North Big Sandy Sidescans now Available at Kentucy Hydrografx

[Moose1am]

http://www.kentuckyhydrografx.com/



I just went to Pat's web site and on Oct 18th he posted the new Big Sandy North Sidescans. They sell for about 45 bucks and show the stumps, brush pilesl, steakbeds and drops and they are pretty cool.

If you are fishing the TeeZur Tournament they might be of some assistance to you. I am seriously thinking about getting them as they will help me form a game plan if I do go to the tournament.

We spend 400 bucks on a trolling motor and up to #30,000 for a bass boat and or $5,000 for a john boat so why not spend $45 bucks to get the Way Points to some of the good looking fishing spots.

[crappiehunter]

Moose,
I have the northeast side scan and my order for the north sandy area is in today. What a tool to find fish! I can't wait to give it a shot and find some new structure to fish.

http://www.kentuckyhydrografx.com/



I just went to Pat's web site and on Oct 18th he posted the new Big Sandy North Sidescans. They sell for about 45 bucks and show the stumps, brush pilesl, steakbeds and drops and they are pretty cool.

If you are fishing the TeeZur Tournament they might be of some assistance to you. I am seriously thinking about getting them as they will help me form a game plan if I do go to the tournament.

We spend 400 bucks on a trolling motor and up to #30,000 for a bass boat and or $5,000 for a john boat so why not spend $45 bucks to get the Way Points to some of the good looking fishing spots.

[Tim The Lippa Rippa Mon]

Holy Crap Batman!! The riddler will never get away now!!!

Man, talk about an advantage! I am pretty sure it would be extremely difficult for me to grasp/absorb even how to operate/use this technology. Maybe you would teach me how on a fishing trip together sometime Moose?

<,"}?>{ Rippa

[Moose1am]

I too am amazed at the technology. I am trying to learn this mapping stuff. Right now my mind has been focused on scanning some detailed maps of my favorite lake (Patoka Lake) Pat's maps are made by traveling along sections of KY lake in both EW and NS directions. As he motors slowly along a line he takes graph depth readings and satelite GPS positional readings. He has also pulled the sidescanning sonar unit along the same areas. The sidescaning sonar is like shinning a flashlight across the bottom and seeing the reflections of light and shadows only instead of using light waves he is using sound waves to light up underwater objects. Then he combines the two images together and use specialized software (Most likey Autocad with geological drawing software added) to draw in the contour lines on his digital map images. He also has scanned the TVA maps into his scanner and saved those images to disk. I think that they are TIFF file formates or something similar.

OziExplorer is software that can read scanned maps in TIFF format and show them on the computer screen. With OziExplorer you can actually pick out points on the digital map that have know locations (UTM coordinates or Longitude and Latitude coordinates) and calibrate the ditital map images. When that is complete you can use the computer and place the screen curson on any spot on the digital map shown on the computer screen and the program will read out the new map coordinates. Then you can transfer those coordinates into a handheld GPS. When out on the lake you set up the GPS Unit to show the fishing spots on the GPS's map screen or you can program the GPS unit to take you to the spot on the lake. Since KY lake is so big it hard to figure out exactly where you are located on the water without some kind of navigation system such as an accurate gps unit. What you want to find is drop offs or bends in a river or creek channel. I am talking about a very sharp bend in the river channel that has an undercut bank with brush or stumps along the drop off. Those are the type of spots that the crappie like to hang out around. There they can hide from predators and find food. Shad travel along the rivers and the bends in the rivers make good ambush spots for the crappie so they will hold there for a while while moving along the river or creek channel.

OziExplorer is 1/3 the solution while the ditigal maps are the other 1/3 and the GPS unit is the final 1/3. The rest is up to the fisherman to use his depth finder to figure out where the fish and the structure is actually located. The digital maps will get you close to the spot (within 10ft or so) and then you have to throw out a marker bouy for refererence when you get to the way point on the GPS unit. The GPS unit will tell you which direction to travel and how far to travel from where you currently are to get to the GPS waypoint or fishing spot. Once there you may have to search around in circles around the bouy to get the lay of the land beneath the boat in your mind's eye. Once you memorize the lay of the land you can then get on the spot and remark it with the GPS to finalize the position. It would not hurt to take some digital pictures of the lake. While at the spot take pictures toward the N S E and W and then find some landmarks to use to triangule your position. Then you can return to the spot again and again quickly to check it out.

But the bottom line is that you have to catch the fish. You can look at a map and locate likly fishing spots but you won't know if they are good or not until you fish them. Some spots may be good only at one time of the year. Other spots may be good year round or most of the year anyway. You will need to understand the crappie's behaviour and how they behave at different times of the year and how the react to different types of weather and water conditions. Lowing lake levels or rising water levels may make the crappie move to new locations. There will always be a need for the professional guides that are on the water year round and know where the crappie will be at different times of the year and different times of the day.

But these new maps and especially the sidescanning sonar pictures will make life rough on the crappie. Some of the hidden drops and brush piles or stump beds will now be fished more often by new fishermen that have access to new information.

I could help you use a Garmin eTrex Visa GPS and I myself am still learning how to use OziExplorer. I have a trial version and and a demo version but have not spent that much time playing with it. I have been busy fishing this year more than playing with the maps. This winter I am going to have to get busy on the mapping studies. But when I learn how to do this stuff I would offer help to those that have not figured it out.

I know that Pat Hahs has helped me by giving me some nice tips about getting some of the details about map datums correct.

I also found a program called corpscom that helped me translate some coordinates on the Patoka Lake maps into UTM coordinates. I need to see just how accurate those translations are by using the utm coordinates in my gps and going to the lake and using the depth finder to see what the coordinates look like in real life.

It's not easy finding a bend in the river channel without making a lot of NS EW passes over the area to find out exactly where the channel is located. Using 12 to 20 marker bouys helps you know exactly where the outside edges and the inside edges of the river channel are located. The key is to be right on the right spot. If you are off by 16 feet it can make a world of difference sometimes when the fish are holding very tight to the cover or brush pile. I found out the hard way last Sunday just how important that is. Don't fish in the front of the boat and use the transducer on the back of the boat thinking that you are using the transducer on the front of the boat. You will not catch very many fish that way. LOL

Holy Crap Batman!! The riddler will never get away now!!!

Man, talk about an advantage! I am pretty sure it would very difficult for me to grasp/absorb even how to operate/use this technology. Maybe you would teach me how on a fishing trip together sometime Moose?

<,"}?>{ Rippa