Navigating river with no markers

[clarifydeveloper]

I have been fishing a stretch of the Colorado River that divides Arizona and California located near Blythe, California. I have fished this area for a couple of years mostly from a shallow draft aluminum boat with a small outboard but have recently begun using a larger 19ft i/o. This boat runs considerably deeper.

This stretch of river fluctuates seasonally and daily depending on the amount of water released from upstream dams and also drained off for irrigation and the like. There are numerous sand bars, rocks, shallow flats, etc that can change frequently. Some places may be safe to run across in the morning and by lunch leave you stranded, but there IS a channel that is navigable year round, its just not marked. Boats the size of my 19 footer DO use this area, though a lot are jet boats. I fish there maybe once a month so I am guessing some of the other guys have been fishing it for years and/or very often and have miles of river memorized.

I am wondering if a gps navigation unit would help me? If i slowly and safely find a route down the river will a gps unit work for me to rely on to travel back? I am not familiar with marine gps. I have a gps built into my phone but that isnt sophisticated enough for river navigation and also fails to load the maps due to signal failure in that area. If a map is required for a marine gps I am not sure one would be available for this part of the Colorado River.

I am looking for some way to map out miles of channel so that I can just follow the gps unit, day or night, with confidence that I am on a safe path. I realize this doesnt account for things that may have washed into my path, like logs and such, but for the most part if I map it at the lowest water level then I should always be in good shape.

Please let me know your thoughts.

thanks

 

[salty87]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

I am looking for some way to map out miles of channel so that I can just follow the gps unit, day or night, with confidence that I am on a safe path. I realize this doesnt account for things that may have washed into my path, like logs and such, but for the most part if I map it at the lowest water level then I should always be in good shape.

Please let me know your thoughts.

thanks

sounds like a great tool to have but i wouldn't trust it to haul butt at night. never out-run your vision.

 

[5150abf]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

Yes absolutely, of coarse you need to find a safe passage first but once you do they are unvaluable, i would be lost without mine.(no pun intended)

I night fish a river with alot of submerged stumps and other stuff where you wouldn't thnk it would be, you have to watch closely of coarse but just a peek at the GPS and you know if you are in safewater or not, night time speed limit is 10 mph here.

I was fishing with the top one night and thought the windows were fogging up, well it was fog fogging up the windows, you could barley see the bow light, moving at idle speed my trusty GPS took me right back to the dock, very scary and not recommended but it worked.

You don't need to spend a ton of money either, unless you want too, I got my Magellan off Ebay for $40.

 

[haulnazz15]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

I think if you use a depthfinder coupled with a GPS, you should be able to basically set enough "waypoints" so as to basically map out the deepest part of the river in the areas you run. That way you have a recorded track of the channel and could navigate pretty close to that. Many depth sounder have bottom alarms that you can set to go off when you reach a certain depth, letting you know you're getting into trouble.

 

[salty87]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

like this? lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBkF8ybc7qM&feature=related

 

[mthieme]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

GPS units have a 'trail' function that allows you to follow the same course coming or going (once established).

 

[Mark42]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

There are two devices on your boat that accurately report the depth of the water. One is the keel, the other is that little spinning thing in the back. Use these tools to your advantage whenever possible.

 

[Casco Bay Outrage]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

I would disagree with the comment saying the GPS accuracy is ~20 feet. With WAAS, it averages ~7-12.

My basic Garmin 172c (and almost any marine chartplotter) allows you to mark points. If you travel the route slowly and save many marks along the way, you have your trail to follow. The "tracking feature" shows where you have been.

I can find a buoy which I have marked (during the day) in pea-soup fog and at night and be within 5 feet. I also mark areas that have uncharted hazards.

The one caveat is GPS signal reception. If the river is in a canyon, there could be less accuracy if the unit does not pick up all the satellites.

I recommend visiting a premium marine electronics dealer where you can play with the unit and ask lots of question from knowledgeable staff.

Depth finders measure the depth of where you have been or are at that moment and not what is in front of you.

 

[nlain]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

I use gps in very crooked tidal rivers and the trail brings me back home every time, I have the charts for my waters loaded and that is also a great help when I get out where the water is almost a mile wide but you know that there are only several small areas you can run in, it has not failed me yet. Get the gps and if you can get a chart of the water you will be running for the gps. Once you have it set up you can also mark the spots that you caught fish iin so you can go back to the same place next time.

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

like this? lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBkF8ybc7qM&feature=related

I was waiting for the sudden stop

 

[capt sam]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

GPS/Depthfinders are great tools but people still need to know how to read the water, current and color change. I can shoot almost any creek, bay or open waterway by doing this and be right 99% of the time. True seamanship skills are becoming a lost art.

 

[Polar_Bus]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

GPS/Depthfinders are great tools but people still need to know how to read the water, current and color change. I can shoot almost any creek, bay or open waterway by doing this and be right 99% of the time. True seamanship skills are becoming a lost art.

How do you "read the water, current and color change" ?

IME, up here in the cold murky black river water the water is black at 3' as well as 30' deep.

 

[Drowned Rat]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

Yep, learning to read the river is the only safe way to do it. That stretch of river changes all the time, sand bars move around. I'd never trust a GPS to carry you safely through, especially at night.

 

[xxturbowesxx]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

I would say to bring a spotlight and a freind.

 

[Nandy]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

It is a matter of using the tools at hand. You need a gps that leaves a trail so during the day, while you are reading the lake you are leaving a trail of the safe water. Later you can use your gps trail to go back but try to add a spot light to your arsenal and obviously slow down. I always use the trails to go back an forth. Never had a problem... I do slow down, just for a piece of mind and have my spotlight ready and use it sporadically. If there is a full moon then I dont use the spot much as the light reflect in the water...

 

[QC]

Re: Navigating river with no markers

Couple of comments . . .

1) Drowned Rat is right, that section of river changes a lot.

2) Good GPS coverage there though as it is also flat.

3) Same day trackback is pretty darn good. Even at night. I often lay down two tracks on purpose. Then I use the history lines (where I traveled earlier) as lane markers and just keep her between the lines. Not fool proof, but I position somebody up front whose job it is to watch dead ahead and I keep my face buried in the GPS. Works well.

4) That water is kinda murky but you can indeed see color.

5) Get a jet I have not spent anytime below Parker since I bought my second I/O (1995). We used to hang at Aha Quinn a lot and I'd like to go back there, but I think it would be a jet if I was going to spend any significant time there. I repaired a lot of props with a ball peen hammer and some blocks of wood back then. The little snags and stumps are what always messed me up, not really the sandbars . . .

Edit: I have been from the I10 bridge all of the way south to Cibola and back with an I/O and didn't hit anything until I was idling into Walter's