Fishing apps?

[JacobMatthews]

Hi guys!

I’ve been following a few fishing forums and there is not much written about apps to use for ice fishing, so I am curious what others are using.

What are your thoughts on fishing apps, and which apps do you use for fishing?

[burgerunh]

I use Navionics for lake bathymetric maps.

I also use an app called Fishing Pro for solunar table information and prime fishing times.

I use these for both open water and ice fishing.

[pmaloney86]

I use Navionics for lake bathymetric maps.

I also use an app called Fishing Pro for solunar table information and prime fishing times.

I use these for both open water and ice fishing.

Still using Navionics now that they jacked up the fee to $50!?  I stopped using it this year but have yet to find a sufficient replacement.

[burgerunh]

Still using Navionics now that they jacked up the fee to $50!?  I stopped using it this year but have yet to find a sufficient replacement.

What are the other options for a phone app for bathymetric mapping?

[RuralMT]

I've seen a few threads along the lines of this topic but noticed no one has mentioned that OnX plans to debut their fishing app in 2024. It sounds like they'll provide the basics (boat ramps, species and lake regulations, etc) but will also provide bathymetric maps as well. Anyone plan to use this? I use the hunt app religiously and this seems like a great idea...interested to see how accurate their maps are.

https://www.onxmaps.com/fish/blog/fishing-app

[missoulafish]

Looking for any tool out there that does what Onx does but isn't Onx. Eric can go pound sand.

[RuralMT]

Looking for any tool out there that does what Onx does but isn't Onx. Eric can go pound sand.

My apologies MFish. I use it for the utility and the fact that it's a Missoula-based company. Might I ask why you choose to boycott it?

[thomasthepikehunter]

Looking for any tool out there that does what Onx does but isn't Onx. Eric can go pound sand.

There is Huntstand. What is wrong with Onx?

[missoulafish]

No need to apologize Rural. I get why you use it. It’s a great tool and Ive used it too but it’s going away as soon as I find an adequate replacement. Eric Sigfried, the founder of OnX is talking out of both sides of his face and how he promotes his business in that he says OnX is to made to promote and tout public ground that we all own and can access along with land we own and can’t get to (landlocked). He then goes and buys an outfitting company that has 10k acres of landed locked state and BLM land that’s inaccessible because the company he bought leases the land around those 10k acres. . Kinda hypocritical.

[thomasthepikehunter]

That's pretty messed up. Is it as bad in Montana as it is Wyoming? I've seen counties where 70% of the land was checkerboard. Technically over 50% of the county was public land, yet realistically they had next to no accessible public land. There has to be a better way, I don't know what the railroads were thinking when they created this disaster. I'm sympathetic to a certain degree to land owners who don't want trespassers, but at the same time some of them have become such assholes it's hard to feel for them. All I'm asking is for 3 dang feet at a corner to walk from public land to public land. Not even that, just let me climb the fence corner with a ladder. So many ranchers have it in their mind that they are going to be giving up so much if they allow this. In a way they would be, they would be giving up land they do not own. That's the real problem, people buy 5000 acres or whatever, as you say Eric did, and yet they seem to think they own all the 5,000 acres of BLM land between. Yeah, their property value would go down, but that's because their property value currently includes land they don't own!

[RuralMT]

Thank you for enlightening me MFish. That definitely seems hypocritical, given their mission of revealing landlocked public parcels. As pikehunter mentioned, there's also Huntstand and GoHunt. I haven't used either, but it might be worth looking into.

I don't know what the railroads were thinking when they created this disaster.

Unfortunately, we can thank Uncle Sam and the railroads for the debacle. The government used land as a funding mechanism for the subsidized railroads. They gave the railroad companies land that could be sold or leased in order to help cover the cost of construction.

[missoulafish]

Im definitely going to be looking into other apps. Just bummed about how OnX went about this....

[HWeber]

Meh I don't disagree but it's not like there was any access before Eric bought it.

[thomasthepikehunter]

Meh I don't disagree but it's not like there was any access before Eric bought it.

Thats true, but its not great to be part of the problem. All he would have to do is allow corner crossing, and I could care less what he buys. Advertising as an outfitter for all that public land that he now controls seems wrong. Working ranches is one thing, doing it only for privatized hunting is wrong in my opinion.

[RuralMT]

All he would have to do is allow corner crossing

I would love to see those boys from Missouri try it on his land like they did in Wyoming. That would put him in a very interesting pickle.

[RuralMT]

Is it as bad in Montana as it is Wyoming?

Yes, unfortunately it's bad. We have around 3 million acres of landlocked parcels which is roughly equivalent to 4-5 Rhode Islands.

[hawg]

I’m not sticking up for OnX or Eryk, who I’ve never even heard of, by any means, but I’m absolutely astonished by how fast and how quick everyone is to accept one explanation of what happened. And when it comes time to going before Congress, writing your senators, doing anything active that could really do some good work nobody shows up.  We can’t just keep b***hing about things, we have to take some action as a group.

[fish/hunt4ever]

I know this is for most hummingbird owners but they have the auto chart live and what people have downloaded out there. Not a lot of information but if more people would be willing to download what they have mapped it would benefit the entire fishing community. I know several people who say they will not download there maps as it shows where the fish are, well it shows structure and they have to figure out how to fish the areas and catch fish. I have seen lots of people fish beside me and not catch the fish while I am, even try to help out and they still not catching anything. But I have been there too not a bite all day and the guy next to me catching like crazy.