Devin
Forum Replies Created
-
“go buy a Lowrance”
I agree with this, but for a different reason: you don’t need a proprietary PC program to upload waypoints and tracks to most Lowrance units. You just need to plop a .USR onto an SD card, insert, upload and enjoy. That’s one reason my next bay boat will have Lowrance on it.
FWIW, the Lakemaster Louisiana Delta card is about the same as the card you looked at. I’ve run both in separate boats or at the same time in the same boat, all across Louisiana’s coast from Slidell to Venice to Vermilion Bay and even in Big Lake.
If you think that a Lowrance and Standard Map E-Card is going to solve your navigational problems, you are mistaken. It will instead lead you to believe that certain bodies of water are safe, when they are not, like this article describes in detail.
Doing that exact thing is what destroyed my buddy’s prop in Pointe aux Chene, then ripped off mine in Venice, gotten me stuck in Bay Long, nearly gotten me stuck at Swanson Bayou and other navigational mishaps.
The best thing you can do is what you did and gave credit to: make safe routes in GED and put them on your GPS, then follow them.
The mapping cards just serve as a reference, not a reliance.
-
“It really isn’t about the fish; it’s about having a potential once in a lifetime experience with my dad.”
Very well said. I’m glad y’all had a blast.
I am guilty of getting wrapped around the axle of catching a limit, finding the mother lode, etc.
But what you’ve out of towners taught me is to just enjoy what we’ve got here. Just getting out there and having fun running the marsh is enough.
I can’t promise the demon inside my head driving me to find ’em will stay calm forever, though. LOL
I’m gad y’all came to Louisiana. Oklahoma is beautiful and has some good fishing over there (actually drove through there on I-40 a few times in the last month), so I’m impressed you guys made time for Louisiana. Thank you!
Please leverage this forum again when you can make time for us, and I hope your dad is able to return one day.
-
R1 and R2 I’ve fished over the years and it’s not a place you can crush them at. It’s a place you go to see a few.
If you’re looking for the Hospital Wall, it’s a little south of your T2. You are not fishing the sunken wall itself, but the pass that exists nearer to the shore in front of the big dock there. It gets deep and a bunch of water flows through it. The shoreline is gone, but the pass is still there.
Honestly, if it were me, I would not be bothering with Lakes Pontchartrain or Catherine. Why do you want to go there?
It looks like Lake Borgne is going to reasonably lay down. Because of that, I would go hit the rigs and reefs out there. I’d also hit the Grand Banks reef next to Half Moon Island. I’d also hit the L&N bridge. In fact, I’d start there then work my way outside into Lake Borgne.
What’s up with all these spots in Lake P and Catherine? I’d fish those if it were windier and I couldn’t access outside stuff. Otherwise, it kinda looks like a fall fishing plan.
The Trestles are probably going to be loaded with the Armada. If there are that many fish there, then go for it. But I haven’t heard that there are.
-
Alright, here is where I’m going to be a thorn in your side. LOL Just kidding, but I am being serious here. @leon-alberti you will want to read this.
The depth shading feature you mentioned is something I am very familiar with. I’ve used it on lakes like Chick, Guntersville, etc. to locate structure and avoid navigational hazards. Specifically, I was using Humminbird’s Lakemaster product, then identifying the current lake level (publicly available on TVA’s website) and inputting that into the Humminbird. From there I could shade all the navigational hazards red and this kept me from getting stuck on shell/sand bars lurking just below the surface.
To further prove that this worked, I saw joy-boaters stuck on said hazards. They did not have this knowledge or equipment and where I saw them stuck was a giant swath of red.
I could also identify ledges/depths that I had graphed/caught fish and find more just like it. More often than not, this tactic worked for crappie and bass. It was basically a cheat code.
These depths and contours were supplied by someone Humminbird paid to go graph the entire lake and, using those data, build a detailed depth/contour map.
However, I doubt this would work for Venice. Here’s why:
Those aforementioned lakes are static. They hardly change if ever. A ledge that was there in 1992 is still there today. A shell bar someone found the hard way in 1986 is still there today and easily avoidable with modern tech.
Venice is not static. Venice is dynamic. It’s constantly changing, mostly due to dredging, hurricane action and, last but not least, siltation from the river.
Because of those factors, having someone graph the entirety of it and maintaining an accurate product is a logistically challenging task (if I’m being charitable) and more likely impossible.
The glaring issue with such mapping products is that they lead people to believe hazards are in fact navigable.
I’m not saying your Garmin product doesn’t have the correct depths/contours because I have not seen it. But, I have been doing this for a very long time and the only thing I’ve seen that is near-fool proof is what I’ve published in Inshore Fishing 101 and my book, Boot State Specks.
So here’s what we can do to see if this Garmin tech passes muster: What does your Garmin depth shading show for the following locations?
Bay Uhlan – 29.515711362318267, -89.67185327284868
Neptune Pass – 29.41888085865516, -89.50421425304201
Negro Lagoon – 29.886314698847205, -89.58254533520565
Those are just a few off the top of my head. I have many more. All of them I’ve seen in person and graphed. All of them used to be wide open and navigable in boats that draft 18-24″. Today they are rife with sand bars that are so bad and unpredictable that even some local LEO and marine assistance providers are scared of them.
If Garmin shows the sandbars for those then I will go buy that exact model and depth shading product for the bay boat I plan on building this year.
To be clear, I’m not trying to dunk on you. Not at all. I just don’t want people reading “get this depth shader and you’re gravy” and making the mistake explained in the article linked above.
-
Thank you for the great compliments for Louisiana. You drove a long way and past a lot of other fish to come here, and I appreciate that. Of course, I’m not sure any place really compares to Venice. It’s just pure magic down there. If I could fish any one place for the rest of my life, it would be that one.
“my wife hooked into a very large fish of some sort.”
It’s Venice, it coulda been anything. Pirate mermaid or the biggest bull red of your life. Who knows?
“One that I will definitely have nightmares about for a long time”
I was there in January. I get it. It’s okay. You’re a great person. You’re good enough and you still have value. It was just a fish, after all. The biggest speckled trout of your life and a giant by Louisiana standards. lol jk
Man, what a great report. I’m glad you came here and had so much fun. That Haynie had to have been a blast, too. What a fine boat.
Thanks for taking time to post!!! I’m very appreciative of that. Thank you.
-
How did it go?
-
How did it go?
-
Yeah, it’s been hit or miss for people. The fish are spread out, some are inside, some are outside. So, if you’re starting from scratch trying to find them then you are gonna have to cover some water. Which you did, but now you know where they ain’t. Which is valuable, especially for others planning to go fishing.
So, if you’re reading this and you’re one of those folks, pitch in and let us know what you plan to do.
Thank you for posting a report.
-
I don’t think you’ll have a problem with storms.
“Navionics image overlaid onto GED.”
Yeah, well done. That looks great.
“I will play connect the dots on the garmin touchscreen sometime later this week rather than go through the trouble of exporting a .kml to the chartplotter.”
Yeah, I do that if I’m only fishing a handful of spots. No need to go through the trouble of uploading a .kml.
I think all those spots in the lake can do well, chiefly the rigs. The little chairwells around them can be just as productive, too.
I’ve never done well at #12, but there’s usually a boat sitting there anyway. The shoreline inside Alligator Bend gets very shallow the further you punch inside the bend. Be careful.
I’d be careful entering the Biloxi Marsh via Lakeshore Bayou. In fact, I’d avoid it. It’s been shallow there for awhile now (of course, things could have changed….but I doubt it).
I wouldn’t write off the L&N Bridge, either.
Good luck!
-
For visual reference, I fish that rig here at 3:43
-
Okay, well FWIW what you have on your white route is Bayous Magill/Biloxi. That route is ace.
Lakeshore Bayou is just under the point on your bottom red arrow and I thought that meant you were entering there at Lakeshore Bayou. It’s been silted in for years and I would not take it.
You probably already knew that, I’m just putting this here in case anyone uses this planning post in the future.
-
My long answer:
Leon, never, not once, have I suggested to anyone that they consult GED while on their fishing trip. That is so unpractical it’s ridiculous. I’m assuming you’ve seen some of my YouTube videos. Have you ever seen me do something like, “Hey guys, I’m a little turned around here, let me break out my laptop and consult GED to see what’s going on”?
That’s never happened.
What I’ve always recommended is planning a fishing trip using GED. You’re never going to need to access GED while on the boat because you would have done so long before launching it.
You would not have time to explore something on a whim because you would have so many fishing spots picked out based upon the conditions that you would not have time to look at anything else. You would also have safe routes taking you to those spots and safely back to the dock.
Going exploring on a whim in a place like Venice is inherently dangerous. That’s the entire point.
You are to avoid exploring on a whim. How do you think I know?
The things I am teaching here are not theory, or a wild guess, or fanciful whimsy. They’re from experience.
Now, you are correct: you do want to have as much information as you can in order to make a good decision. But where you’re going wrong with this is making a decision on a whim using a single data point (the depth shader).
Don’t do that. How do you think I know?
After that, Navionics WebApp shows similar depth/contours and it’s free.
Now, you can reasonably free-navigate using good judgment. For example, I don’t need tracks laid down in GED to shoot across Lake Pontchartrain. It’s reasonable to assume that there isn’t much that’s going to change to cause something like a giant sandbar to appear out of nowhere.
If I’m in Mississippi Sound and I see tons of boat traffic ranging from bay boats to oyster boats, it’s reasonable to assume that the area is draftable and there’s no need to GED it prior to launching.
But those assumptions get tossed out the window anywhere the coast is influenced by the river.
Leon, I am only trying to save you what would be (at best) a horrible day on the water or (at worst) loss of life or limb.
Believe me, I am not being dogmatic. When I find a better way to navigate Louisiana’s coast, I will prove it in my videos and blast it out on the Internet for everyone (or at least the members of LAFB Elite) to benefit from.
But I haven’t. And I have used what I teach to catch fish across Louisiana’s coast. It’s proven. You’d be naive to not copy it.
-
“But, I don’t have access to GED while on the boat.”
That’s very interesting.
Yeah, when I’m discussing fishing here, it’s on the assumption that the participants have finished 101 and have an understanding of it.
The years have shown me that I can read a report/planning post and tell if someone has done that or not. When people don’t, it’s pretty obvious.
So, my short answer is “pick up where you left off at Section 5 on October 8th, 2024 then come back and re-read what you just posted”.
-
Hell yes! That is amazing to hear.
Can’t wait to hear about it, especially a report from my favorite area to fish.
-
“But I’ve gotten several reports of people still catching specks in Salvador in the last two weeks!”
That is nuts! Man, I really like fishing Salvador, too. It’s such a cool lake.
