GPS -More Than a Toy
 I am sure you already know a GPS will take a minute or so to acquire the satellite, right? And once it does it marks the coordinates of your location within 10-30 feet. (the better GPS units will be around 2-10 feet). A GPS unit will then save a "mark" if you punch a button. As you continue on your path, you can "mark" many spots. If at any time you want to retrace your steps you can with the help of a GPS. On any fishing trip we take, we always mark where we launch the boat. This is "home" for us. Depending upon where we are going to go (5 miles up river or across the lake) we try and mark on our GPS unit every .5 miles. If we are only traveling a mile away we mark on our GPS unit every 10 minutes. Regardless of what others think our GPS is NOT a toy. It can save you time, money and FRUSTRATION. Here is what we use our GPS unit for and then I will tell you our story.
4 GPS Marks1. mark the launch2. mark the spot where we catch fish 3. use the maps to find underwater structure 4. using the marks I can retrace the exact route we took
Night Fishing on the ColumbiaWe are lucky to be located near the Columbia River. We are also lucky that Steelhead run up the river all winter long. And we are lucky to go fishing at night. Night fishing for Steelhead is a lot of fun but it can be dangerous. Here is why.Back in 1995 we went fishing after Christmas dinner. We launched the boat about 6 pm in pitch black. Within minutes we began fishing upriver away from the dam. It was a chilly night, but our propane heater kept us really warm. To our surprise there were 4 other boats on the river and no barges. These tug boat looking things can push 4 big units loaded with tons of grain with ease. As we trolled further and further away from the dam we noticed the lights fading on the dam. These lights serve as our guide. Yes, our fish finder helps an awful lot but I have personal markings of where we need to position the boat to catch fish. About 2 hours after we began fishing we noticed a fog starting to roll in. We hadn't marked a fish for a long time so I decided to head upriver near a pump station. Like a true fishing guide within 20 minutes we hooked into a steelhead. This little bugger ran us hard and give us a great fight. In fact the fight was so good we totally forgot about our surroundings. After we determined it was a keeper we netted in and brought it into the boat. While we were trying to get the lure out of the fishing net we heard a loud pop. It was the motor crashing into the rocks because we we drifted to close to shore. Not much damage to the motor or boat but our transom for the fish finder was destroyed.
If Only We Had a GPSJust wonderful, was my first reaction. (actually, I can't print what was really said) Here we are about 3 miles away from the launch, can't see the lights of the dam, the fog became so thick we couldn't see the front of our boat and now I can't get back home by following the depth with our fish finder.There is no way we can see shore (because of the fog) and I am not going to bang our boat motor into the rocks. As smart fisherman, we decided to begin trolling back to the launch, thinking we can get a couple of more fish in the boat is a short period of time. HA! About 25 minutes into our trolling pattern, I began to hear a familiar splashing sound. I couldn't see anything and I had no clue where we were at. I hoped that we stayed somewhat close to shore because we don't want to meet head up with a barge coming down the river. Surely, no barges would be out on a night like this, especially since it was Christmas, right? WRONG I will cut this story short, because I am sure you are bored already. Suffice it to say, the barge missed us by about 100 ft, but we didn't escape the wake. It seemed like 10 ft rollers and we did take on water. So much water than we are now standing in it. The old boat had no bildge pump, and all we had to pump the water out of the boat were empty pop cans. Imagine, draining water out of a boat in 25 degree weather. You get cold in a hurry. We still had no idea where we were at and all of us started to get cold. Finally at midnight we found shore. After walking around for what seemed like an hour, our blood began to pump and we figured out that we were on the north shore, which was good.
If Only We Had a GPSOne person walked along shore while we slowly trolled, always keeping in distance of their voice. By 4 am we finally arrived at the launch. Tired, beaten and sore, we loaded the boat and headed home. We finally made it home by daylight. I don't even want to talk about some of the critters we ran into, while walking on shore. That is another story.The moral of this story: had we owned a GPS unit back then we could have saved ourselves: time, trouble, frustration and strep throat. All 3 of us, were sick for a week after that fiasco. Things to Consider When Purchasing a GPSIf at any time you decide that you want to purchase a GPS unit, please contact us and we will gladly give you some pointers. I am conservative by nature and I don't like purchasing items that do not have a good name. I can tell you that Magellan and Garmin are both household names in the GPS industry.If you own the same unit as we do, we can gladly assist you in learning how to play with it. If you are looking into purchasing a GPS unit, my advice is to get one with a map. GPS units come all types of sizes, displays and more importantly prices. Determine what you want to use it for and that will give you an idea of the price range. My specific unit is not a delux unit but I do have maps (necessity) and a few other good features. Make sure your unit has plenty of memory and the ability to last at least 8 hours on one battery charge. I prefer the type that can plug into a cigarette lighter, that way it is always charged. YES, we own a new boat now and there is no way we are ever going to be lost again. That is why a cigarette lighter is so important to us. If you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to send me an email or give me a call directly. emailto:equipment@fishing-trip-specialist.com Click on the GPS unit to purchase it or to learn more about this particular unit. (this is the one we purchased and love dearly)
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