Fish Washington vs Catchzone
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Fish Washington
Access current Washington sport fishing rules and emergency changes for all state waters. Log catches offline, check license privileges, and find fishing spots with interactive maps. Includes NOAA tidal predictions and harvest limits.
- Current sport fishing rules
- Emergency regulation updates
- Offline catch logging
- License privilege display
- Interactive fishing maps
- NOAA tidal predictions
- Harvest limits and gear details
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Sport Fishing Regulations The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is excited to announce a new sport fishing regulations mobile application for Washington state! Use this mobile app to access current Washington Sport Fishing Rules and emergency fishing rule changes. This free app is designed to convey up-to-the-minute fishing regulations for every lake, river, stream and marine area in the state. New features for 2026 include: Log your catches—even off the grid Track your salmon, steelhead, halibut, sturgeon, and crab catches—online or offline. Check and display your license privileges Secure your licenses and know exactly what you're eligible for—anytime, anywhere. Fish Washington also now includes: Emergency regulation delivery. Map upgrades: New iconography for restrictions and water body features. New base maps to improve the user experience. Interactive mapping to help anglers find fishing opportunities near them. Location-enabled United States Geological Service (USGS) river gauges. Full water body name and description or portion to emergency regulation cards. NOAA tidal predictions for marine water bodies and lower Columbia River. Details on harvest limits and allowable gear for fishable species in each body of water. Access to the WDFW website and instructional videos designed to convey when, where, and how to fish in Washington. Locations of boat launches and other fishing access points. Ability to add waypoints on maps, and report poaching in progress. Downloadable updates and offline capacity designed for those who may not have cell service in remote areas or on the water. Washington state offers anglers some of the most diverse fishing opportunities available anywhere in the world. In a single weekend, you can dig for clams, troll for salmon, drop a pot for Dungeness crab, fly fish for steelhead, trout or bass, jig for halibut or rockfish, and bait fish for catfish, tuna, lingcod, or sturgeon. Maintaining this variety of fishing opportunities necessitates correspondingly diverse ― and sometimes complex ― fishing regulations. To make these regulations easier to understand, WDFW developed the Fish Washington mobile app. Refer to our website for more information.
Catchzone
This app acts as a fishing guide, providing detailed information on fish seasons, regulations, and water bodies. It offers advanced features like auto-location, weather forecasts, tides, and offline access for anglers.
- Interactive water body maps
- Fish season and regulation lookup
- Auto-locating catch codes
- Personal best tracking
- Social feed for sharing catches
- Local weather and tide forecasts
- Offline map access
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Catch Zone is your very own fishing guide in the palm of your hand. It has mapping features for you to scroll and look at water body’s, you can then tap on the water body and see which fish is in season and out of season for that river, lake, stream, or pond. As well as the regulations for the individual fish in that waterbody. It has a search feature from the map screen for you to look up any regulated waterbody. Your catch code will populate and you can see all the information on the water body you want to fish or are currently fishing. Catch Zone comes complete with an auto locating feature that will tell you your catch code for any waterbody in Washington or Oregon. Track your personal best with our catch tags that save to your personal profile. We have a large social feed for you to share your greatest catch and stories with the world. At the bottom of every fish screen, we have made it easy to access emergency regulations with a clickable link. Subscriptions are required for complete functionality of our app. We offer two subscriptions a monthly subscription or a yearly subscription. Both of our subscriptions give full access to our app. We have added a new weather page to our app! On the weather page you will find your local forecast, a seven day forecast, as well as Tides, River levels, stocking reports , dam counts, ocean conditions, and moon phases. Our tide feature is great it auto locates your closest station and then you can also select different locations near you or even search for any station you want to know about. We have added tips and info for every waterbody on our app. These tips and info will tell you what fish are in that waterbody, the best time to fish for them, and in some cases tell you how to set up your rod, and tell you what works best . This feature is very helpful for a new angler . It tells you where bank access is as well as where boat access is. Tons of our users have been using this feature to explore new areas! We have implemented a new offline mode on our app!!! You can open the app when you don’t have service and when you go to the map screen you can still search any waterbody and get the info you need with no service! Catch Zone is a subscription based app which means a subscription is required for access to the app and its functionality. We offer two subscriptions currently: Our yearly subscription costs 69.99 which will be billed after your 7 day free trial. Our monthly subscription costs is 9.99 which will be billed monthly after your free trial ends. Please see our End user license agreement https://app.termly.io/document/eula/cd33fe37-763d-4d8e-92b1-f2599c27511a
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Catchzone at 80% against Fish Washington's 26%. Catchzone also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.3) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). Fish Washington's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 8) and ratings volume (7K vs 3). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Catchzone sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Fish Washington asks for nothing beyond the download.
Catchzone holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Fish Washington has 7K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 26% of Fish Washington's written reviews are positive against 80% of Catchzone's.
Fish Washington ships an update every 3 weeks, Catchzone fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Fish Washington | Catchzone |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (7K ratings) | 4.7 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 25.5% of reviews | 80.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7K — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Subscription |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 341 MB | 166 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife | Fish Washington LLC |
Customer experience
Fish Washington
Catchzone
Bugs and requests
Fish Washington
Reported bugs
3 issues- App crashes when trying to access map or view regulations
- Search functionality not working as expected
- Sync/update process frequently failing or taking too long
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to purchase fishing licenses directly in the app
- Inclusion of fish identification and stocking information
- Easier navigation and filtering of regulations
- Offline mode to view regulations without internet connection
- Integration of emergency regulation updates without full sync
Catchzone
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Fish Washington
No in-app purchases
Catchzone
- Monthly Subscription1 Month trial$7.991 Month
- Monthly Subscription7 Days trial2 variants$9.991 Month
- Monthly Bathmetry7 Days trial$12.991 Month
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- Yearly Subscription$29.991 Year
- Yearly Bathmetry7 Days trial$49.991 Year
- Yearly Subscription2 variants$69.991 Year
Questions
Is Fish Washington free?
Is Catchzone free?
Which has better reviews, Fish Washington or Catchzone?
Do Fish Washington or Catchzone have ads?
Which is updated more often, Fish Washington or Catchzone?
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