Free GPS Guidance
Posts Tagged ‘marine GPS’
Turn by turn directions for marine GPS? That’s a new one on me! I was talking to someone who asked for that just recently. That sounds pretty slick, but can’t say I have ever seen that before. After all, on a river or a lake the maps are going to show you where there are obstacles and where it is safe, deep enough for the boat to navigate safely. Nobody sticks to just one particular route unless they are navigating white water or other treacherous situations, working around shoals or sandbars or whatever.
Anyway, GPS chartplotters or GPS fishfinder combos are meant to show you the lay of the land, the obstacles and the channels which, if you actually use their aid, will help you to navigate safely and to find where those big fish actually live, but won’t give you a strict street map setup. After all, in my book that is much of the magic of spending time on the water, the ability to wander freely and enjoy the ride. Again, turn by turn directions? Not really, but marine GPS will still certainly help you to find your way and bring you home again.
Turn by turn directions for marine GPS? That’s a new one on me! I was talking to someone who asked for that just recently. That sounds pretty slick, but can’t say I have ever seen that before. After all, on a river or a lake the maps are going to show you where there are obstacles and where it
Turn by turn directions for marine GPS? That’s a new one on me! I was talking to someone who asked for that just recently. That sounds pretty slick, but can’t say I have ever seen that before. After all, on a river or a lake the maps are going to show you where there are obstacles and where it is safe, deep enough for the boat to navigate safely. Nobody sticks to just one particular route unless they are navigating white water or other treacherous situations, working around shoals or sandbars or whatever. Anyway, GPS chartplotters or fishfinder combos are meant to show you the lay of the land, the obstacles and the channels which, if you actually use their aid, will help you to navigate safely and to find where those big fish actually live, but won’t give you a strict street map setup. After all, in my book that is much of the magic of spending time on the water, the ability to wander freely and enjoy the ride. Again, turn by turn directions? Not really, but marine GPS will still certainly help you to find your way and bring you home again.
is safe, deep enough for the boat to navigate safely. Nobody sticks to just one particular route unless they are navigating white water or other treacherous situations, working around shoals or sandbars or whatever. Anyway, GPS chartplotters or fishfinder combos are meant to show you the lay of the land, the obstacles and the channels which, if you actually use their aid, will help you to navigate safely and to find where those big fish actually live, but won’t give you a strict street map setup. After all, in my book that is much of the magic of spending time on the water, the ability to wander freely and enjoy the ride. Again, turn by turn directions? Not really, but marine GPS will still certainly help you to find your way and bring you home again.
Whether fishing is your profession, you pursue fishing as pure fun and relaxation or even if you compete in fishing tournaments with your local fishing club, make this activity more productive as well as safe with a GPS fishfinder combo. The use of this system makes fishing easier in many ways and at the same time makes it safer so you can enjoy a bigger haul and a hassle free fishing trip. If safety is a concern for you, then your answer lies in marine GPS technology.
These devices steer you safely back to your starting point in case you hit upon rain, fog or darkness. As soon as you start, you can mark your location by longitude and latitude, and your system keeps a record of your travel route. This allows you to return safely to your home point, in case of any confusion due to bad weather or visibility.
Also, if you are part of a fishing event where you work in a group you can send the coordinates of your location to your friends if you like. You can also use this system to increase your catch. In all probability, you will end up with a bigger haul than the next guy. Your GPS fishfinder will help you locate the fish easily. Once you catch fish at some particular spot you can mark the spot in the GPS device and collect locations of such points in the device. Use these coordinates for your next trip. You could also mark a circle using the point in the middle as center for deciding your fishing zone for future trips as there is maximum probability of catching fish in this zone.
So what are you waiting for? Invest a nominal amount on a GPS fishfinder combination and get a lot in return.
Too funny. Recently our 15-year-old went camping with a friend of ours, trying to make the most of the end of summer. They really like to get together to hike and fish, have plenty of cookouts and just hang out together. Anyway, after one long day of tramping around in the wooded trails and cooking hotdogs on sticks over the fire pit they decided to relax out on the lake with fishing poles in hand. After a while of just floating around casting his line and reeling it in, our son started complaining that he caught a snag. They both worked a little to try to get it free when they finally managed to begin reeling the snag back toward the boat. I am thinking if they had bothered to bring the GPS fishfinder along they would have known that “snag” was one of the largest large mouth bass our friend had ever seen! Now there’s a fish story to remember, certainly a memory to last a lifetime.
A common question that you hear is “is there a site that one can go to for a profile to fit a GPS to the person and needs?” Generally you can go to any of the major manufacturers’ web sites and find comparison charts on their models. Most manufacturers have comparison functionality on their web sites that could help determine what to look for. It looks pretty basic, and you may have already determined what you are looking for, now you just need to find the right unit. First you must decide what type of unit are you looking for – automotive GPS systems, motorcycle GPS, marine GPS chartplotter or fishfinder, handheld GPS units? I especially like Garmin’s site for doing comparisons of features. There you can pick your interests (basic handhelds, mapping handhelds or on the side there is a link to geocaching). You can learn a lot from their site, and they have a wonderful comparison feature. This would be a terrific place to start. If you like geocaching there are also sites such as geocaching.com which teach you a lot and are a lot of fun. I generally like helping you find answers to your questions, but at the same time a feature which makes great sense to one person will sound like a waste of time and money to someone else, so you really need to do the final homework yourself to be sure you really find the GPS unit which suits your needs and that you will love for some time to come. I hope this helps to simplify things a little for you.
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.
In helping our new friend search for the best GPS chartplotter navigation for his enclosed wooden boat, we have discovered that the manufacturer’s descriptions do not always educate you on whether your unit will work in an enclosed area or not. We are finding that it is important to do more research and be sure that the unit can handle an external antenna before purchasing it. There are often situations where you do not want to navigate your boat from the fly bridge and would appreciate the comfort of navigating from within an enclosed cabin, so be sure your unit has that capability before purchasing the wrong GPS navigation system/chartplotter for you. It would be convenient if the manufacturers would include that in their descriptions, but that is not always the case.
Several GPS chartplotters have the capability of being used with or without an external antenna and should be reviewed with this in mind. Be sure to look for more than an internal antenna. An internal antenna is convenient as it is more compact and does not need to be set up separately; and although it will work quite well on many boats, it will not serve in all situations. Another thing to consider is purchasing a 2nd mounting station in order to easily switch back and forth between navigating either from the cabin or the fly bridge. Happy boating!