Making your own depthcharts (contours)

[thudpucker]

Oh Well,
I have a GPS. I think (if I could get my Grandson out with me) I could 'roughly' chart my little lake.

So what would I need to get some Charting from your idea? :|

 

[Team Colibri]

thudpucker » Today, 08:23[/url]"]Oh Well,
I have a GPS. I think (if I could get my Grandson out with me) I could 'roughly' chart my little lake.

So what would I need to get some Charting from your idea? :|

Well, in theory using the GPS and the fishfinder you have can be used, taking down position and depth and putting it into excel as what is known as a CSV-file. CSV might sound technical, but it's actually just a bunch of numbers separarated by commas. (CSV = Comma Separate Value). So writing down the Depth and exact position and then making a map is possible.

The challenge comes in the hours needed.... The map I posted a pic of, is made up of more then 200.000 depthreadings, so you need to take down a lot of those notes unless it is a very smal lake or it has a very "predictable" bottom/ depth. But then again, if the bottom is the same al around the lake, there is no need for a map?

I guess the bottom line is, that for making high-quality depthcharts, you need a combo-unit in your boat. From Lowrance, the cheapest unit that fits the bill is the Elite-5 HDI at 499,- USD with a transeducer. Not sure what the cheapest Garmin unit would be, but I'm curious by nature, so I just emailed them to find out.

 

[Team Colibri]

A litle update to this thread:

Lowrance has just launched a new version of their Elite 4 model, the Elite 4 HDI. This model can be used for collecting data for depthcharts, so their cheapes model for this sort of use is now 299,-

Navico has also upgraded their own mapping-service, Insight Genesis, to be used with Elite 4 HDI. IG has also seen a drop in price, from 299 to 99 USD a year.