onWater: Fishing Spots Map

I tried the trial, and after it ran out I realized I had to get the plus subscription. It’s awesome being able to look at how streams and rivers connect and what species are known to be there, as well as being able to know who’s property I’m trespassing on. The AI fish scanner for the journal is awesome, and I love just being able to upload a picture of my fish and everything about it is pretty much instantly logged. As much as I love this app, I will say that it does have a few misses. For one, many of the AI descriptions for waterbodies is generally correct, but often veers off course from the actual nature of the waters. I wish there was a way to suggest edits to the descriptions. Another thing is that not every body of water is mapped. In my small town there are many streams and ponds that I know contain fish that simply aren’t accounted for on the map and thus I can never log my catches accurately. Being able to suggest missed geographical features such as waterbodies, bridges, and waterfalls should be an added feature. Despite my lengthy gripes, I honestly love this app and I hope to see it develop into a thriving community of anglers. Rock on onWater dev team, I love what you’ve done so far and can’t wait to see what you accomplish in the future.

I was initially hesitant about using a fishing app but I’m happy this one exists. The free version is useful: having a curated view of every access point, boat ramp, fly shop, etc directly on my phone means I can plan trips faster. The My Waters dashboard they added recently has also been a game changer — I use it to keep a pulse on all of the live water conditions for my favorite rivers instead of individually checking them on the USGS site, and I have it set up so I get alerts when stream flows are in my ideal ranges. Their team is also really responsive to feedback about the in-app experience. There are a few things like the river measuring tool that are useful but more manual than I expected and it sounds like those are things they’re actively working on solving for. I’m stoked to see what this app will look like in a year’s time.

I recently used the offline map tool when floating the South Fork of the Boise River. Because I was unfamiliar with the river and the float, access points, river distances to campsites, whitewater hazards, and other points of interest to the angler, the offline map was invaluable to me in planning snd executing the 2 day overnight float. Although near the growing city of Boise, ID, the South Fork runs through a remote and deep river canyon setting without reliable cell phone service, so I downloaded the fully curated off-line map and was able to track my float without a glitch! This helped immensely in understanding where I was in relation to my planned campsite for the night, putting me at ease in the late afternoon by knowing exactly where I would be camping and not needing to push through good evening water to ensure I found my camp while there was still daylight. Also, I was able to see exactly where whitewater hazards were located, enabling me to make better decisions, for example, choosing to set camp rather than trying to run a relatively simple but technical rapid in the fading light of the day. I have always used digital resources when planning a river trip, but the research aspect of this process is tedious, requiring a search of several resources to get the whole big picture. With onWater’s app everything is right there in one location making trip planning and the overall experience so simple and incredibly informative with its hand-curated and detailed information. Thanks, onwater!