5 Best Fishing Tide Sites & Apps (Quick & Easy Ways To Get Tides)
- By: Joseph Simonds
- on
- Found In: Fishing Tips, Weekly Newsletter: 2-23-20
Looking for the best tide sites and apps for fishing?
In this post, we’re sharing our top five favorite sites and apps to get tidal information to help plan your next fishing trip.
You’ll learn
- Which sites and apps are the easiest to get the tides from
- The pros and cons of each site and app
- What each site and app is best for (and when to not use them)
- And much more
If you’re looking for the best tide sites and apps to help you plan your fishing trips better, keep reading!
What Makes A Good Site or App
Before we dive into the top five list, it’s important to know what separates the good sites from the bad.
Here’s what these sites are judged on:
- Ease of use
- Bonus information
Ease of use
If I’m going to check the tides to plan a fishing trip, I want it to be easy.
I want to get the tide information quickly without having to sift through a ton of popups or ads or do a ton of searches to find what I’m looking for.
Bonus information
Does the site or app include other information that might be helpful?
This includes:
- Weather
- Satellite map
- Sonar map
- Fish bite score
And is this extra information actually helpful, or is it confusing me with information overload?
These two points helped us determine which of these sites and apps are our favorites for getting the tides and planning our fishing trips.
In addition to these points, I’ll summarize the pros and cons of the site or app as well.
Enjoy!
#1: Smart Fishing Spots
Coming in at number one is the Smart Fishing Spots App.
Yes, this is our tool and you might think we’re biased, however, we built it in a way that specifically would be very easy to use, easy to plan trips with, and has some extra information that is very important to help you catch fish.
This is the ULTIMATE app for inshore saltwater anglers looking to catch more redfish, seatrout, snook, flounder, and MORE!
It includes a map with several layers as well as the weather and tides all in one simple, concise view.
The tides talk to the maps and vice versa to provide you with constant updates so you can follow the fish around.
The great news is that Smart Fishing Spots is IN the App Store!!!
We’ve updated its features to run smoother and faster than before.
Download the app and log in TODAY to start using the #1 saltwater fishing app for inshore anglers.
Ease of use
When you first go to the site, everything you need automatically appears in seconds.
The tides and weather for the day along with the Strike Scores for the next several days appear.
The map also pops up with additional buttons and toggles to effortlessly plan your fishing trips.
Bonus information
- It Follows The Fish Around As They Move
- It Shows The Best Day To Go Fishing In Your Area
- It Shows The Best Time Of Day To Go Fishing In Your Area
- Oyster Bar Layer
- 3d Underwater Sonar Layer
- 4k Satellite View
- Marine Chart Layer
- Forecasts Out To 14 Days With Crazy Accuracy
- 10 Apps In 1 – Works Flawlessly On Any Device Or Computer
- Unlimited Free Access (For Insider Members)
This is literally all the information you need to plan a fishing trip all in one place whenever you need it.
Pros
- Having everything you need (tides, weather, radar, sonar, and hourly feeding score) to plan a fishing trip and it all being so quick to access
- The Strike Score makes it easy to quickly look at the next few days and decide when the best day to go fishing is
- The hourly feeding levels tells you when the best time of day to fish is
- There are no pesky ads to sift through
Cons
Of course, no app is perfect.
The cons to this app are
- You only get to see the next two weeks of tides
If you were planning a fishing trip next month and wanted to know the tides, you would have to refer to another site on this list.
#2: Tides4Fishing.com
Tides4Fishing.com is our second favorite site to use for fishing tides.
It’s one of the most popular tools and has a lot of information in addition to just the tides.
Ease of use
Whereas SmartFishingTides.com takes two clicks to find a tide site (and there’s the map), with Tides4Fishing you first select the continent, then the country, then x out of an ad, then select the state, search for the tide station (organized from south to north), then select the station.
In total, it’s five clicks, but it is very intuitive.
Also, the next time you access their website it will have the last tide site you looked at there for you to click on, so it just gets easier.
Bonus information
This is what makes Tides4Fishing so popular.
There is lots of information besides just the tides, including the weather, visibility, pressure, water temperature, surf conditions, and tidal coefficient.
Pros
- Extra information to help you determine whether it’s a good day to go fishing or not
- Remembers the last tide site you visited
Cons
- There is no map to select tides from, which is helpful if you don’t know the name of the tide site you’re going to be fishing near
- There actually may be too much information (most anglers aren’t exactly sure how the tidal coefficient affects fishing)
- There’s no easy way to quickly compare two different days and how the fishing is projected to be
- Lots of ads
Check out Tides4Fishing.com here
#3: AyeTides
AyeTides is the first app on this list and unlike the other options above that are free, this app costs $7.99 to download.
However, this is the app that Luke and Tony used almost exclusively before we created Smart Fishing Tides.
Ease of use
Like Smart Fishing Tides, the map feature makes it easy to find the tide station nearest to where you plan to fish.
The color-coded tide charts also look nice and are easy to read.
Bonus information
In addition to the tides, you can see the sun and moon times, plus even current in some areas.
Pros
- Easy to read charts
- Current information is helpful
- No ads
Cons
- It’s not free—it’s $7.99.
- It’s only available on Apple
- Doesn’t include weather
#4: Fishing Points
Fishing Points is another app, except this one can be downloaded on both Apple and Google devices.
Ease of use
Although you can just navigate to any spot on the map and select tides in that area (it automatically chooses the nearest tide station), on the tide page there is no other information to tell you about that day (weather, waves, etc).
If you don’t care to know that information quickly, you may like this app.
Bonus information
This app does a lot in addition to just telling you the tides.
You can log your catches with notes and locations, there’s predicted fish activity, and you can see the weather, wind, waves, current, and solunar information.
Pros
- Map navigation
- Bonus information (like the fish catch log, waves, weather, etc.)
- Predictive fish activity
- Current information
Cons
- Although the app does have a decent amount of information to help you plan a fishing trip, each category of information (weather, tides, etc) is on a separate page that you’ll need to navigate to.
- If you want to look at the weather, tides or fish activity in the future, you have to purchase the premium version, which is $5.99/month.
Learn more about Fishing Points here.
#5: Tide Charts
Unlike the other two apps, this one is free ($1.99 if you want to remove the ads, which aren’t too distracting) and you can see the tides for any day in the future.
Ease of use
You have the option to use the map or search tide station by name, so it’s pretty easy to use.
Also, checking out the weather for the next few days is also easy once you navigate to the weather page.
Bonus information
This app also tells you the weather and solunar information.
Pros
- Free
- Can look at tides for over a year in the future
- Hourly and 10-day weather
- Solunar information
Cons
- If you’re looking to plan an entire fishing trip, this app isn’t the most helpful as it will just give you the tides and weather
- The graphics are more minimalistic, although they still give you the information you need
Download it for Apple devices here and Google devices here.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to quickly and easily find the tides, it’s time to go fishing!
Have any questions about these tide sites and apps?
Did you favorite site or app make the list?
Let me know in the comments below!
And if you know someone who would love an easier way to get tides, please TAG or SHARE this with them!
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STOP WASTING TIME ON THE WATER!
Do what the “SMART ANGLERS” are doing and join the Insider Club.
Here’s what you’ll receive today when you join:
- Weekly fishing reports and TRENDS revealing exactly where you should fish every trip
- Weekly “spot dissection” videos that walk you through all the best spots in your area
- Exclusive fishing tips from the PROS you can’t find anywhere else
- Everything you need to start catching fish more consistently (regardless if you fish out of a boat, kayak, or land).
Nautides is also a good free app. It gives the best fish activity times
Is there not an app to download to my phone for Smartfishingtidez ?
Best news is that it’s easily available from any device, tablet, laptop, or desktop (without having to download an app).
I’ve been using Tides4fishing for several years now but eager to try this out. ‘MyRadar’ app is useful for specific wind direction and rain with various overlays. I like the sonar feature with ‘Smart Fishing Tides’, but did seem very slow in changing from charts>satellite view and back. I also like “Cruisersnet.net”…very detailed and comprehensive. Will definitely spend some time on Smart Fishing Tides. Thanks guys.
Thanks for making time to leave the helpful comment Jim!
GPS REAL TIDE is great, it tells you what the tide is at your GPS Position So no math is to be done.
Thanks for making time to leave the helpful comment David!
Thanks for this. How accurate is solunar theory anyway? I ‘ve had a few bad days when it said fish would b very active
Solunar is helpful, but without incorporating the weather, it’s not going to be consistently accurate.
The sonar / depth readings on smartfishingtides is a real bonus. Not available on the other sites I’ve used.
Thanks for making time to leave the helpful comment Gary!
Tides4fishing is what I’ve used for years living on the east coast.
It’s a good tide app for sure. I’m partial to http://www.smartifishingtides.com
Check out app called Windfinder – It has wind speed & direction, wave direction & height and tide info
#2 Tides4Fishing is what I have used for the past 3 years in South Carolina, it is very good and contains all the information in one site.
Thanks for making time to leave the comment Dave. I recommend giving https://www.smartfishingtides.com yet a try because I’m confident that you’ll be impressed with its easy to understand layout and the fact that it includes extras like a button to show radar in motion for knowing if storms are in the mix as well as the inclusion of weather (and how fish react to it) for the feeding level forecasts (vs. just focusing on solunar information)
Thank you! How are we to interpret your site for fishing on the Indian River lagoon vs on the coast itself? Are the ratings equivalent (or not) considering that tides do not readily affect the river?
The https://www.smartfishingtides.com/ platform has tide stations in the Indian River as well as along the nearby beaches, and each tide station has the corresponding weather, radar, maps, and associated feeding level scores based on the localized information.
Thanks Luke. Maybe I’m missing something, but I just checked and don’t see anything under Indian River. I am in the Melbourne/ Satellite Beach area and have tried searching different ways. Would you mind letting me know how it’s named, so I can look it up?