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Today’s modern marine GPS Chartplotters can turn even the newest boater into
a navigating expert in a very short period of time. These wonder tools harness
GPS positioning technology and overlay it on a modern marine chart. This shows
you exactly where you are along with depths, reefs, navigation buoys, etc. All
water looks alike except to a Chartplotter. Although most of the better makes
out there still have users’ manuals that look like software books, learning how
to use these powerful tools doesn’t have to be hard. And the more you learn the
more you’ll see just how powerful and helpful these little black boxes can be.
I’ve been asked to speak on how to fish smarter with a GPS all over the
state. From these many talks I’ve learned what most people wand and need to know
about how to use a marine GPS Chartplotter to find better fishing sites,
navigate safely and burn less fuel. Here I’ve compiled a summary of what I’ve
learned. Much of this information is also available for your specific GPS in
Angler Products
waterproof cheat sheet designed to carry and use on your boat.
Always practice Safe GPSing. What I mean by this is to remember that your GPS
is an electronic devise and it will die one day. When is dies all of the fishing
honey holes, special tracks and hard to remember routes will be history.
Your GPS's internal memory is kept alive by a small battery, much like the
one used in your computer. The life expectancy of these batteries, according to
the manufacturers is 3 - 5 years. After that you can still use the unit off your
boats power but your personal data will be gone. So back it up regularly. And
keep a copy somewhere safe. There will come a time you will be glad you did.
Angler Products offers this service. For more information on this and other
GPS Services please visit that section of our
site.
As always, here’s to hoping you have a lot of tight lines and good luck
fishing!!
Captain John
The information shown below is generic in nature since all Chartplotters
were not created equally. Specific 'How To' instructions for your particular
unit are available from Angler Products. These 'Cheat Sheets' are waterproof and
are designed to be carried and used on your boat when you really need them.
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Buy a color screen that’s large enough for you to see running a boat at
speed. I have used a Garmin 182C for years and found it very easy to read
while traversing rough bays.
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Make sure your GPS has the ability to share data with your computer.
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Today's Chartplotters do much more than simply help you navigate, they
are continually collecting valuable trip information all the time you're out
on the water. If your unit doesn't have the ability to share that
information with a computer it's pretty useless and you're only getting a
small fraction of the power you're paying for.
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Today’s GPS Chartplotters are extremely customizable. In fact that’s one of
the things that scare a lot of folks away from having one. Don’t let it. Once
you learn your unit and customize it the way you want it, you rarely have to
push more than a few buttons each time you take a trip.
Setting your GPS to track up instead of North
Most GPS units come from the factory with a North Up Track setting. For 99% of
us this doesn’t make sense and makes the unit more difficult to use. However,
it’s a simple procedure to correct. The setting you're looking for is either
Track or Map Orientation. You usually have 2 - 3 choices with North being the
one they default to. I like Track Up the best. This allows the icon that
represents your boat to always be headed on the chart the same direction that
you're tracking.
Usually in the same Map or Chart Setup area you can adjust the size of your
fonts, navigational aids, etc. to fit your needs. For young people with great
eyesight the small setting will probably be just fine. For people with less than
perfect vision here’s where you can make the fonts, etc. large.
Go on, play with it. You can’t mess it up. If you do there’s always the Factory
Default key that will restore all settings to the original, factory setting.
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Every time you run your boat the GPS is saving a track of your trip. If you
run a particularly difficult cut successfully it’s a good idea to save that
information for later use.
You can also use these tracks as a basis for outstanding fishing logs. The
Chartplotter records time, date, time spent at a location and speed. If you also
have a Sounder attached then its also recording the depth and water temperature.
Now all you have to do is use a file name that tells what you caught, where and
with whom.
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Most Chartplotters have a built in trip odometer that allows you to reset
all or parts of it each time you go out. Use this the same way you use your cars
odometer to determine Miles Per Gallon. This will also let you determine the
safe cruising range of your boat and can provide a warning to you when it's time
to start heading back.
I also run this pretty regularly on my boat to keep on eye on the state of
tune on my engine.
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Most Chartplotters have tide information available as part of the Charting
software used with the unit. These tide charts can be viewed for most any date
and time allowing you to plan your trips ahead of time without having to hunt up
the tides somewhere else. A lot of them will even show you how far you are from
the nearest tide station to help you calculate what the tides will be doing in
your area.
A lot of the current units will also give you sun and moon calculations so
you can also see what type of moon you can expect on the days you plan to boat
or fish.
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There are several ways to navigate with a Chartplotter.
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Navigating by pointing your cursor to where you want to go and telling the
unit to take you there.
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In this example you move your cursor to the spot you want to navigate
to. Now you press the Navigate key and instruct the unit to go to that spot.
Remember a GPS will take you straight to that spot 'as the crow flies', it
will not take you around hazards, land or other boats. That's what your job
is.
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Navigating to a saved spot (waypoint).
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Lets say you have 100's of my Angler Products Fishing Hotspots loaded on
your GPS. This is where you'll go to your Hotspots file (waypoints) and
choose the one that you want to visit. Simply find the hotspot in your file
and press the Go To key or Navigate key to take you to that spot. But make
sure you remember the caution show in the above example.
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Entering your own special location (waypoint) information and navigating
to it.
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You can also enter you own location information (waypoint) and when
you're finished you'll navigate to that spot just like you did in the
example above. The caution from the top still applies.
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Most of the Chartplotters out there today have some way to share their
information with a computer. If the one you're looking at doesn't don't buy it.
You will quickly wish you had one that shares information with a computer and
you'll probably not save any money at all.
All of the makes do this one way or the other but most use either an
interface cable or a small data card like the digital cameras use. And there's
free software available online to let you move the information back and forth
easily.
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Here's another reason you want to be able to connect your Chartplotter to
your computer. Most of the better units out there today are continually updating
the units internal software. These updates can be as simple as fixing some bugs
are speeding up the units redraw rate or as serious as providing new Chart
updates to show you new hazards and navigational aids. If your Chartplotter
doesn't have a computer connection then you are stuck with having to send the
unit in to have those fixes applied.
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DSC (Digital Selective Calling):
Marine radios equipped with DSC serve as one facet of the GMDSS (Global Maritime
Distress & Safety System). A DSC equipped radio has all the features of your
current VHF radio, and more. DSC technology makes a VHF radio work more like a
telephone. It allows boaters to send a digital call directly to another
DSC-equipped vessel or shore station, much like a person-to-person telephone
call. Channel 70 has been set aside as the VHF/DSC digital call channel. Once
the DSC call has been confirmed, both parties are automatically switched to a
working voice channel. In an emergency, one push of a button and your DSC
radio will send an automated digital distress alert consisting of your
identification (MMSI) number, a description
of your boat and your personal contact information.
MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identity):
The MMSI
number serves as both a nine digit “telephone number” and as a unique
identification number for the U.S. Coast Guard to use in order to locate and
identify you in an emergency. During normal communications, vessels with DSC
capable radios may call each other over channel 70 using the MMSI as a
"telephone number". The signal will only be received by those vessels with the
MMSI numbers that were called. During an emergency, the boater may push a
button to automatically transmit a May Day call which would include their MMSI
number (and location if the radio is linked to a GPS receiver) to every DSC
radio within range. When the U.S. Coast Guard receives the unique MMSI number,
it will use the information on file (emergency contact number, type of vessel,
etc.) to mount a more effective rescue effort. For more information regarding
MMSI, visit:
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/gmdss/mmsi.htm
IMPORTANT NOTE: Depending on the make and model of your DSC radio, it may
limit the number of times you can try to program your MMSI number into the
radio. If you try to enter an MMSI number too many times, the radio may lock out
future attempts, forcing you to send the unit to the manufacturer to re-program
the MMSI number. Typically the radios offer you two (2) opportunities to program
your MMSI number, but be sure to read the owner’s manual regarding your specific
model. Please be careful when initially programming your newly assigned MMSI
number.
How does this help me with my fishing?
With a DSC equipped VHF and GPS on your boat you can actually "show" your
location to your friends when you're out on the water. Using my GPS I can select
one of my buddies MMSI number and send them a message through my VHF radio that
will show up as a boat icon on his GPS screen with my name underneath. It
flashes and shows my friend my exact location. This is very helpful if we're
both trying to find fish and want to help one another. No one else can see or
hear this transmission and it will be on the other person's GPS when they come
back from a long wade. No missed radio or phone calls.
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That's it. I hope this has helped. Remember, for specific 'How To'
information for your unit check out the waterproof Angler Products Cheat Sheets
available on this site.
Thanks for visiting and have fun on the water.
Captain John
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