Submarius
Fishing forecast app: bite score, tides, wind and barometric pressure on one screen.
Pick Fishing as your activity and drop a pin on your spot. On the coast, Submarius puts the bite score, the tide, wind and gusts, pressure and its trend, water temperature, waves, swell, the moon and the best 3 hour window on one screen. On a lake or river, rain, air temperature and a water stain estimate take the place of the tide, waves, swell and sea temperature. Then the map, the Fish tab and your saved spots fill in the rest.
What the Fishing dashboard shows.
The Today tab gives you the day's rating: a number from 0 to 10 with a word, Prime, Good, Fair, Choppy or Rough. In Fishing mode the bite score, the tide and the moon lead the tiles underneath. An hourly strip covers the next 12 hours, and tapping an hour opens every number for it, with radar for the last hour and a short nowcast.
A score from 0 to 10, labelled Off, Slow, Moderate, Active or Hot, for how likely fish are to be feeding at your spot this hour. Updated about hourly.
How the bite score works →Rising, falling or slack, the next high or low, a 24 hour curve and the range. NOAA predictions within about 50 km of a US station, a global tide model everywhere else.
Wind speed and direction, with gusts alongside.
Sea level pressure in hPa and how far it moved over the last 6 hours, so you can see which way it's heading.
Sea surface temperature, with the air temperature underneath.
Wave height, with a shore break estimate near the coast, blended with a NOAA or CDIP buoy reading where one is within about 60 km (mostly in US waters). Plus swell height and direction.
Phase and how much of it is lit, with a flag when spring tides are running.
Sunrise, sunset and hours of daylight.
The 3 hours in the next 24 when the day's rating is highest, so you know when to be on the water. It runs on conditions like wind, waves and tide, not the bite score.
National Weather Service warnings for your spot and its coastal marine zone, checked every 5 minutes. US only.
Thunderstorm hours and active National Weather Service warnings cap the day's rating. The bite score is a separate number and doesn't feed the rating.
Barometric pressure: on the dashboard, not in the score.
A lot of anglers watch the barometer, so the Fishing dashboard gives pressure its own tile: sea level pressure in hPa and how much it rose or fell over the last 6 hours. The bite score doesn't use it. The score is built from light, moonlight, how fast the tide is moving, water temperature extremes, wind and waves, so the pressure tile sits beside it and you weigh the trend yourself. Pressure also shows in Boating, Sailing and every freshwater layout.
The map.
The map is where you pick the water. These layers are all part of Pro:
- Bite score heat map. An hourly map of habitat and time of day for the next 24 hours, ranked against what's on screen: reef and structure fish on the shelf, open water fish beyond it. It isn't the score itself, and it doesn't show fish or catch.
- NOAA charts. Official US nautical charts with soundings and depth contours. US waters only, and it needs a connection.
- Bathymetry. Depth shading worldwide, with NOAA BlueTopo relief in US waters.
- Reefs and wrecks. Hundreds of thousands of mapped reefs, wrecks, obstructions, dive sites and platforms, from NOAA charts, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission artificial reefs, Gulf of Mexico platform records, OpenStreetMap and a global wreck list. Dense in US waters, sparse elsewhere. Tap one for the seabed depth beside it (a labelled estimate when no source reports one), the least depth over it where a chart sounding exists, and the conditions there.
- Sea temperature. Satellite sea surface temperature from NASA, handy for spotting temperature breaks.
Pro also adds wind, reef habitat (tropical waters) and weather radar layers, with an 18 hour radar forecast over the continental US. The satellite map, cam pins and your own spots stay free.
The Fish tab.
The Fish tab lists species recorded near your spot, with photos, from iNaturalist and the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS). Filter by salt or fresh, or search. These are records of what has been seen in the area, not a live feed of what's there today.
Tap a species for its rules. Spots in California and Florida get size and bag limits and season notes for 22 species each, linked back to the state agency. US spots also get federal rules for 36 Atlantic highly migratory species: sharks, tunas, billfish and swordfish. Rules only show when the app can place your pin in a US state, so a pin offshore, even on a reef a few miles out, often shows none. Rules for other places aren't in the app yet.
Going out by boat or kayak.
Add how you get out there (Boating, Sailing or Kayak / SUP) and the day is rated on the weaker of the two. Good fishing conditions don't count for much if it's too rough to run or paddle out, so the rating takes the lower score, never an average.
Before you leave, Safety Watch lets you file a plan with a "back by" time and pick who watches. If you don't check in, the server alerts them, even if your phone is dead or out of signal. It's free, it needs a free account, and it alerts the people you chose, not the authorities.
Trips and spots.
Record your GPS track on the water, with or without a signal. It records while the app is open on your screen and needs no account. Pro exports trips as GPX.
Long press the map to save a spot and mark it as a reef, wreck, ledge, flats, creek mouth, launch and more. Spots are stored on your phone, there's no cap on how many, and nobody else sees them. Pro adds encrypted backup and sync.
Common questions.
Everything for today is free: the day's rating and every tile, including the bite score, the next 12 hours, the best 3 hour window, National Weather Service warnings in the US, the Fish tab with its regulations, trip recording, unlimited private spots and every safety tool. Pro is $12.99 a month or $99 a year, each with a 7 day free trial, or $149 once with no trial. It adds forecast days 2 to 8, eight map layers (including the bite score heat map, NOAA charts, bathymetry, reefs and wrecks, and sea temperature), live cam playback, offline map areas, encrypted backup and sync, and GPX export. Free and Pro see the same bite score. Prices are in US dollars and differ in other countries.
Yes, with a different layout. Set the water type to Freshwater, or leave it on Auto and it works it out from your location. The dashboard then drops tide, waves, swell and sea temperature and adds rain, air temperature, gusts and a water stain estimate from clear to muddy, alongside the bite score, pressure and wind. We don't have water temperature for lakes and rivers, and the regulations we carry are saltwater rules.
No. It doesn't know where fish are, what's been caught or which species are around. It rates timing and conditions: light, moonlight at night, how fast the tide is moving, water temperature extremes, wind and waves, plus the habitat under your pin where we have seabed data. The map layer says the same thing in the app: habitat and time of day, not fish or catch.
In the Fish tab, for spots in California (22 species, from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife) and Florida (22 species, from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission), plus federal rules for 36 Atlantic highly migratory species, such as sharks, tunas, billfish and swordfish, at US spots. You get size and bag limits, and season notes where they apply, each linked back to the agency. There are no rules for other states or countries yet. A pin offshore, even a few miles out, often can't be placed in a state, and then it shows none. Rules change, so check with the agency before you keep a fish.
Related.
- How the bite score works, what goes into it and what doesn't.
- Submarius vs Fishbrain.
- The map of reefs and wrecks.
- Fishing conditions by location, including Half Moon Bay, Redondo Beach, Montauk and Maui.
Check today before you go.
Pick Fishing and drop a pin on your spot. You'll have the bite score, the tide and the pressure trend before you head out.