Recently I heard about a new app for iPhones and Smart phones from Navionics. Naturally being a bit of a techie guy when it comes to fishing. I had to downland this app and give it a try, and so far I m extremely happy with it.

Now before you run and grab your phone to download it there’s a feel things you need to know.

• If you do not have an iPhone or iPad your phone must be an Android phone
• The device has to be GPS capable
• On Android phones you must have a Micro SD card in your phone. (2GB that came with mine was plenty)
• iPhones using iOS 4.2 or greater for the current version of the Navionics App
• Android phones using OS 1.6 or greater should work

Ok your phone meets all of those needs. Now it’s time to go and download your app. Go to your phones app store. In the Search box put in the word Navionics. This should take you to the list off all the different map Groupings. There will be two different categories of apps Lakes and Marine. Now if you are looking for charts for the bigwater such has Lake Erie and Saginaw Bay you will want the Marine: Great Lakes App. If you are looking for the inland lakes you will find that two will have Michigan in the app. It doesn’t matter which one you download in terms of maps for Michigan they are the same there. But if you also want to have lakes from some other states it will matter as to which one you might download. See photo below for Coverage areas.( the Lakes app does have some of the great lakes in it but the detail is not very good.)

Now that you have figured out just what app you want, now it’s time to download the App. Now your download time will vary, If you have great cell coverage it could take an hour or less, but if you like me where your on the edge of the 3g networks it could take up to 5 hours. I have read comments from people saying that they where mad cause it took so long for the app to download and that they have never seen an app take that long before. What they failed to realize is that they are downloading a ton of info with some of these apps. It is going to take time to download the info.

Once the downloads done it will go through a the setup phase. You don’t have to do anything, just let the setup do it’s thing. Now that it’s done just say “I agree” to their disclaimer and you enter the app.

Getting Started

Navionics has done a great job of making training videos to show you how to use the apps. They can be found on their YouTube channel.

Here is a few that will get you start fast.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH2qvaD15p0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBHmb4AucYM]

After watching the how to videos you should have a pretty good feel for how the app works. Now all you have to do is go out on the water and give it a try.

Review

Now some of the Key Features these apps have are:

The most comprehensive features available:

– Wind Overlay
– Show GPS location and POI on Google Maps
– Friendlier chart information retrieval
– New brighter and clearer interface
– Twitter sharing and new sharing interface
– Record/Save tracks, routes
– Capture geotagged pictures of your adventures
– Access the largest database of specialty marine POIs available
– Search marinas and specialty marine POI, with just one click to call
– Check tides & currents, moon phase, sun/moon rise/set

So far I have been super happy with all of them and find them all to work pretty good. I have had it crash once or twice since I have had. You just have to restarted it and everything is ok. With my phone it seems that the GPS tracking and wave point marking is dead on. I have marked spots walked along ways away from them then come back to them using the nav feature. Also I have gone back to the same wave points the next day and it puts right back on it.

Also it is so nice not to have to carry another device that needs batteries on the lake with me. Which is a big plus when ice fishing. This app will help you catch fish plan and simple. I also really liked the fact that they put the bottom types on the maps also when the info was available.

The only thing I found wrong with it was that it was missing a few of my favorite inland lakes but those are small ones. But I am sure they will be adding more soon when the updates come through.

If I was going to give these apps a start rating I would give it 4.5 out 5.