Angler fishing from a boat


Find New Lakes to Fish With Fish Species Abundance Insights

Make your fishing effort more effective by finding lakes with healthy populations of your target species within the onX Fish App. Use onX’s Fish Species Abundance Insights to identify lakes that have the highest numbers of the fish you want to catch, so you can save both time and fuel to make the most of your fishing days.

Make your fishing effort more effective by finding lakes with healthy populations of your target species within the onX Fish App. Use onX’s Fish Species Abundance Insights to identify lakes that have the highest numbers of the fish you want to catch, so you can save both time and fuel to make the most of your fishing days.

Spend More Time Fishing the Right Water

Harness the power of CPUE (catch per unit of effort) data to fish lakes that hold more of your target species. CPUE is a value is that measures how many fish were caught per unit of effort (gear count, e.g. # of nets) at a specific point in time, and is a representation of the abundance of each species in that lake. 

Within the onX Fish App, Fish Species Abundance Insights allows you to easily see and understand fish abundance in lakes. Save time searching for the bodies of water you want to fish and quickly compare the number of fish in one lake to others nearby, as well as against statewide averages for that particular species. Data from fisheries have never before been compiled and visualized in a way that allows anglers to easily sort through potential lakes and quickly decide where to fish based on CPUE.

Fish Better Water, Faster

Having an understanding of how prevalent your target species is within a water body will save you time and money. Don’t waste hours and fuel figuring out which lakes have good numbers of the fish you want to catch. With onX’s Fish Species Abundance Insights, you can skip the legwork and get straight to fishing with confidence by identifying the best possible lakes to fish for your quarry.

Spend More Time Fishing

Speed up your scouting process and get on the water sooner by having the power of Fish Species Abundance Insights in your hands. Gone are the days of going to a lake blindly to “figure it out.” Use your time more effectively by quickly evaluating the abundance of multiple species compared to similar lakes as well as statewide averages.

Joel Nelson

Owner/Operator of Joel Nelson Outdoors

“With Fish Species Abundance Insights, I can zoom into the area I’ll be fishing and quickly sort the best lakes for trophy walleyes, eater panfish, and everything in between. I’m used to hunting for these data on a lake-by-lake basis, and now I spend more time fishing than I do finding.”

Get Your Line in the Right Water

Quickly find the best places to fish based on Fish Species Abundance Insights.

Start using onX Fish Species Abundance Insights today

In App

  • Open the onX Fish App on your mobile device
  • Tap on a lake on the map or within “Fishing Spots” in the bottom toolbar
  • From the detailed lake query card information, tap on “Fish Species”
  • Select a species from the Species List to view the Abundance (CPUE) data

On Desktop

  • Log in to your account on webmap.onxmaps.com/fish/login
  • Click on a lake on the map or within “Fishing Spots” in the top left toolbar
  • From the detailed lake query card information, click on “Fish Species”
  • Select a species from the Species List to view the Abundance (CPUE) data

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CPUE?

Species Abundance is based on surveys conducted by fisheries biologists who record a Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) value. This is a measure of how many fish were caught per unit of effort (e.g. # of nets) at a specific point in time, and is a presentation of the abundance of each species in that lake. The DNR also provides a “normal range,” which is different for each species and varies across lake classifications, which are based on each lake’s physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. Anglers can compare CPUE against that normal range to understand relative abundance between similar lakes.

What States does onX Fish cover?

Right now onX Fish is only live in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but we’re working on adding other states to the app soon.