onX Fish App: How to Become a Better Angler

Originally launched in April 2025, onX Fish has grabbed the attention of nearly every angler across the Midwest. Everyone has seen the logo and knows about the app, but not everyone knows what it’s all about or how to use it. With a plethora of advanced features that go well beyond just mapping, the onX Fish app is one that everyone should be using to help plan their next on-the-water adventure.

As you might imagine, mapping is the focus of the app. It shows basic depth maps, public accesses, boat ramps, and satellite imagery. The satellite imagery is useful when looking at contours, especially if you’re wanting an interactive look at things like break lines or mid-lake structure. You can move and pan to get a full, interactive look at the contours you’re wanting to fish. The up-to-date imagery can help you find out when lakes are frozen over; if you’re lucky, you can even see ice roads and drilled-out areas. Of course, you can create and share waypoints within the app. There are also routes and tracking tools, which are helpful for sticking to safe travel corridors, making travel after dark easier and safer. The app is very helpful for navigation, especially when you have it up on your vehicle’s navigation screen, as it is CarPlay friendly. Worried about cell reception? Don’t be, as onX Fish has offline maps.

The app also has important weather information included. Real-time wind, temperature, and weather conditions help you plan trips more effectively. Whether it’s picking wind-blown shorelines in the summer or knowing which direction you need to anchor your shelter during ice season, the app makes planning a breeze. There’s also a lunar calendar that helps you choose the best days to fish, and on those days, you can use the major and minor feeding times to choose the time of day you want to be on the ice or water. Real-time barometric pressure readings can aid in choosing whether to stick it out or pack it in.

Fishing area insights show you lake-specific hazards, vegetation, general areas that appear fishy, and well-known hotspots. You can also pull up regulations that are lake- and/or state-specific. No more flipping through page after page of a regulations book or scouring the depths of the interwebs in your search for slots or limits. The app also has Lake Finder built-in. Take an in-depth look at a lake you’re interested in fishing by seeing recent lake surveys, including species, size, and abundance. Take things a step farther and unlock the advanced tools. onX has Fish Species Abundance Insights that help you identify lakes that have the highest abundance of the species you want to target. Not looking for big numbers, but rather big fish? Filter based on trophy-fish potential to find lakes that give you the best chance at catching the lunker of a lifetime.

onX Fish is one of the newest pieces of the popular onX family. onX Hunt took the hunting and land-access world by storm, and onX Fish plans to follow the same business model in fishing. With tons of planned improvements and incredible community involvement, the app has a lot of upsides. The onX Fish app has you covered in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa. Expansion is happening as I type this. The mapping is nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. There may not be 1-foot contours, but the advanced features more than make up for it. The app is currently available on iOS and desktop, but plans are in place to expand to Android soon. For Android users like me, you can use the desktop version on your phone’s browser. Steady updates on the onX webpage and their social media pages keep everyone involved. They even offer Masterclasses for those who are new to the app. You get to interact with the onX crew as they teach you the ins-and-out of the app, and how to use all of its features.

Last month I was lucky enough to join a couple of staff members from onX to get an in-person Masterclass. The week was spent chasing walleyes, pike, perch, crappies, and bluegills. On the final day, we wanted to really test the capabilities of the app and decided to chase something outside of the norm: smallmouth bass. Not a traditional fish to target through the ice, but a great way to tinker with many of the features inside the app. We started by filtering our search to show lakes that contain smallies. Next, we looked at abundance and size. We wanted a lake that had good numbers, but also a good average size. Once we had narrowed down our search using the filters in the app, we looked at depths and potential areas that would hold smallmouth bass that were shallow enough to avoid barotrauma so we could play catch-and-release with a few hard-fighting smallmouth. We had a plan in place, and were rewarded with some gorgeous fish at sunrise. It was cool to see the plan come together, to learn about all of the existing features within the app, and to hear about plans for the future.

If you don’t have the onX Fish app, you can try it free for 7 days by downloading it from the App Store on your iOS device or visiting onxmaps.com. If you like it, it’s $34.99 per year, which is a great price for such a handy tool. In today’s day and age, time is a precious commodity. The onX Fish app helps us scout and choose destinations faster, allowing for more time on the ice or water relaxing and enjoying the sport we all love.

---

---