The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking for beta testers for its new app called Fish Washington ahead of its debut this April.

Officials at WDFW are hoping this early release to gain anglers' help working out any unanticipated bugs.

The Fish Washington app is designed to give you up-to-the-minute fishing regulations for every lake, river, stream and marine area in the state and is available for download now at Google Play and Apple's App store.

The application contains many great features, including:

  • Interactive mapping to help anglers find fishing near them.
  • Details on harvest limits and allowable gear for fishable species in each body of water.
  • Access to the Fish Washington 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.

Specifically:

WDFW is hoping to test high capacity use with thousands of test users at the same time.

The testing effort is also meant to encourage scrutiny of how the rules will display for every water body in Washington. Some inconsistencies and errors may pop up given that the rules associated with every stream, lake and river in Washington have never been displayed on an app like this before.

You can download the Fish Washington app by visiting Apple's App store or Google's Play store.

WDFW is asking users to use the commenting features in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store to provide feedback, which will help the department make improvements prior to the app's official launch this spring.

App testers can also leave comments at MobileAppDev@dfw.wa.gov.

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