Free GPS Guidance
Archive for October 19th, 2009
Whenever I bring up the topic of marine GPS units with my fishing buddy Grover, he dismisses the topic out of hand. According to him, fishermen should be able to anticipate hotbeds for angling without any outside assistance. Of course there were plenty of points I could have made to poke holes in his position. For instance, is it “cheating” to check the weather report before heading out to the lake?
Besides that, I always remind Grover that Garmin chartplotters are good for much more than finding fish. In fact, I rely on them as navigational tools on dark nights when clouds obscure the stars overhead. When you’re out in the middle of a lake in pitch darkness, there’s no way to guarantee you’ll miss rock outcroppings and other debris that’s just waiting to run your boat aground. Grover couldn’t help but admit that I was right.
I was talking to a friend the other day. He is one of those snowbirds who is getting ready to head on back to Florida before the snow flies. As we were listening to the weatherman, it sounded like my friend had better be quick to leave the North Country this year if he is going to beat the snow. Anyway, he is planning on doing some serious golfing once he gets down to the Longboat Key area. Of course, that got us to talking about golf GPS and the variety of golf GPS systems available today. It is amazing.
He was especially interested in the new Garmin Approach G5. He was quite impressed with that little touchscreen Garmin golf GPS. You are able to measure distances for your next shot by just touching any point on the sunlight-readable display, and the Garmin Approach G5 shows the precise distance to that exact point. Approach’s highly sensitive GPS receiver pinpoints your position and removes guesswork from your game. And as you move the Approach automatically updates your position, so you’ll always know your yardage. Slick. No wonder he can’t wait to head south for the winter. Maybe some days I am a little jealous of the snowbirds after all.