Navionics® Boating

So first and foremost, this app is my go to for planning our fishing trips as well as locating possible new spots. This has been so accurate with the newest iPhone’s gps that we used it as a primary when the sportfish we were on lost all electronics. We came home with a boat load of fish! But the most recent update is TERRIBLE and reduced the quality to crap for relief shading. Used to see the bottom just fine and seemed worth paying for. When my subscription is up I’m going to another charting system unless they bring it back. There’s areas that were not high detailed and it made up for that with the areas that were. Now no areas are detailed other than ones that you can literally zoom in on google earth and see. And actually see better than what this app is giving you. I’ve used y’all for 5 years+. Please don’t dump on the long term guys by making the shading terrible. If Garmin forced your department to decrease the visibility on the bottom put that in the update notes so people at least have a choice going forward. There isn’t a single noticeable difference in the “new and better” shading style. I don’t know if they see it as competition and want all people to move to the chart plotter cards but it’s terrible now. If you haven’t updated your app yet and see this don’t update! Please bring back the old shading I will put y’all at five stars.

I had the free app and went out ice fishing on lake Ontario and it was blowing a steady 30. I knew a storm was coming but the fish were biting and i had walked over 3 miles to the spot so i ended up staying way to long. By the time i was packed up there was 3 inches of snow and a total whiteout. i had very little cell service like most places on the lake and started walking the direction i knew was land. After 20-30 minutes i checked google maps to see if it had me almost at shore and it said i had actually over shot the point i went from and was on the east side of it. It was only maybe 1/3 mile away but well after what felt like closer to a mile i checked google maps again to see where i was and it said i was over a mile from land. I then remembered navionics and when i used it it showed me about half a mile from what google maps said. I decided to trust this and follow the arrow all the way back for about a mile and see what google maps says. After almost a mile following the navionics i started to see dock lights and was relieved. I checked google maps twice walking back and both times it had me over half a mile from my real location. I was out there walking for to two to two half hours between taking breaks and checking for service and i was getting exhausted. This app really did save me that night got to single digits and was gusting to 40 plus. Ill probably buy it every year until they stop updating the maps.

First let me start off by addressing all of the negative reviews about the bad pricing. The app is free and comes with a 2 week trial of Navionics+. Once that runs out, for my area, it costs $9.99 to renew the subscription, that does not auto-renew, for a whole year. Compare that to having to buy a GPS, and loading it with lake/waterways charts and maps, this app is a steal. You’ll be spending hundreds for even the cheapest GPS setups. Yes it’d be nice if this app was free, but you have to remember, it’s someone’s business. Bills gotta get paid, living’s gotta be made. Now onto my experience with the app so far. The app is amazing. I do a lot of kayak angling and don’t have a fish finder on board. I am pleasantly surprised that even my remote area is supported with such detail. This app shows the depths, creek & road beds, underwater obstructions like flooded timber, and much more. All of which are necessary for finding where the fish are. You are also able to download maps for use offline. A great feature, for me especially due to many areas around here not having cell phone coverage. I find myself using this app off the water more than I do while on it due to the fact that I like studying the water before fishing it. Even if I get a fish finder, this app will be launched right beside it because, it has features that you can’t get without a $400+ unit. Great app, hope it continues to grow and help anglers and boating enthusiasts get around.