Technology Question

I was sitting at home looking at my fishin hotspots map for barren river lake this past weekend. The map shows the lake at summer pool. It is easy enough to check the COE website and get the current lake level and determine the deviation from summer pool and subtract on the map to determine depth.

I want more. There has got to be a way to create a mapping software program that can pull the data from the COE website and extrapolate it into map form to show the real live depths and the actual waters edge. In doing this it would be easy enough to build into the software a feature that allows you to mark waypoints on the map, cover or bottom features, or just plain old spot on the map type, and determine whether or not your waypoint is under water or not and by how much.

Think of this. You sink a five foot tall cane crappie condo in 12 foot of water when the lake is at summer pool. You mark the waypoint on your fishfinder card. When you get home you take the card out, pop it in your computer and bring up your software. You enter the height of your structure (5 foot).

Flash forward 6 months. It is mid february. The lake has warmed to 48 degrees and the fish are relating to brush about 6 foot deep. You go to your computer software which pulls, automatically, from the COE website the lake level. From that you are now able to populate a listing of all your waypoints (fish catching spots) that are under water and not high and dry at the current lake level. You now know not to bother with trying oyur spot because it is high and dry. With this software you are also able to query waypoints at certain depths. In the middle of summer a brushpile or channel ledge is useless in 35 foot of water if the thermocline is 22 foot deep. However, when the lake is dropped 25 foot to winter pool that same spot in 10 foot of water could be a goldmine.

That is my plan. It is posted here on the internet for any one to run with the idea. I don't have the softwaring skills to make it happen but would love for someone to get it done.

Being able to keep a log and a picture of what the structure looks like (digital pic if you can see it and take a picture at winter pool or a side scan image or a diagram) would also be helpful. Before you head to the lake you run your query for a certain depth or area of the lake and you can then print sort of a milk run of waypoints that meet your criteria with pictures or side scan images of the structure or cover.

let me know what you think.

Im in on the idea.....

I would guess that if you had GIS software (Arcmap or something similar) and access to DEM's for the area you could do something like you suggest. I'm not familar with GIS to know for sure. I'll see if I can found out a little more from someone at work on that.

Andrew

let me ask you this, if you mark a spot, for sake of imagination a pile of rocks the size of a car with a high end handheld gps, and you have gotten your gps coordinates with the utmost diligence possible.

now you give these coordinates to someone else, what do you say is the closest someone else can come to this using a handheld gps of the same quality.........

the reason I ask is we do some geocaching (sp) and they figure one gps may vary as much as 30 ft. and a second gps may do the same so your target may be as much as 60 ft. off......is this true ??

not trying to jump on your post but always curious as to how close one can pin point a spot with gps

It will depend on the acuracy of your GPS unit each day. Your unit should provide a +/- reading on it so you'll know what the error rate is. A GPS unit will put you in the area, but usually not right on top of the spot you marked. That is why I would never rely solely on any GPS unit to run and high speed on a lake. That and the GPS does not show the other boats on the water.

Andrew

yeah what apb said about accuracy. The clearer the day and the more satelites you can pick up the more accurate the reading. It only takes three to triangulate your position but having four or five at your disposal is so much the better.

As far as your rock pile scenario, first off why are you giving away fishing spots? No, seriously though if you mark something with gps and you have a good quality signal both times you should be able to get within 5 feet of your spot every time. If you are within 5 feet nad going slow enough, assuming adequate depth of water, you should be able to see what you are after on with your fishfinder cone.

the gps forums dont give you much of a chance under 30 ft. locating a spot with cordinates using ideal conditions...

the reason I posted the question 5 of us sunk huge xmas trees and other structure, and did the best we could to pin point the location so when we were done each of us could give the other the best possible means of locating the structure........so with the flasher along with the gps info.........should be simple enough.........

the 2 we did the year before produced a lot of crappie

I have worked with GPS for several years, well since 1990 (including surveying grade) and I have two Lowrance 520's on my boat.

Most of the onboard gps/fishfinders can shade a water depth when using a mapping chip simply change you shading depth see what is in or out of the shaded area, simple fix.

The biggest problem with the accuracy is how you are using it not the equipment. Even the cheap ones are 12 channel recievers, and I do not remeber ever picking 12 sat's at one time. My $150 handheld does just a good as my $600 lowrance 520's, but does not do as well as a $60,000 survey grade. About every handheld and gps-fishfinder will get you into with 10 foot circle and that should be close enough.

To improve your waypoints accuracy the next time you want to mark a point check the accuracy on your gps and let it settle down and even out before you store the point.

Also one more thing more sat's does not always mean BETTER accuracy the wider spread the Sat's are the better accuracy you will recieve I would much rather have a point stored off of 5 sat's that are spread out than one stored 8 sat's with 5 bunched up in in one section of the sky.

Weather not much of an issue at all, well except for solar flares I have seen them shift a survey grade 5 feet, oh and the solar flare 25 year peak in coming in 2010 or 2011.

As far as entering point into your handheld from some one. Lat/Long do not change between units the location is the same reguardless of the unit. Where the problem begins is what Datumn and Format are the two units using. Next time you enter locations from some one else make sure you enter in the same datum and format they were stored in they should be the same point. Example of this is most fishing maps are in degrees with decimal minutes and alot of units are setup to enter in decimal degrees or degrees minutes and decimal seconds you would have to change the unit to recieve degrees with decimal minutes to get the same location..