Fishing forecast

Review by eFreeware

Fishing Forecast is an Android weather app from developer MaxSaur that reframes the forecast around one question: when are the fish likely to bite? Instead of a general outlook for the day, it reads atmospheric pressure, wind, temperature and moon phase and turns them into fishing times and an activity prediction. It is free, ad-supported, and offers in-app purchases, and it has been downloaded more than a million times with a 4.6 average from 38,789 ratings.

The reason to consider it is the focus. Plenty of weather apps will tell you it will rain on Saturday, but few organize the same data around fish behavior, and that shift in emphasis is the whole point here. If you already plan trips around fronts and pressure changes, this puts the relevant numbers in one place rather than making you assemble them yourself.

Pressure, weather changes and the bite-time predictions

The feature the developer leads with is a fish biting forecast built on weather changes. The app tracks atmospheric pressure and its fluctuations, then uses that analysis to predict when fish are likely to be more active and to show the best fishing times for the day. The claim of accuracy is the developer's, not a guarantee, but the underlying idea is familiar to anyone who has watched a barometer before a trip.

Alongside the daily prediction, the app keeps a running view of current conditions and upcoming shifts, so you can see not just that pressure is high but that it is falling or rising. That distinction matters more than the raw number for many anglers, and having it presented as part of a fishing forecast rather than a weather forecast is what separates this from a general-purpose app.

The developer also says the app works anywhere in the world, which is a useful thing to hear if you fish abroad or travel to unfamiliar water. You are not limited to a home region, and the same pressure-and-activity logic applies wherever you happen to be casting.

The supporting data: water, sky and the moon

Behind the headline prediction sits a fairly complete set of conditions. The app reports air and water temperature, wind direction and speed, precipitation probability and amount, air humidity, cloud cover and density, visibility on the water, and the UV index. Wave height and swell period are included where available, which is the kind of detail that matters more on open water than on a pond.

Moon phases and their influence on fish activity get their own place, along with sunrise, sunset and moonrise times. For anyone who plans sessions around dawn, dusk or a full moon, those timings are as important as the weather itself, and it is convenient to see them next to the pressure data rather than in a separate app.

The data is also shown graphically, with historical trends, so you can look back at how conditions have moved rather than only forward at what is coming. A recent update simplified the display of hourly weather data and fixed an intermittent error when showing data, which suggests the presentation has been getting some attention.

What the app asks of you: ads, purchases and a free download

The app is free to download and carries ads, and it also offers in-app purchases. That combination is worth knowing before you commit, because it means the experience is supported by advertising and by optional spending rather than by an upfront price.

The barrier to trying it is low. You install it, and the forecast is there. The trade-off is the ad-supported model, which is the cost of keeping the download free.

The app sits in the Weather category on Google Play and is rated for Everyone, which fits a tool that is really about reading conditions rather than anything sensitive. It was released in September 2022 and last updated in September 2026, so it has been through several seasons of refinement.

Getting useful answers out of it

The most practical way to use a forecast like this is to check it the day before and again on the morning of a trip, watching for pressure trends rather than a single reading. A steady or rising barometer and a favorable moon phase are the kinds of signals the app is built to surface, and comparing them against the bite-time prediction gives you a clearer picture than either alone.

Because water temperature and wave height are included where available, the app can be more useful on coastal or large-water sessions than on a small pond, where some of those readings may not apply. That is not a flaw so much as a reflection of what data exists for a given location.

It also works as a general conditions dashboard. Even if you ignore the activity prediction, having wind, cloud cover, visibility and UV index in one view is a reasonable way to decide whether the day is worth the drive. The historical graphs are handy for spotting a pattern across the week rather than reacting to a single morning.

A focused tool for anglers who read the weather

Fishing Forecast is worth installing if you already think about pressure, wind and moon phase when you plan a trip and want those signals translated into fishing times. The 4.6 average from a large number of ratings suggests the approach resonates with a lot of anglers, and the free download with ads and in-app purchases keeps the entry cost low.

It is a weather app first and a fishing app second, in the sense that it does not replace your tackle or your local knowledge. What it does is put the atmospheric picture in front of you with a fishing-oriented interpretation, and for a free tool that is a fair bargain. If you want a plain forecast, a general weather app will do that, but it will not tell you when to go.

What's new in version 3.8.0

Simplified the display of hourly weather data. Fixed an intermittent error when displaying data.