IDNR Fisheries Dept conducting bathographic study of Bluegrass Pit today

I noticed a couple of IDNR vehicles in the Parking Lot of BlueGrass Pit today. Saw their boat later today as they returned to the ramp. I talked to the two people who said that they were doing the lake survey using GPS and depth finder.

They said it may be published in about 6 months or so. It will be nice to see the topography of the lake bottom when they get this project finished.

I would love to see them hook up with the Humminbird Folks or the Garmin Folks and put this depth data into a formate that we can use on our Humminbird Depth Finders.

The woman doing the survey said that the contours will be 5 ft. Due to the accuracy limitations of the GPS system that they were using.

I'll post some photos of the GPS/Depth Survey boat later tonight after I upload them off my camera onto the computer and then update my photo-bucket album.

They already have a lot of data on-line at IDNR web site for a lot of the other lakes in IN. So it's nice to see them doing the surveys down here in the Southern parts of the State of IN.

The money to do this comes from the Lake Enhancement Fees that we pay for our boat registrations etc.

Guess that'll save me the 1500 I didnt want to spend on a new SI/DI unit later this year to learn that lake better..

Saw them over there yesterday morning and the boat I was wondering what the equipment was for.

[IMG]http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j404/moveon100/IDNRSurveyBoat.jpg[/IMG]

This is the IDNR depth/GPS location survey boat. They use this boat and it's equipment to make hydro-graphic maps of the lake bottoms in the Lakes monitored by Indiana Dept of Natural Resources.

This boat gathers the raw depth/location data using a data logger (computer) and then they use Arc Explorer Software to draw in the contour lines of the lake map. The GPS data is corrected using a known location on the ground to determine the interference caused by the atmosphere during the survey.

Maps of Bluegrass Pit, Otter Pit and hopefully Loon Pit will be made available to the public in about 6 months or so. It may take longer than 6 months but it's a guess as to how long it will actually take to do the date crunching.

I am continually impressed with our DNR. Sure there are things I don't like, i.e. the waterfowl hunting at bluegrass but overall they really do a pretty darn good job for us sportsmen. Not to mention all the new land they have been aquiring. I hope they continue to do the things they have the last few years for many to come. This is just another example of them going above and beyond. I am excited to see what they publish, I am sure it will help me personally learn to fish these lakes better.

[URL]http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw_Bathymetric_Map_Introduction_Dec_2009.pdf[/URL]

Some information about the Lake depth/gps/vegetation study by [I]IDNR[/I]