Best Weather Apps for Fishing
FREE—Windfinder gives you accurate reports of the wind, weather, tides, and waves. It gives wind and weather forecasts for 45,000 different locations and 21,000 weather stations, and also gives tide forecasts for high and low tides for over 8,000 locations around the world. Wind plays a huge role in fishing, and it can have both advantages and disadvantages. The fish are typically more active when there is a little wind to create a chop on the water, especially on bright sunny days when the fish can see better and tend to get more spooked. When wind creates a chop on the water, it causes the baitfish to swim around more, and it causes the fish to be less shy from boat wakes, a lure falling in the water, or any other thing that fish tend to shy away from when there is high pressure. However, wind can be a disadvantage in certain areas that are harder to fish like in the middle of the lake. It can also make it harder to drive the boat when there are big waves on the water. Windfinder uses measurements in different ways such as wind strength and direction, gusts, air temperature, felt temperature, clouds coverage, precipitation, air pressure, wave height, wave period, and wave direction.
Windfinder Plus Subscription—($9.99 annually) There is an ad-free subscription available in the app that improves the features of wind alerts, map features, superforecast, etc. For wind alerts the user can specify his or her desired wind conditions and get notified as soon as windy days are forecasted. Map features include real-time wind measurements on the wind map. Superforecast is the hourly high-resolution forecasting model for Europe, North America, South Africa, Egypt, and the Canary Islands.
FREE—The Weather Channel app gives you live radar updates, severe weather alerts, local weather reports, and weather maps. Weather can be a huge factor in not only whether or not the angler will catch fish, but also if the angler should even go fishing. While the fish might be biting on a stormy day, it is not the best idea to go fishing when there is even a slim chance of being struck by lightning. There is a storm tracker feature available on this app that allows you to prepare for what is to come. There is also a 15-day forecast and an hourly forecast that are both available for any location. The “feels like” feature allows the user to be prepared by knowing what to wear before he or she steps outside. There are also other features such as sunrise and sunset times, personal weather alert customization, and allergy and pollen forecasts.
The Weather Channel Premium—($29.99 annually) Provides ad-free weather, 15 minute forecast details, advanced radar, and more!
FREE—Did you know most iPhones have a built-in barometric pressure sensor? This app uses that sensor to measure the air pressure and altitude. Barometric pressure is arguably the biggest factor in what determines a good day of fishing and a bad day of fishing. This app can be used to predict short-term weather changes through measuring the air pressure. It includes an accurate barometer and altimeter that shows what the barometric pressure is reading. There is also a pressure tracking and history graph available for comparison purposes. Knowing the barometric pressure is important because fish behave differently depending on what the barometric pressure is. The feeding windows on high pressure days are typically very slim, and the feeding windows on low pressure days are usually a larger time span. Knowing the trends through the pressure tracking and history graph features will allow the angler to prepare for his or her days of fishing that are being planned ahead of time.
Barometer Plus—Altimeter Pro—($2.99) The pro version of this app is ad-free.
FREE—The Weather Underground app includes severe weather warnings that can also be customizable, a 10-day and hourly forecast, and high-resolution radar and satellite images. The weather data is combined from 250,000 personal weather stations that gives you accurate weather reports. Some of the features of the app include “feels like temperatures”, wind speed, wind direction, rain accumulation, humidity, dew point, visibility, pressure, air quality, flu outbreaks, sunrise/sunset, and moonrise/moonset. More unique features of this app include the heat map, nextrad radar, and satellite. The heat map allows the angler to choose where he or she wants to go fishing. For example, if the low temperature in the late summer is 50 degrees at Lake Guntersville, but the low temperature is 60 degrees at Pickwick Lake, it might be a wise decision to take advantage of the late summertime cold front that is occurring at Lake Guntersville.
Premium—($19.99 annually) The premium subscription is an option to choose in the app, which includes ad-free use, and customizing your ideal weather conditions so you can be notified when it is best to go fishing.
Fishing and Hunting Solunar Time
FREE—The position of the sun and the moon phase can affect the feeding windows. A full moon can cause a huge wave of fish to spawn during the spring, but it can also mean that fish might feed more during the night with the high visibility. With this app, an angler can save his or her favorite places and look to see what the solunar tables are showing. It shows the predicted times of the major and minor feeding periods, tides forecast, day rating, moon rise/moon set times, sunrise/sunset times, day/month views, current weather and 5-day forecast, solunar data calendar for future reference, and moon phases. Knowing the predicted major and minor feeding times could help in a tournament situation when timing is a huge deal. Any pro angler will tell you that it’s always about being at the right place at the right time.
Pro version—($3.99) Some of the features listed above may only work in the pro version. To get all the features listed above, it is recommended to purchase the pro version.
FREE—Buoyweather allows the angler to pick any point at an offshore location to receive a long-range marine weather forecast at specific GPS coordinates. This is particularly good for saltwater fishing when it could be storming at a certain location that the angler was planning on fishing. Many northern fisheries like the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain span for miles and miles, so it is hard to judge what the weather will be unless you pick a specific location. 2-day weather forecasts including wind, waves, and tides are available through the free version of this app, along with additional weather data and a sun/moon calendar.
Premium—($79.99 annually) The premium version allows the user to have access to 16-day weather forecasts including wind, waves, and tides. The user can also save unlimited favorite forecasts and can also edit and organize favorites for easy access!
FREE—Fishweather has a “LIVE WIND” feature that provides the most detailed report of the wind strength, wind direction, wind gusts, and temperature. Knowing exactly what the wind conditions are will help you better prepare for what is to come. Weather reports come from over 50,000 stations worldwide. This app also provides fishing reports from fishermen worldwide, tide reports, radar/precipitation map, satellite/clouds map, forecast map, sea surface temperatures, and nautical charts. Some of the above features may only be included in the plus, pro, or gold version, but we recommend trying the free version first to see how you like it!
Plus ($3.99 monthly, or $44.99 annually)
Pro ($9.99 monthly, or $119.99 annually)
Gold ($14.99 monthly, or $179.99 annually)
FREE—This app allows the user to observe weather, wind, and wave conditions. Pressure and humidity can also be observed, along with wave period, direction, and height. All of these factors can have an effect on the way fish feed. With most weather apps, the wind direction and speed are the only ways to determine how big the waves are. Often times this can be misleading because an angler cannot only depend on one or the other. For example, if the wind is blowing 5-10 mph, one might think that the waves won’t be big. However, if the wind is blowing 5-10 mph against extremely heavy current straight up the lake, the waves can be 2-3 times as big as one would think. With this app, the wave direction and height are given to you.
Premium—($36.99) This version of the app is ad-free, has more advancement measurements for height and distance, and more! You can also select your desired wind/wave direction and find it on the compass page.
Clime: NOAA Weather Radar Live
FREE—This app provides reel-time radar images, severe weather alerts, accurate weather forecasts, and more! The precipitation map shows a forecast of precipitation for the next 24 hours or 7 days. There are also maps that show the cloud cover and snow depth, and the user can choose what type of background he or she prefers (standard, hybrid, or satellite). The app also has the typical features like high, low, and “feels like” temperatures, pressure, humidity, wind speed, visibility, dew point, chance of precipitation, and sunrise/sunset times.
Premium—($2.99 weekly, or $19.99 annually) The premium version of this app provides severe weather alerts for all saved locations, hurricane tracker, advanced precipitation forecast, lightning tracker, temperature map, rain alerts, air quality index, wildfire tracking, RainScope, hourly forecast, 14-day forecast, and no ads.