Alternatives
The best OnWater alternatives
OnWater put free public-access data on the map before anyone else, with a big access-point database, property boundaries, and conditions across every kind of fishing. If you’re looking for an alternative, it helps to know what you’re really after. Some anglers want another access map. Others fish trout on the fly and want an app that goes deep on that one thing, reading the water and calling the play. Here’s an honest look at both.
If you want another access map
TroutRoutes is the deepest trout map, with 50,000-plus streams, land ownership, and offline maps for no-signal canyons. FlyFishFinder layers easement data and a fishability badge on top of a big map. Both are strong at finding water and marking access. What none of them do, OnWater included, is read your live conditions into a trout-fly play. They show you where you can fish. They don’t tell you how to fish it.
If you fish trout on the fly
That’s where Rivus comes in. OnWater covers every fish in the water. Rivus goes deep on one, trout, on the fly, right now. It reads today’s flow, water temperature, weather, and hatch for the exact stretch under your boots and tells you the play, whether it’s worth fishing, and the best fly to match from your own box. OnWater is a mile wide. Rivus is a mile deep on the water you actually fish.
Where Eddy comes in
And when the fish don’t cooperate, you’ve got Eddy. Eddy is a fishing companion that reads the water alongside you and already knows your conditions, so when the bite quits you just ask and it helps you pivot. Snap a photo of a bug and Eddy names it and tells you what to throw. That’s a layer an access map doesn’t have.
Use both
OnWater to find access across every kind of fishing. Rivus to read the trout stream you land on and fish it well. A lot of anglers keep both.