10 Jun Not All Fishing Apps Are Equal
Fishing Apps for smart phones have exploded onto the marketplace in the last three years, and now everyone claims to have the best hardware and software options, but usually for entirely different reasons. Ignoring the fake fishfinder iphone app and all the boat-mounted heavy equipment (that is NOT smart phone enabled), a recent investigation we conducted compares new mobile fishing apps in an attempt to keep our finger on the pulse of this new tech trend.
The best fishing apps come with sonar attachments that transform smartphones into portable fish finders!
A combination of knowledge filled fishing apps and sleek sonar gadgets is set to erode the traditional sonar fishfinder device sales, and could possibly shift customer appreciation away from the heavy-duty boat-mounted units, and towards the newfangled portable sonar product category that connects to smart phones via Bluetooth wireless.
Which Mobile Phone Fishing Application will be the one that History Remembers as ‘The App that Changed Fishing’?
Mobile phone fishing app software is a ‘game changing’ product category – some titles are packed with so much knowledge and useful data that they positively affect the experience of fishing. It’s fun to learn and smart phones are invaluable to urban fishing explorers spelunking in the city. One positive effect is increased productivity, but more interesting is that the devices really do seem to bring an element of ‘hunting’ to what was otherwise considered a passive sport. Although these are still early days for this high tech device category, its easy to see why enthusiasts predict that mobile phone centric applications will change fishing like they have already changed so many other industries and practices. But which fishing app will become the most popular in 2013? In 2014? And beyond that, which will be the one that history records as the app that changed fishing?
FishHunter Fishfinder $199
“You can swim but you can’t hide” From seemingly out of nowhere, this orange tennis ball-sized floating electronic accessory emblazoned FishHunter has crept up to pounce on the portable sonar marketplace. The FishHunter sonar system is recognized here as best in class, partly because it has such terrific pedigree.
FishHunter Inc puts the best hardware and software together. The sonar transducer inside the rubber polymer ball was designed and built by Sonartech, who certainly seem to be some of the smartest sonar specialists in the world and have naval construction contracts to provide and maintain submarine detection equipment for the US Navy and other marine forces.
FishHunter combines sonar technology with a world class fishing app.
The software interface was designed by Appetite Lab in Toronto, Canada. The free fishing app has more options than any of the other fishing apps we reviewed below, and is the most intuitively designed – this app has raised the bar in terms of useful functions. The sonar is sharp and accurate and really does locate marine wildlife underwater. Furthermore, that guy pictured on the phone screen hefting the bass can do more with that photo on this application than any other such software because of the on-board social sharing features combined with exclusive photo contests. He can win prizes and build fame and amass a huge following as a genuine FishHunter with a popular public Logbook filled with great Catches, and Pictures.
FishHunter SONAR weighs about five ounces and floats on the water, which makes it really handy to track surface water currents. The device works and turns ON as soon as its placed in the water, beaming Bluetooth wireless signals back to your Android 2.2+ or iOS 4.0+ smartphone. The system immediately shows the temperature of the water body. Using the Sonar page on the FishHunter fishing app, the consumer can access the device’s powerful on-board sonar equipment to peek at the bottom topography of the lake below, pinpoint schools of bait fish and chart the places in between where predator fish are most often found. This attachment is first generation cybernetic interface to transform humans into fishing machines.
Deeper Sonar $235
Deeper Sonar is a media darling and heretofore the brightest light in the smartphone mobile fishfinder marketplace. But where is it? They have missed the 2013 Fishing Season in North America. They are the most famous and most findable device because they produced good videos that appealed to everyone’s imagination; they used the media to activate an effective crowd-funding campaign to help find investors that would come on board and help float the dream. It was all very smart, and a well executed start-up business model.
Much like FishHunter, their product is a sphere which is water resistant and well designed to appear sleek and efficient at its submarine mapping task. BUT UNLIKE THE FISHHUNTER, THE DEEPER SONAR DOES NOT HAVE A PROTECTIVE RUBBER EXTERIOR AND HAS SOME EXTERIOR ACCESS POINTS. The spherical waterproof device beams back individual fish depths and location info, along with temperature and floor depth to your Android 2.2+ or iOS 4.0+ smartphone or tablet within 150 feet via Bluetooth. According to all literature it can operate in temperatures ranging from -10 to 40 degrees Celsius (14 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit) and sends signals back to phone via Bluetooth. Interestingly, the Deeper App can also measure air temperature. The app conveys moon phase readouts, and has some social media functionality that lets you post fishing updates to Facebook or Twitter so all of your less fortunate friends can see how much fun you’re having catching fish using advanced technology out in nature.
Deeper is a terrific example of a new age technology company harnessing crowd funding internet websites to raise money for innovation. What’s even more interesting is how effectively the campaign to raise money for the product development created buzz and awareness of the product long before it came to market. The imaginative campaigns appealed to everyone’s imagination because it offered portable insight in to the aquamarine world of the fishes.
But where is Deeper? Can you buy one today? Soon the tech story might shift to become a public inquiry… Where is it?
Go-fish App Free
The Go-Fish App is a live and interactive fishing logbook – it basically turns your iphone into a diary-of-catches. They write, “The Go-Fish app will help to record an up to date angling history of the world and make you part of it.” Sadly it’s for the iPhone only; we could not find an Android version.
This UK based mobile phone application shares its name with the popular American card game, ‘go-fish’ and is eclipsed by the popularity of apps devoted to the card game. That being said however it might actually gain more traffic and attention for that association.
Most remarkably, the UK company has a very active Twitter feed @fishingapp. Pictures of men holding fish come floating down their pipe all day long and this drives awareness and they have grown a huge following and have a huge base of app users.
Another fascinating element to the Go-Fish app are the small insights we get into the creative people behind the content at the firm; we can read and quietly marvel at the colorful diction in the descriptive fields of their app’s download page. The author writes, “More features than a gravel pit and cheaper than a pint of maggots. With an instant entry into an online hall of fame. At the touch of your screen you will have the ability to record the minutiae of your catch, the weight of your tench or the number of roach in your keepnet.” I love good copy, and I reprinted here faithfully. The author really nailed it; we wouldn’t change a thing.
The Fishfinder App $2.99
A market leader, this application has been around for almost three years now. And it’s still only available for iPhone? We can’t believe this app is NOT available for Android?! We ask, why?
The FishFinder App was developed for anglers to use while exploring the Great Outdoors. The apps’ basic framework relies on the phone’s built-in GPS and Google earth functionality. The app also comes with other tools that every angler relies on including moon charts, tides and weather information.
When first activated, the app will locate your position on Earth and as you move about the app will track your position. Any time you want to save the current location just hit the “mark spot” button. The app will save the Latitude and Longitude of your position in a Logbook. As well as the date, time, barometric pressure, moon phase and current weather condition in which you are or will be fishing. Then the user has the option to take a picture, enter the depth, choose the icon color, or choose who if anyone they would like to share the spot with and enter the appropriate message.
This app is older than all the rest – the description page at that link above is long and very detailed. The best part of the web copy is, in our opinion, the author’s reason for creating the app in the first place. He writes, ” The idea behind this app, people sharing information about fishing spots with each other, was hard to imagine at first. Being a life long fisherman I know how hard it is to get legitimate information out of other fisherman (I was a master of deception for most of my life). So I know some people will be hesitant about sharing, and that’s fine, they can still take advantage of all the other people’s spots wile keeping all their spots to themselves. But the more you share the stronger this app will become. There is a lot of public domain that has already been imputed into this app with more accumulating everyday.” and that snippet of text is so truthful and heartfelt it made us download the app.
UFindFish app $5.99
U Find Fish app is the most expensive software-only fishing app solution at $5.99 (and there are ads in the app). The software is different than all the others in that there are fishing celebrities connected to offering – registered users can ask the pros expert questions. Like all the other apps this system also lets users search for fishing hot spots in nearby lakes and rivers. The software utilizes GPS to find the fisherman’s position then searches for the nearest body-of-water using an advanced Google Maps interface. We searched the shoreline of the Toronto harbour looking for any hot spots (there are none) and were pleasantly surprised to see all of the tall buildings pop up in accurate 3D renderings as we passed along the downtown core.
We were surprised to find that there are no fishing hotspots along the lake shore in Toronto ? But yet there are 36 points of interest in the Greater Toronto Area, and more being recorded all the time. Users can create and track their own fishing Hot Spots and either keep them private for their own use, or share them with other anglers within the UFindFish community. That’s pretty standard these days, and a core feature of all these apps and UFindFish database appears to be growing a little slower than others, due to the high price and the mixed reviews in The App Store.
UFindFish was made to showcase fishing celebrities; it was developed by Canadian Sportfishing Productions Inc and hit the market in early 2011 with obvious good connections in the fishing tackle and equipment marketplace. Italo Labignan is probably Canada’s second most popular fishing icon behind Bob Izume.
Italo Labignan is a founder and partner of Canadian Sportfishing Productions Inc. and host of the Canadian Sportfishing show. Italo maintains a leadership role in the company, which is expanding and part of the growing media empire is the digital offering of the UFINDFISH Mobile Fishing App.
In what must be a complex arrangement within this organization, the makers of this app have wrangled a dozen or more additional fishing personalities from across North America to champion the existence of UFindFish with links to the software download page from their blogs and fishing charter websites, and to make themselves available in a timely fashion to answer user’s expert level questions.
CHART : Fish Finder Reviews – Fishing Apps
Use this handy chart to easily spot the differences including prices:
