fishing is covered, from fly to deep sea.

You can use the app for free, but a monthly or yearly subscription is required to unlock the complete feature set, like 14 premium map layers. The monthly sub is $2.50 a month, with the annual rate clocking in at $29.99. More or less, you can use the app as much as you want, and if you like what you see or require a few extra features, then the subscription will come in handy.

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Fishing Knots

There’s an art to tying knots, and with so many options that are bait and hook dependent, carrying a helpful guide to tying knots might be the cheat sheet you need for your next fishing trip. The app even offers tips that cover how to tie knots with different types of lines, whether it’s a braided line or a heavy-duty offshore line. Best of all, the app scales well on tablets and phones, which means you can pull it up on your boat’s tablet display (if it’s running Android) or your phone.

The app is free to use with advertisements. If you’d like to remove the ads, you can pay $3.49 through an in-app purchase. So whether you need a premium app, or something free, both options are available.

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FishingBooker

If you don’t know where or how to charter a boat for an awesome fishing trip, FishingBooker makes things simple. The app offers listings for vetted fishing guides from around the world, allowing you to pick and choose from an assortment of guides from the comfort of your smartphone. It’s a one-stop-shop to charter fishing trips in the palm of your hand. Since the app offers customer reviews, you can easily research potential guides.

FishTrack

Jumping back to saltwater fishing, FishTrack offers the data a deep-sea fisherman would need. You can view up-to-date ocean currents, marine weather forecasts, and your location both online and off (perfect for when you lose your signal). You can save waypoints for easy returns and plan your routes before an outing to ensure you get to where you need to go. It’s the perfect app to plan any seafaring fishing trip.

Like many apps, a subscription is available, not that the pricing is actively advertised, and that’s because a yearly Pro sub is $95.99. Even the monthly sub is $14.99, which isn’t cheap. You don’t need a subscription to use the app, so we recommend using it for free unless you require premium map overlays.

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Get out your fishing pole and catch some fish

Now that you’ve had a chance to peruse our hand-picked selection of the best Android apps for fishing, hopefully, you found an app that fits your needs, whether you’re looking for a simple journaling app like Angler’s Log, or require something more robust, like Fishbrain. If you’re looking to track your fitness while you’re out fishing, our handy fitness tracker guide covers the best devices to keep you in tip-top shape so that you can catch “the big one.”