GPS on the Ice

[Uncle Grump]

Hi all

Just picked up one of the yellow Garmin Etrex units. Been playing with it a little
and so far, the best "position" accuracy
reading I've gotten is 23 ft. Its been 25
and 27 ft. as well.

The reason I bought this thing is that a
couple of years ago, my son and I were out
on Cedar Lk near Faribault. We set up on
some bit of structure - just by luck. No
one else was catching fish near by - but
we were. The weird thing was - there
was just one corner of my house on the structure - at the other end, 8 ft away, we got fish, but the "hot" hole was producing 2:1 over the other end. It didn't matter if
the Vexilar was used, or who was fishing - it was the spot.

Having said all that - it would seem that
if I find a spot such as that again, and then use the GPS to find it a 2nd time, I would still have a large area to manually search.

In soft water, some fan casting would take
care of the issue, but it looks like I would need to potentialy drill alot of holes
in winter.

Comments - suggestions?

Thanks

UG

[Guest]

UG

You hit the nail on the head. Drilling holes is the solution to finding the "spot on the spot". I have punched upwards of 20 holes in a small spot at times. You can also use your flasher to assist in locating fish by shooting it through the ice, just carry a small bottle of water to splash on the ice surface to ensure a good reading.

------------------
Paul
[email protected]

[Guest]

My uncle lended me his GPS last year during the ice fishing season and it took me a while to figure it out but once I did it was awesome. I could return within feet of the same spot that I fished a previous night. Comes in handy at night or on big lakes.
Pwaldow123, I'm with you. There has a been a bunch of times where I would catch fish just feet from a partner and he would catch nothing. Sometimes all it takes is just punching a hole 5 feet over and your on the fish. Good point on bringing up the "Spot on the Spot."
Good Fishin, Matt.

[Guest]

Congrats on your new purchase. My buddy and I also have the exacts units. I have nothing but good things to say about that particular etrex model, They're very dependable. I have been in similar situations and have a couple of answers. The easiest is just somehow mark the spot with something you'd remember( piece of ice or some kinda drill pattern) the other is marking three different spots in a 20 foot radius or so. By doing this you can open the window on the unit that shows you all of the familiar points and then walk to the center of them. This has proved to be quite accurate. Sometimes thats just too much work so just drill 100 holes or so and get the vex out.

[Gissert]

Another great too to use in conjunction with a GPS is the Lakemaster software. I like to fish Ottertail quite a bit, and this software saved me a ton of time last year finding the spots I had targeted.

Simply place the curser over the spot you want to fish, mark the waypoint, and upload it to your GPS.

You then go right to the spot that you had selected. Then you can punch some holes and fine tune the area that you want to fish. While it is not dead on accurate, it almost always got me to within 50 yards of where I wanted to be.

[Crappieman]

GPS and Lake master are a great comb. I used it on Millacs both open and solid water last year. I used a G-12, without WAAS, and it worked well. I plan on get a new one this with WAAS. (I guess these are the letters). Would not fish without it.

[Steve Foss]

Picked up the same Garmin E-trex yellow unit at Cabela's, punched in a ton of summer waypoints on submerged structure a couple lakes I know for later ice fishing. Then the E-trex kept shutting off if it got jarred, even a little. Took it to Cabela's and they gave me a new one for nothing. All those waypoints lost. Didn't think to write the coordinates down before trading it in. Bummer. Got them all entered on the new one this summer though.

And yeah, you still gotta drill some holes to find the exact spot, especially on humps and small sunken islands, but what a huge improvement when you're out on the sled or the 4-wheeler. No more guesswork. Not to mention you can mark you departure point to make it easier to get back if a snow squall blows up when you're leaving in the dark.

We've used it to mark some great morel spots, too, and it's nice to know your trolling speed in open water if you don't have a depth finder with that option.

Wouldn't trade mine for anything.

By the way, the unit has read that it's accurate to within 15 feet a few times, but more often it's 21 feet.

Hard water, bring it on.

------------------
Steve ([email protected])

[This message has been edited by stfcatfish (edited 10-12-2002).]

[Guest]

stfcatfish,

I'm looking forward to using my plots from the summer this winter. It'll be nice to begin fishing with a good idea of where the structure is and then find the spot on the spot. And then once I find the "hot spot" I can change my points for future reference as you said. Ice fishing has changed so much in the last several years making it easier and more comfortable. Bring on the ice, I'm ready.

Good Fishin, Matt.

P.S. Where you located, I'm always looking for another partner to help tag those slab crappies. I'm from the Twin Cities.

[Guest]

stfcatfish,
you brought up a good point regarding plotting points during the summer to use ice fishing. Its a lot easier to find structure in a boat and you can get from spot to spot faster as well. Plus it saves time come winter. I've plotted a bunch of points this summer that I plan n trying this winter.

Good Fishin, Matt.

[Steve Foss]

MJ5:

Yeah, and another good thing is, when you use summer plots to get to winter spots, you can change those waypoints as you refine the spot on the spot by drilling holes. In a boat, it's a little tough to know exactly where you're at, even with a depth finder, because of the bucking waves and all that. No waves on the ice, unless it's drifting snow.

Good luck.