Fishing Spots: Fish Maps

Review by eFreeware

Most fishing apps pick one job: a map, a tide table, or a logbook. Fishing Spots tries to hold all three in the same place, pairing interactive maps with depth charts and contour lines, a fishing forecast built around tides and solunar times, and a catch log that records what you caught and under what conditions. That combination is the distinctive part, and it is why the app has passed a million installs and holds a 4.5 average from close to 7,000 ratings.

It is aimed at people who plan trips rather than simply turn up and cast. If you fish a home lake, wade a river, or run a boat along the coast, the app is built to help you decide where to go, when to go, and what to bring. The developer, FishAngler, LLC, has kept it updated since its February 2018 release, with the most recent changes dated September 16, 2026.

What follows is a look at the main jobs the app is meant to do, what the free download includes, what the VIP tier adds, and who I think gets the most from it.

Reading water before you leave the house

The map side of Fishing Spots is the core of the app. For coastal anglers there are satellite views and nautical charts, which is the layer I would expect to matter most on inshore trips where the bottom changes quickly.

Finding a spot is meant to be a matter of filtering rather than scrolling. You can filter spots by the kind of fish you are after, how deep the water is, and what structure sits below, and the app also shows boat ramps and access points near the water. That last detail is easy to overlook, but knowing where you can actually launch or park saves a lot of guessing on unfamiliar water.

A recent update rebuilt species search on the map. You can browse by category, see what is biting nearby, or jump to favorites, select several species at once, and clear the selection with a single tap. If you chase a handful of species depending on the season, that change should make the map quicker to work with.

Paying for VIP opens up extra map layers and modes. The developer also promises exact verified catch locations at that level, which is the kind of feature that matters if you want to see precisely where a fish came from rather than a general area.

Tides, weather and the timing question

Timing often decides whether a trip goes well or is wasted, and the forecast section speaks directly to that. Fishing Spots provides tide charts, moon phases, and a solunar calendar, which together give you a view of when fish are likely to feed. For saltwater anglers in particular, tide movement is usually the first thing to check, and having it next to the map means less switching between tools.

The weather side is built around fishing conditions rather than general forecasts. You can look at wind speed, air pressure, and water temperature at your chosen spot, and animated radar layers show storms and fronts as they move. River anglers get flow rates and gauge height, which is the practical way to judge whether a stretch is fishable after rain.

The developer describes the weather as hyper-local and real-time. What I would take from that is a forecast tied to a specific piece of water rather than the nearest town, which is the useful version for anyone deciding whether to make the drive.

Keeping a log that teaches you something

The catch log is the part that rewards consistency. You record each trip and each fish, and the app builds a history you can look back over to see which baits, lures, and conditions produced results. Over a season that turns into a personal pattern book, and it is the sort of thing that is hard to reconstruct from memory alone.

Catch identification is handled by an AI fish identifier that the developer says covers hundreds of species. For anyone who fishes unfamiliar water, or who takes a mixed bag on a charter, that is a quick way to put a name to what is on the line before logging it.

Privacy gets a nod too: waypoints can be kept private, so your best spots stay yours. Given how much of fishing is local knowledge, that is a sensible default for anyone who does not want their honey hole showing up in a public feed.

The app also includes fishing regulations information, which is worth having when you travel to new water and need to know the rules before you keep anything.

The community layer, and how much it matters

Fishing Spots leans into its social side. The app describes a community of millions of anglers sharing catches, tips, and gear advice, plus local catch reports as they come in and a view of which baits are working right now. There are threads for fly fishing, bass fishing, saltwater trolling, and jigging, and you can connect with local groups to plan trips together.

How useful that is depends on where you fish. In a well-populated area, local reports can point you toward a bite you would otherwise miss. In quieter places, the value comes more from the technique discussions than from fresh catch data.

It is worth being clear that the community features are optional in spirit, even if they sit prominently in the app. Plenty of anglers will use the maps, tides, and log and never post a thing, and the app still works as a planning tool on that basis.

What you need before the first trip

Fishing Spots is a free download, and it is supported by ads and in-app purchases. VIP is the paid layer, and the developer is upfront about it: it opens up extra map layers, more detailed charts, exact spots where catches were confirmed, longer forecasts, and custom map modes. If you want the most detailed charting, that is the tier to look at.

The app is built around maps and forecasts that update, which means it expects a connection when you are pulling fresh weather, tides, or reports.

The recent update also changed how VIP membership is managed, so you are not asked to sign in a second time, and it corrected Navionics charts so they work properly until a region is chosen. Both are the kind of housekeeping that suggests the app is being actively maintained rather than left to drift.

The content rating is Teen, which is unremarkable for a sports app with a social component.

Who gets the most from it

The angler who benefits most is one who fishes a mix of water and plans ahead. If you split your time between a home lake and coastal trips, the combination of depth charts, nautical charts, tides, and solunar times covers both without needing separate tools. Someone who keeps a log and reviews it will get more from the app than someone who opens it once a season.

River anglers have a clear reason to look at it too, since flow rate and gauge height are the numbers that decide whether a trip is worth making. And anyone who travels to new water will appreciate having access points, regulations, and a species filter in the same place.

The catch is that the deepest charting sits behind VIP. Anglers who only want a basic map and a tide table may find the free tier sufficient; those who want 3D lake maps and verified catch locations are looking at the paid tier. Neither is a flaw, but it is the trade-off to weigh before committing.

A planner worth keeping on the phone

Fishing Spots does the unglamorous work well: it puts the information you need to choose a spot and a time into one place, then gives you a way to record what happened. The maps, tides, weather, and log reinforce each other, and the update history suggests the developer keeps the pieces in working order.

I would point it at anglers who plan trips and want their notes to accumulate somewhere useful. The free download covers the essentials, and VIP is there for anyone who wants the premium charts and verified locations. If you already keep a paper log and check three websites before every trip, this is a reasonable consolidation.

It is not a replacement for local knowledge or a boat's own electronics, and it will not tell you where the fish are with certainty. What it offers is a better-informed guess, which is most of what fishing planning amounts to.

What's new in version 5.2.3.226

Species search on the map is all new. Browse by Category, see what's biting Nearby, or jump to your Favorites, then pick as many species as you like and clear them with one tap. Managing your VIP membership no longer asks you to log in again, and Navionics charts now behave correctly until you choose a region. We also fixed a long list of map and photo crashes, added rounded corners to detail sheets, and polished colors throughout. Tight lines!