How much do you trust your electronics?

Guy told me about a cool lake that is clear so I would like to fish it low light. The access to the lake is a river with good current, hard bottom and lots of bends. Me because I am a chicken crawled threw that river, took me a long time to get to the lake. I cannot imagine doing that in the dark wich you would have to do first or last light. Guy who told me about the lake I guess flys threw the river I would guess based on track back. GPS for security reasons can be off by as much as 15′, on that river that would put you in the rocks. Ideas?

I guess I don’t believe GPS is off by 15 feet. When I’m in the boat on the Mississippi and the mapping chip shows wing dams as gray bars, when I drive over the gray bars, the side imaging and depth pretty much correspond exactly. And GPS is accurate enough to show what lane you’re in when you’re driving on the roads. Tractors can plant fields running off GPS. I see bulldozers that have GPS receivers on each edge of the blade, although I believe those may be running off a local, enhanced signal. So, the long answer is, I trust the GPS to be accurate.

I trust them but if you are not comfortable at night then just take your time. What’s the rush your fishin.

The government discontinued the Selective Availability (intentional error) in the GPS signals sometime during the Clinton presidency. The intentional error was to prevent terrorists from using GPS for their attacks but by then there were things on the market that corrected the error.

Ripjiggen wrote:

I trust them but if you are not comfortable at night then just take your time. What’s the rush your fishin.

Bingo. I trust my electronics and don’t seem to notice ever being 15 ft off. That means when I am sitting at the dock it’ll say I’m on land and that never happens. If your not comfortable then wake up earlier and putt in slowly

I worry more about rocks, fallen trees and other obstructions that might not be on GPS more that mapping being off.

DaveB wrote:

I worry more about rocks, fallen trees and other obstructions that might not be on GPS more that mapping being off.

Absolutely. That would be my concern too. Visual or unknown obstructions, especially at night.

Depends, am I driving your boat or mine?

I trust the accuracy of the GPS location; what I don’t trust is the accuracy of the depth charts on the lakemap chip. The GPS location can be accurate, but where the map shows 5 ft of water, could really be 1 or less. Of course, overall water level matters too especially in a river where the level fluctuates.

If I travel a route (like up a river) in daylight, I trust to follow the same path back in the dark.

A good headlamp or handheld spotlight should get you thru the river just fine.

I had a buddy crashed really bad at night on upper croix, right into the rocks. Some really bad injuries. I wasn’t in the boat so don’t know the entire story. I trust GPS, but use my eyes more than anything. One more reason not to use a bright headlamp. I also know a buddy with a high end duck boat and a huge headlight setup. He leaves them off most of the time.

Electronic maps (LakeMaster and Navionics) are notoriously incorrect in certain locations but boat location from the GPS receiver in your display will generally be fairly close. Even with the water level offset set correctly the depth showing on an electronic map can be completely wrong depending upon where you’re at. That’s why there is always the disclaimer that says “Not to be Used for Navigation”.

I don’t run at night….I have a hard enough time staying out of trouble during the day.

If you are worried about clarity wait for a windy day to fish it.

delete

I wouldn’t trust it. Even if you laid down a track in the middle of the safe water are you going to be able to stay close enough to it when on plane.

Just to make the math easy if you are going 1mph a 5 mi. stretch will take 5 hours, at 20mph you are there in 15 minutes! Going earlier just makes visibility more of an issue. Thanks for the replies good to know I’m not the only chicken!

Spotlight/headlamp?

tim hurley wrote:

Just to make the math easy if you are going 1mph a 5 mi. stretch will take 5 hours, at 20mph you are there in 15 minutes! Going earlier just makes visibility more of an issue. Thanks for the replies good to know I’m not the only chicken!

Guess your answer is don’t go till daylight

My answer is my answer.