DNR maps and GPS calibration

[Guest]

Wouldn't it be neat if you could take the DNR maps and mark spots on them and upload those to your GPS.

I can help you with that process. I know you are probably thinking, isn't that what the Lake Master CD does? Yes, and the Lake Master CD is a great way for people to get an idea of where to start fishing on a lake.

The problem is that they typically don't have a lot of the smaller lakes on the CD, or you might not want to pay for all the lakes when you only need 1 map.

I have found a way to take a DNR depth map and calibrate it to work with the following gps units: Magellan, Garmin, Lowrance, Eagle and MLR.

Why would you want this? Wouldn't it be great to be able to look at a DNR map and see a piece of structure, like a hump, and be able to let your GPS take you too it.

What I do is take a DNR map (has to exist), and calibrate it. Then with a piece of shareware software (OziExplorer)- free, you can pick spots on the DNR map and upload them as waypoints on your GPS.

This isn't an exact science but should get you really close to the structure you are looking for. This procedure is only as good as the DNR maps which aren't great in the first place, but it is a great starting point.

Contact me if you are interested and I can calibrate a map or maps for you. Again due to satellite images and DNR map availability, I am not able to do 100% of all lakes.

My price is: 1 map $15, 2 maps $25, 3 maps $30.

Contact me at [email protected] if you are interested. I should be able to give you a general time frame of when I can get it done. My prices are subject to change. Good fishing.

Thanks.

[Grabs]

I am sure there any many interested people out there, but I am probably like many, and want to know how well it really does work without paying to find out. Can you or have you come up with any means of providing an example, or trial version for us to try for a certain time frame so we can discover how well we like the system.

Just and idea and suggestion.

[Guest]

Grabs and anyone else interested.

This is a really valid question. A couple of things.

First of all, mapping lakes isn't my line of business. I work for a computer company and love to tinker around with GPS's, and image files and figured out this process. Some friends wanted a way to find spots on DNR maps and put these on their GPS's. I have done this process for family and friends. I started to think if it is a good idea for them other's might be able to use this.

However, it takes me a few hours to do one of these calibrations, so if I do them for people, I want to at least cover some of my time and thus the prices I mentioned.

However, because it isn't a full-time business for me, I don't have the resources or dollars to develop a real nice process such as a CD-ROM that would stop working or allow a certain number of uploads and then quit.

For anyone interested, send me your email address and I will do the following:

1) Give you the directions on how and where to load the shareware program to verify it works with your specific GPS. This is not my program, so I don't want to sell you maps and then not have them work because of the GPS or shareware program.

2)I can provide you a generic map of a lake and make sure you can put waypoints on the map and upload them to the GPS.

3)If you are really interested but don't want to buy until you try, I can calibrate the map of the lake you wish to buy and leave just 1 or 2 features on the map, such as an island or hump that would be easy to verify with your eyes or sonar, and hide the rest of the detail.

You could put a waypoint on this piece of detail and upload it to your GPS and test it. Once confirmed, you then could order the map.

I hesitate to do this because I have to do the same amount of work (actually a little bit more), but this way, you can see it works, and I can make sure I get my money before you get the full map. This is probably the best way.

I can tell you the ones that I have done for myself have been very good. For Summer fishing, they will get me close enough that my sonar will get me the rest of the way (usually within 30 yards and most of the time it is much closer).

The calibration works great, the only problem is how accurate the DNR map is. Keep in mind the map isn't uploaded, only the waypoints you mark are uploaded to the GPS and some of the DNR maps are fairly accurate and some aren't.

Email me at [email protected] and list the map or maps you are interested in and I can make you a sample of a lake if you like and have you try it out.

Korey

[minneman]

Just wondering, could the average Joe download all needed info from oziexplorer and provided you have a scanner, acomplish all this?? does the software cost anything? not that i dont want to pay you anything but I get board this time of year..

I had a spot once on LOW that I needed to waypoint but hadnt been there, so I went to maptech and found the area I needed on their map and with some sizing on my coppier was able to overlay a printed map on my monitor with the same size map, and thus get the waypoint with the pointer, I only needed the general area marked incase of fog or weather, but it worked within a 10th of a mile anyway. hey I was board!

[Scoot]

Grabs, Minneman, and whoever,

I can attest to the quality of Kirsch's product. He works with my brother and I managed to weasel a couple of maps from him to give a shot a couple of years ago. I was quite impressed with the system. As Kirsch said, it's basically like using Lakemaster, but you can get it for any lake that the DNR has made a topo map for. Also like Kirsch said, the info he has is limited by the map that the DNR puts out- if the DNR map is missing structures (as we all know they do), then his finished products will miss those same structures. However, a good buddy of mine has Lakemaster and they miss a lot of structures too.
I think the software would be extremely useful for fishing a body of water that you've never fished before. Call Kirsch before you go, get an electronic map of the place, and upload likely spots to the gps before you head out there. Keep in mind that he can't make this map in mere minutes- it takes him some work to put it together so give him a little time.
For the money I think it's a good buy- a product that's as good as Lakemaster but has the added benefit of being usable on about 100 times as many lakes as Lakemaster offers info on, at a cheaper price.
Scoot

[Guest]

Minneman,

To answer your question, the average Joe could do about 1/2 of the process. By downloading Oziexplorer from the web, you can upload and download waypoints from your GPS.

The hard part is getting a DNR map or any other to be calibrated to work inside of OziExplorer. It sounds like you have purchased some of the lake maps and would like to use a scanner to digitize them.

Usually these maps are slightly more accurate, but legally, I can't take these and calibrate and sell them due to copywrite issues. You will end up with the same issue.

This isn't meant to sound like I am bragging, but I use about $1,000 worth of software to do the process to get it as accurate as possible. Lukily, this sofware is provided as part of my current job. I am reluctant to give away too many trade secrets of how I do the process or the software used. I am sure you understand.

Thanks Scoot for the glowing remarks. As he said it is a good tool if you are trying to figure out a lake and get to some key spots. Then it is up to the fisherman to use his electronics to pinpoint the spot-on-the-spot and mark them for future reference.

For example, I used my maps to pre-fish a tournament last year. Found about 30 spots on the map that looked good from a topo standpoint, uploaded them to my GPS, and spent a weekend figuring out which structures held the most fish. Then used this data to isolate my strategy before the tournament. Ended up taking 3rd out of 70 teams, and most knew the lake much better than I did.

[Rick]

Hi Kirsch,
what you have sounds like a good idea. I like it. Unfortunately, it goes against Forum policy.

Advertising products or services is not allowed without authorization.

Use the contact us link below, send me your phone number and I can help you out to stay within policy.

Also, the Lakemap software is proven and does contain 100 lakes either in Wisconsin or Minnesota for only $49 or so.

You can see it at:
http://fishingmn.com/sportgood.html