gps PC software

[chrisb]

Wondering if others download their GPS waypoints to their computer from their GPS unit

I have been using GPSUTIL. It is nice program however I have gone past the 100 waypoint limit for the free version.

Do you download your GPS info to your PC? What program do you use? Does it allow you to load a map? GSPutil does.

[SirCranksalot]

If you have a Garmin you can use Basecamp

[chrisb]

I have a garmin  gps76 portable and an eagle in my boat. I use the program to copy waypoints between the two and look at them on a map.

I will check out basecamp.

Thanks

[chrisb]

I checked out the basecamp and seems to be for new units with USB ports. My unit only connects via serial port.

[Terry]

EasyGPS

[chrisb]

I have seen that one. I does work but it does not allow maps.

[Terry]

no just waypoints

 

[SirCranksalot]

On 3/7/2018 at 5:52 PM, chrisb said:

I have a garmin  gps76 portable and an eagle in my boat. I use the program to copy waypoints between the two and look at them on a map.

I will check out basecamp.

Thanks

I guess you GPS must be quite old then?

[chrisb]

Yes. The portable Garmin is about 10 years old.

[adempsey]

Not sure, but maybe you can use GPS Visualizer?

Copy the correct files from your GPS onto the computer and you should be able to view the waypoints using that program.  Not sure if that helps much though.

I've only done that in the other direction - coordinates to txt file and put that onto my Garmin eTrex using Garmin's free POI loader software. 

[Terry]

download mapsourse and unlocker

click

Edited March 9, 2018 by Terry

[SirCranksalot]

I think Basecamp superseded mapsource?

 

[Terry]

yes but as he stated basecamp only supports usb , mapsourse works with my old gps76 and my mapgps67cs usb and serial port

[SirCranksalot]

OK. I didn't follow your link but I had thought that mapsource was no longer avail. I guess I was wrong..............again....DUH!

[chrisb]

I will try it when the site approves me and I am allowed to access the linked page. Right now as a new user I don't have access.

[Old Ironmaker]

Are we having information overload these days? I personally think so , especially when it comes to fishing. We chase migrating Walleye here on Erie. They do travel traditional routes but I have found those routes can vary by hundreds of meters or more from day to day, week to week and year to year, heck it changes hour to hour. Wind, light and lower water temps change so often a waypoint from last year isn't going to help. It is the travel of the baitfish that determines the location of the gamefish. 1 waypoint will put me in the general area, 1 not 100. In my experience that also rings true for Perch and Bass. They will be close by, usually. So I don't need a waypoint for every time we hook a fish, I know guys that do and go back to the exact spot and are scratching their heads because this is where we got them last week or last year. I have a old pal in his 70's who's screen isn't readable because it is covered in waypoints and squiggly lines, I offered to clear some 5 years old or older, his response was "I'll kill ya." that made me laugh silently to myself. LSTM?

In my humble opinion only. 57 years of developing humble opinions on fishing and other stuff for 63.

Edited March 9, 2018 by Old Ironmaker

[G.mech]

I bought Lowrance Insight Planner since it supports all the Navionics mapping, and the full symbol set for Lowrance.  It does allow you to transfer, manage, change, add, & delete waypoints and trails but I find it a little glitchy and not all that easy to use.  Most of the other programs don't support the symbol set so you lose these details when you import your waypoints in a .gpx file or transfer back and forth.  I've tried a few other free or trial programs as well and none seem to be ideal for what I do.... 

[AKRISONER]

10 hours ago, Old Ironmaker said:

Are we having information overload these days? I personally think so , especially when it comes to fishing. We chase migrating Walleye here on Erie. They do travel traditional routes but I have found those routes can vary by hundreds of meters or more from day to day, week to week and year to year, heck it changes hour to hour. Wind, light and lower water temps change so often a waypoint from last year isn't going to help. It is the travel of the baitfish that determines the location of the gamefish. 1 waypoint will put me in the general area, 1 not 100. In my experience that also rings true for Perch and Bass. They will be close by, usually. So I don't need a waypoint for every time we hook a fish, I know guys that do and go back to the exact spot and are scratching their heads because this is where we got them last week or last year. I have a old pal in his 70's who's screen isn't readable because it is covered in waypoints and squiggly lines, I offered to clear some 5 years old or older, his response was "I'll kill ya." that made me laugh silently to myself. LSTM?

In my humble opinion only. 57 years of developing humble opinions on fishing and other stuff for 63.

You know iron, thats funny because my experience with fall walleye is that if im not in my 20 foot "box" im not catching at nearly the same rate...its so precise that  GPS waypoint gets you close but its actually visual alignment that gets it perfected. We had a morning last year that for whatever reason I was fishing the front of the boat...i caught 28 walleye that morning, while the rest of the boat caught a collective 5. 

The other scenario where electronics absolutely changed the game...shoal drop shotting smallies. I have a few spots in late september that are rocks in a giant basins...they are so random that navionics charts sort of mark them but its not very accurate and a few arent even charted at all they were found using a friggin pirahnamax and became honey holes later...they are marked on my units now and ive even autocharted them now so that I actually have an exact "graph" of whats going on down there that no one else in the world probably has.

The poorly charted spots show a depth change but dont actually precisely show where the reef actually is...The actual reef itself is probably only 15x15.

ipilot helps an absolute ton, especially with the new jog feature on the terrova's...it allows you to stay on target but shift 5 feet to the left right front or back to make sure you work over that one particular spot. Im back to a cable drive now so I will be bringing marker buoys with me to throw down for a visual cue of where the heck i need to be sticking to. 

The results speak for themselves

I used to think electronics were a bit overrated, and in shallower lakes with a whole pile of weeds, imaging isnt as essential IMO...i.e. when im fishing shallow for largies my electronics are basically turned off. But you start fishing that 15+FOW on clean structure, finding deep weeds, random shoals in big bodies of water...I literally owe some of my best catches to my sonar and GPS.

My PB walleye, we drove up to the edge of a shoal that once again is very poorly marked, flipped on the electronics found the actual edge of whree the bottom of the basin started to run up...sure enough marked a tank of a hook on bottom, the thing had two bloody fish icons on it...dropped the drop shot down and instantly hooked up.

Edited March 9, 2018 by AKRISONER

[chrisb]

I like to load the waypoints onto a map on my PC. I then see clusters of points indicating potential areas to focus on each year. Each year the clusters either grow or new ones appear. I am mostly out in the middle of lake Erie.

[Sterling]

On 3/9/2018 at 8:41 AM, AKRISONER said:

You know iron, thats funny because my experience with fall walleye is that if im not in my 20 foot "box" im not catching at nearly the same rate...its so precise that  GPS waypoint gets you close but its actually visual alignment that gets it perfected. We had a morning last year that for whatever reason I was fishing the front of the boat...i caught 28 walleye that morning, while the rest of the boat caught a collective 5. 

The other scenario where electronics absolutely changed the game...shoal drop shotting smallies. I have a few spots in late september that are rocks in a giant basins...they are so random that navionics charts sort of mark them but its not very accurate and a few arent even charted at all they were found using a friggin pirahnamax and became honey holes later...they are marked on my units now and ive even autocharted them now so that I actually have an exact "graph" of whats going on down there that no one else in the world probably has.

The poorly charted spots show a depth change but dont actually precisely show where the reef actually is...The actual reef itself is probably only 15x15.

ipilot helps an absolute ton, especially with the new jog feature on the terrova's...it allows you to stay on target but shift 5 feet to the left right front or back to make sure you work over that one particular spot. Im back to a cable drive now so I will be bringing marker buoys with me to throw down for a visual cue of where the heck i need to be sticking to. 

The results speak for themselves

I used to think electronics were a bit overrated, and in shallower lakes with a whole pile of weeds, imaging isnt as essential IMO...i.e. when im fishing shallow for largies my electronics are basically turned off. But you start fishing that 15+FOW on clean structure, finding deep weeds, random shoals in big bodies of water...I literally owe some of my best catches to my sonar and GPS.

My PB walleye, we drove up to the edge of a shoal that once again is very poorly marked, flipped on the electronics found the actual edge of whree the bottom of the basin started to run up...sure enough marked a tank of a hook on bottom, the thing had two bloody fish icons on it...dropped the drop shot down and instantly hooked up.

I have to agree with you Akrisoner. 

To me electronics make the puzzle solving even more fun, especially in the fall when 5% of the lake holds 90% of the fish. I'll often start my search for fish with a thermocline check with my temp probe, then switch to navionics and find sunken islands / humps that nicely intercept this thermocline. Then mark all of these, and travel from one to the other until I see fish. It works. 

I knew the location of your 2nd picture instantly btw, those 2 blue buildings are just down the road from me

Edit: I should add, on my home lake I use electronics for depth only maybe 90% of the time. I know where the big fish are and I just stick to that approach throughout most of the year.

Edited March 13, 2018 by Sterling

[AKRISONER]

2 hours ago, Sterling said:

 

I knew the location of your 2nd picture instantly btw, those 2 blue buildings are just down the road from me

 

they are a real eye sore  

 

I could go back to the same spot 100 times and finding that random rock in a basin is still like finding a needle in a hay stack. 

[Old Ironmaker]

Don't get me wrong I depend on electronics as much as the next guy. I just don't spend my day searching for the exact GPS weigh points. And of course there will be "Ambush Points" areas where structure holds fish 99% of the time, usually where that structure is unique to the area. Sunken Islands, reefs, shoals and ship wrecks even in fresh water. Here on Erie I am looking for the bait clouds in and around my saved routes and weigh points more than going to that exact GPS number. I have too been baffled by that single good hook sitting right on bottom. In Calendar Bay one evening I must have drifted, trolled and even finally carefully anchored above that single, solitary stationary big fish until I was convinced it was a rock. As soon as I decided to head in due to darkness did I hook her, my personal best Nippising Walleye. She measured 29" before I released her. The owner of Cozy Cove cottages was out close by and saw me fight her. He came over and got a nice pic of it that I saw hanging in the office the next time we stayed there, had to be 93'. He gave us 6 nice eaters to take home with us before we checked out to fill our limit. I wish I could remember his and her name.

Those are some mighty fine fish there young Akrisoner, mighty fine.