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Boat Electronics

DropTop5.0

DropTop5.0

Well-known member
Hello all, I normally boat on the Potomac River which is affected by the tide. Some parts are shallow, some parts are deep and I never really know when I can go outside of the Red and Green and be safe. I bought a chart and I'm slowly becoming more experienced in knowing what's underneath my vessel. Are there any of you guys out there that use navigation electronics to assist you in keeping in deep enough water?

I was thinking of buying something this year to assist me in knowing where I'm at when I'm running water that I'm unfamiliar in. When I was at the Great Sacandaga lake this year, that place has some crazy shallow spots all over the place and if you don't have intimate lake knowledge it is very easy to send your lower unit to the heaven or hell depending on its situation. I'm assuming the Bass boating world has something like I'm desiring but I don't need a fish finder only and understanding of the depth that's under me and in front of me.

When I was on my Submarine, we would chart out a predetermined path through certain obstacles and have constant GPS fixes (on the surface) to insure we didn't run a ground or go bump. Does anyone use or have anything like that? Seems like if I was in a Poker run on Lake Cumberland I'd have a navigator and want to have a preset course mapped out (shortest) and want to stick as closely as possible to the plan. Just thinking out load and trying to drum up some conversation on here.
 
Slingblade (Jeff) has an app that he was telling me about and I believe he used it on his Nashville river trip along with his crappie fishing. Maybe he can share some more of his expertise. He was telling me it had great information everywhere but Lake Cumberland Lol. Are you getting ready for that 30+ footer you are shopping for Chris?
 
No electronics to recommend but...

Any type of electronic instrument scanning the bottom for depth work for as guideline. If you are under way at anything over an idle... it would be too late by the time you were alerted of low water. Well at least on my river it would be.

I have been toying with the idea of plotting my own coarse of the river on a GPS unit. I would take a run up and down the river on either side of the channel. That way when its dark I can stick to the same course.


If you search some of the boating sites, you may find guys on that river who have posted weigh points of water hazards and shallow areas. You can load these into many GPS units.

Good luck with the search.

Ill
 
It seems to me that a bottom sounder doesn't really help all that much unless i'm at idle and want to take off and I happen to be in shallow water. I was thinking that as I wander down my Potomac River I sometimes get down 30 or 40 miles of just meandering and looking at the sites and on my return I like to cut the corners and make it home faster and not stay inside the Red and Greens. It would be great to have the shallow soundings mapped out and possible waypoints to get through certain areas. I know there are spots in my river that are a 1.5 miles wide with only a 1/4 mile or so of safe passage.

It's hard looking at a paper chart at 60. :D

By the way, how much water do we need to plane. For a Pulsare? For a Convincor?
 
Problem Child said:
Slingblade (Jeff) has an app that he was telling me about and I believe he used it on his Nashville river trip along with his crappie fishing. Maybe he can share some more of his expertise. He was telling me it had great information everywhere but Lake Cumberland Lol. Are you getting ready for that 30+ footer you are shopping for Chris?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input PC and SB. As for a new boat, I think I'm going to stick with the Pulsare for another year. It's a great boat and I spent a grip on the motor last year so I might as well enjoy all those dollars spent rather than finding another money bucket. I'm going to save my pennies, payoff my truck and figure out what it is I want.
 
DropTop5.0 said:
It seems to me that a bottom sounder doesn't really help all that much unless i'm at idle and want to take off and I happen to be in shallow water. I was thinking that as I wander down my Potomac River I sometimes get down 30 or 40 miles of just meandering and looking at the sites and on my return I like to cut the corners and make it home faster and not stay inside the Red and Greens. It would be great to have the shallow soundings mapped out and possible waypoints to get through certain areas. I know there are spots in my river that are a 1.5 miles wide with only a 1/4 mile or so of safe passage.

It's hard looking at a paper chart at 60. :D

By the way, how much water do we need to plane. For a Pulsare? For a Convincor?
Click to expand...

The way you air that PULSARE OUT I am thinking about 6" of river is all you need.Lol. :thumb:
 
I have an older color garmin mapping gps with the great lakes chip. Includes saginaw river. It is awesome. Has full depth charts and all nav buoys marked on there. I think most newer ones you can set depth alarms off of the chart depth data too. Any newer garmin marine mapping unit should do what you want. You just have to buy the chart packs for where you will be running.
 
The jet drive Mate runs good in around 6 inches of water. Just dont come off plane in less than a foot of water or so. Navigation is a topic we should all become good at. Just remember that old charts can get you in trouble real fast, even new ones. Likewise, even the newest electronic download is only so good, remember the 1973 discovery of the Miurfield Seamounts? Up to date charts showed the depth to be 5000 meters(16000 feet) when the cargo ship Miurfield ran into the uncharted seamounts, and tore the heck out of it's keel. Or how about the QE II hitting the uncharted rocks off Block Island in the Atlantic in 1992. Remember the 2005 incident involving the submarine US San Francisco hitting the uncharted seamount 300 miles South of Guam at 40 mph. Cost a fortune and resulted in a fatality, if I remember correctly. Rivers too, can be a real challenge. The riverbed can change overnight along with water level. The newer electronic gadgets are making life much easier though, but one can spend a lot of coin on that stuff.
 
Gimme Fuel said:
I have an older color garmin mapping gps with the great lakes chip. Includes saginaw river. It is awesome. Has full depth charts and all nav buoys marked on there. I think most newer ones you can set depth alarms off of the chart depth data too. Any newer garmin marine mapping unit should do what you want. You just have to buy the chart packs for where you will be running.
Click to expand...

Here is the navionics site link. http://www.navionics.com
Most gps mfgrs use these map cards. They have many costal
and river map options.
 
DropTop5.0 said:
Hello all, I normally boat on the Potomac River which is affected by the tide. Some parts are shallow, some parts are deep and I never really know when I can go outside of the Red and Green and be safe. I bought a chart and I'm slowly becoming more experienced in knowing what's underneath my vessel. Are there any of you guys out there that use navigation electronics to assist you in keeping in deep enough water?

I was thinking of buying something this year to assist me in knowing where I'm at when I'm running water that I'm unfamiliar in. When I was at the Great Sacandaga lake this year, that place has some crazy shallow spots all over the place and if you don't have intimate lake knowledge it is very easy to send your lower unit to the heaven or hell depending on its situation. I'm assuming the Bass boating world has something like I'm desiring but I don't need a fish finder only and understanding of the depth that's under me and in front of me.

When I was on my Submarine, we would chart out a predetermined path through certain obstacles and have constant GPS fixes (on the surface) to insure we didn't run a ground or go bump. Does anyone use or have anything like that? Seems like if I was in a Poker run on Lake Cumberland I'd have a navigator and want to have a preset course mapped out (shortest) and want to stick as closely as possible to the plan. Just thinking out load and trying to drum up some conversation on here.
Click to expand...

Chris, I have a Raymarine unit which is kinda high end but garmin, humminbird to name a few have both gps/depth sounders. Raymarine does have a unit with a no depth option (model# a65) that runs about $200 less than their other offerings. I chose the raymarine unit mainly due to the form factor. It seems the less obtrusive the unit was the more $$$ it cost.
 
Be careful creating your own bread crumb trails. A couple boats ran aground at LC one was using a chart he plotted on his GPS.
193290155-L.jpg
 
I have the Lowrance HDS5 and HDS8 Gen 2 on my Ranger bass boat with the Navionics card. We have lots of stump fields in our lake down here, I use the trail capability to navigate around or thru those areas with no problem. I got caught in a fog bank and use it to get back to landing.
 
Rob B said:
I have the Lowrance HDS5 and HDS8 Gen 2 on my Ranger bass boat with the Navionics card. We have lots of stump fields in our lake down here, I use the trail capability to navigate around or thru those areas with no problem. I got caught in a fog bank and use it to get back to landing.
Click to expand...

All it takes is a good fog to appreciate gps !!! Plotting a trail is fine so long as you follow the same proven track back or follow the main channel. The guy in the baja must have deceided to forge a new trail in the dark :shakehead:
 
Wonder if thats a point those boats are on. I've seen when your zoomed too far out the line to follow will go across ground.

I use a Garmin 540s. It comes in handy when running the bay and going somewhere new. It will save your tracts so you can get back home and know where your going the next time.It can get real hazy on a hot day and all the shore lines look the same till I look over at the map and know where I am. Its also has gps speed and so many other handy functions i couldn't list them all. I find thou that its not going to do what your looking for and I would love to have also. It will tell you the depth and give you a underwater sonar pic but at speed its to late. Those functions are for trolling around fishing.
 
RNGRDVE said:
Be careful creating your own bread crumb trails. A couple boats ran aground at LC one was using a chart he plotted on his GPS.
193290155-L.jpg
Click to expand...

Not to change the subject. But why do those both look like they were set there rather than run aground.Those rocks would have shredded the bottom of those boats but yet there's no debris. :confused:
 
The Baja looks like the drive is in need of a few new parts. At least they were prepared with their easy-up to set up camp for a long awaited rescue mission. I never run any speeds at night as Im scared to trash even a prop let alone have this happen. I bet the smaller boat wishes he wasnt following so close behind.
 
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