I always try to create a mental picture of the scenery down below when I’m fishing, but it’s often difficult to do. Charts generally are OK for a general impression of things, but nowhere near detailed enough. Likewise sonar gives plenty of detail, but it can be difficult to interpret properly if you’re changing course much.
DrDepth
A few years ago I stumbled upon DrDepth, a nifty piece of Swedish software written by Per Pelin which pulled together GPS and sonar data to create a personal chart of the areas you fish. It provided many hours of “fun” playing with the data I accumulate during a fishing season and given genuine insight into some of the places I fish.
Unfortunately DrDepth was too good and was eventually sold to one of the big sonar manufacturers to form the basis of their on-line charting software, so is no longer available for sale. It still works fine for existing customers, but isn’t obtainable for anyone becoming interested in creating their own seabed maps.
Reefmaster
More recently the UKHO has started to release some very useful and detailed survey data, and I’ve started to make use of the excellent Reefmaster software to generate chart files that are directly usable in Lowrance chartplotters and which show much more detail than the conventional Navionics charts.
The example below if from Loch Etive and is based on high resolution sonar surveys by UKHO. It’s far more detailed than the equivalent published chart.
Hi Doug
Thanks for some of the great videos – very enjoyable stuff. A small request please, if you ever get the chance…
I notice you use a pulley system to anchor off the beach overnight. If you ever get the chance to show / explain your setup for this, it would be very much appreciated.
Kind regards
Aaron
Hi Aaron, You’re not the only one to have asked and I’ll try and get an explanation together in the next week or two.
Cheers,
Doug
Thanks Doug ??
Ah! Sorry it has taken a little bit of time to get sorted, but I did draft a post last month and was trying to get a few more images at the weekend. Hopefully not much longer! Explaining clearly which end of the anchor rope you mean isn’t always as easy as it sounds. From personal experience (more than once) it’s hard to beat brain fog and decide which end of the rope to pull as you stand fatigued, cold, wet and in the dark. I don’t want my poor instructions to compound the problem.