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Spring 2019
T
he cold fog blanketed the Columbia River. No
matter where you looked, no landmarks could
be seen. No boats were visible, no shoreline, no distant mountains, nor even power lines. Just fog.
Without GPS and the detailed chart on my Lowrance
HDS fishfinder, we could have been fishing in the parking
lot for all we knew. Instead, we were in a wide stretch of
the river fishing a school of fat smallmouth bass feeding on
crayfish over a gravel bar.
The key to getting them to bite was to approach the
waypoint without running over the bass and spooking them.
Watching the GPS chart screen, we stealthily moved into
position just below the waypoint. Knowing where the sweet
spot is and putting your boat in the right position is money!
HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU?
First cast with a dropshotted Yamamoto Shad Shaped
Worm saw a four-pound smallie freight-train it. Despite the
strong fight in light river current,
we landed the smallmouth
and got her in the
livewell. I again looked at my fishfinder chart and noticed the waypoint appeared behind my boat, instead of in front where I expected it.
Running the electric motor to return to the waypoint, the chart suddenly flipped 180-degrees. I quickly needed to reverse my direction before driving over the bass and spooking them.
IF… this has ever happened to you, or your chart sometimes spins around when you are sitting still or barely moving, then you need a Lowrance Point-1 GPS receiver (antenna) on your boat.
If you ever suspected your GPS screen was lying to you exactly which direction your waypoint was located, you need a Point-1. If you fish competitively, and you don’t have a Point-1 receiver on your network, you are helping your competition to win.
PROBLEM #1
Regardless of brand or model, the problem every
internal antenna has is knowing how to orient
the screen once the boat stops moving.
Most bass anglers use the “Heading
Up” setting in the chart menu. If your
boat stops, and the wind or current
slowly turns your boat, your waypoint
location will not be where it appears
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