Navigating At Night With GPS

[dolittle9]

The GPS is a great tool to assist in your hobby...... is not to be used as a solo guide at night..... I've seen these basser going wide open on my Lake at night and have seen some close calls...... I have looked at the FLIR units and like what I see...... however still abit pricey for me...... I hoping that maybe a army surplus store would have some of the ones Chopper pilots use...... if they are able to sell them

[bigchooch58]

im old school /on a trip back to new jersey my daughter stuck this talking box on the dash board of my van /a trip i drove a many a times /never got lost /never was late /and never got into a argument on where i was going /hell im the one who grew up in new jersey and just a place my daughter visits from ga/about 40 miles from my brothers house this lady in that talking box tells me to turn /and i know i need to go striaght / so now the argueing begins / needless to say i went stright and timed it to my brothers house 18 min to get there /on the way back i followed that box from his house back to the spot of arguing it took 41 min to get back /so no i dont use one / and dont want one/ who wants some lady telling me where to fish in a box anyhow

[craddock1]

I don't have one and don't need one but my son and I were on Guntersville a couple years ago and a fog moved in. He put me on the front deck listening for other boats and used his GPS to guide us back to the launch. There were other boats passing us wide open . We just stopped and if they got close he sounded his horn.

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[slabhunter]

I deal with fog like that all the time.You can't tell if your goin' up stream,down stream,or towards the bank.In those situations i either fish longer(til it lifts)or I hang close to the bank and idle,then again we don't have barges,but I highly doubt a gps will show them any way.

You're fishing the Flint I reckon being in Thomaston? Great fishing in that stretch of the River. Fog can get bad at Lake Sinclair at the power plant discharge and it is a miracle there aren't more accidents in the Spring when word spreads the fish are in there good. No offense but I don't like to be close enough to fellow boaters so I can smell the bait they're using, if you know whatta mean.

[JPritch]

I personally would never rely soley on a GPS for navigating a river. There is no substitute for keeping your head on a swivel. GPS's aren't perfect, and rivers change. So what if you're following an old track....what if there is another boat anchored up or a floating telephone pole in your path that you won't see if your head is down? Or what if you unknowingly came within 10' of a then submerged obstruction when creating your track, and are 10' off when following it back at night? Not to mention, staring at the screen will kill your night vision if you are ever forced to look up.

I don't have a GPS on my boat. I've learned the waters I fish and keep my head on a swivel and will slow it down if I have to. Utilize off-center viewing at night to help. It's scary running a river with someone who has their head down the entire time and running wide open with a false sense of security.

[flatheadslayer]

You're fishing the Flint I reckon being in Thomaston? Great fishing in that stretch of the River. .

Hell naw!!!I hate that dead river.It USED to be good,but I fish the Hooch 95% of the time now.

[gramps50]

So the ones using a GPS for navigating are you using a stand alone GPS or one built into a sonar unit. I will assume that your not talking about the same one that we would use in our cars as most won't do way points.

[cantstopgrandma]

So the ones using a GPS for navigating are you using a stand alone GPS or one built into a sonar unit. I will assume that your not talking about the same one that we would use in our cars as most won't do way points.

The one i use is a handheld garmin like you would use for hunting. It doesn't have the best base map, but i mainly run a track out in the daylight, and follow it back at night to keep my bearings. Its also waterproof, which has been really nice the several times it has gotten wet. It was really nice duck hunting one year, we had a track saved, and were able to follow it out the 7 miles to our blindsite. The fog was so thick that you litereally couldn't see past the bow, and the bow light hurt your vision (yes, we kept it on anyway). We idled the 7 miles and made it there safely. There was also an obstruction that only showed up on a low tide, which we marked with a waypoint so we knew to stay away from it. My unit can also be dimmed so it doesn't hurt your night vision at all.

[brian88b]

I never use my gps for navigation. The only tracks I save are drifting paths that have produced and mark waypoints on my honey holes. I will look at the map in unfamiliar waters but never set a course with it. And my GPS went out but they gave me full refund on my unit less than year old so I been saving and getting ready to purchase humminbird 998 si combo with navionics bundle next week, YEE HAW !!!

[Russell PTA]

So the ones using a GPS for navigating are you using a stand alone GPS or one built into a sonar unit. I will assume that your not talking about the same one that we would use in our cars as most won't do way points.

the gps i use is part of my humminbird unit. for me its not a false sense of security, but since i have to navigate some narrow channels at night, its nice to know i'm going into the channel and not some shallow cove :)