GPS accuracy

[catfishcentral]

I'm wanting to finally get around to getting a gps and had a question for all that use one. How accurate is the route's the you make with your gps. I know there are suppose to be off a little bit 10 to 20 feet for exact coordinates but how far off is the route that you make. The reason I ask is I fish a lake that's fairly hard to navagte during the day because of the LOTS of standing timber. There's ten of thousands of stumps and trees right below the surface of the water. I follow the creek and river channels during the day by following the trees that tilt into the river channel. This tells me where the orginal river bank was and I following these clues to my spots. Night time is a different story even with a powerful spotlight it's hard to find my tell tale signs where to turn and not to turn. The river channel in this lake is pretty narrow 20 feet give or take. I would like to have my gps be able to keep me exacty in my river channel via the route I came in through. I know this lake very well but at night I've gotten turned around in the forest of trees at night. Thanks

[Cyclops01]

Chris,

I have been using GPS, for several years, for both land and water navigation. They really are very accurate BUT, you can't put 100% total trust on the water at night or during fog conditions though, only because hazards are constantly changing.

A GPS is great for marking and saving all kinds of locations and considering the lower prices, I wouldn't go out on a farm pond without one.

Mike

[jim]

Depending on how many satellites you acquire from your location you can not count on more then 20 foot accuracy.Even with differential capability or WAAS ,20ft is the least accuracy I would count on.On any given day you CAN get accuracy up to 3-5 ft or so,but you simply can't count on it.We have centimeter capabilty in the military but generally 20 ft is average for civilian applications ALTHOUGH let me say you can get a larger error ie MORE than 20 ft depending on conditions.What I would do is get some reflective tape and mark key points on the trees,like a hard turn.Then save that location as a waypoint so you will know when it is coming up and can look for it with your spotlight.when I used to fish for smallmouths at night on Percy Priest lake inNashville I would mark the underwater rockpiles with a chemlight it a Pepsi bottle used as a bouy.You could do the same but they tape will be there for a long time.Most GPSs give a warning when turned on to not use them as a primary navigation aid. :D

[bearcat]

I wouldnt trust them for exact navigation, but they will get you close enought to allow you to look for your land marks. They will also allow you to keep heading in the right direction if you get turned around.

Like jim said get some reflective tape to make the trees or other land marks you use.

[catfishcentral]

I appreciate the repleys guys. This particular lake is about 5000 acres and two thirds of it is uncleared. My best fishing spots are probably 2 1/2 miles back in a twisting and turning forest of trees. I've put out a lot of relective tape over the years but the I could spend days trying to mark ever dang turn in the forest. I usually spend nights on the southern third of the lake at night because it's so easy to get turned around in the forest at night. I mostly take it easy and slow and just roll over the tops of trees and stumps but sometimes you can get high centered on several trees at one time. It's not too fun getting stuck by yourself at night in the middle of winter. I knew the current gps were off a little but just wondered as how accurate the routes that you plot. I'm sure with a gps in hand it won't be too hard at all to navagate at night.

Thanks