GPS on Canada Side???

[eyepatrol]

In a few weeks we'll be taking our vacation to NW Bay. Wondering if the GPS on my Lowrance M68c will work or not? I don't have any chip or anything, just the general built-in GPS. So for lakes here in MN, it'll show the general outline of the shoreline along with islands, but doesn't show depth or contours.

Can anyone tell me what to expect? Will the same show up when we get across the border (shoreline & islands)?

Thank you!

[TN Rick]

I'm sure it will work the same. The problem you will face are all of the submurged rocks that will NOT show up.

[eyepatrol]

Sounds good Rick.

Are you going to Dale's again this year?

If so, when?

[TN Rick]

Yep. Eight of us going on 6/21. Looking forward to trying soem new lures and techniques this year.

Not sure how long we'll keep doing this with the price of gas. At 1250 miles each way and 12 miles per gallon it is getting expensive!

[eyepatrol]

I hear ya! Looks like we might pass each other at the border!

We'll be arriving on 6/28!

Save a few for us.

[Bob O]

you can test your GPS map display at home. Sit outside (not in a garage) with your unit, zoom out to a couple hundred miles or so, move the cursor to Rainy Lake and zoom in again.

[eyepatrol]

Hey! Good idea! I'll give it a shot when I get on the lake later today.

Thanks for the idea!

[Joe Z.]

The spec on your Lowrsnce is the same as mine. http://www.lowrance.com/en/Products/Marine/Compact-Sonar-Fishfinders/M68C-SMap/Specifications/

United States only, which means you will get coordinates but little or no detail. To be sure I am not wrong, try puching in a location north of the border and zoom in. That's why I bought the Navionics chip last year. Hope this helps.

Joe Z.

[bitz]

Hey Eyepatrol. Did you change your login name?

I updated my H2O with the premium north chip a couple of years ago. If you can put one in your lowrance, I would recommend it. Cab's has the 2007 chip on sale for $99 in Owatonna (as of Sat) Prior to that, my H2O did provide the shore line but not the rocks. The good news is, the rocks in NW bay seem alot more marked than the rest of the upper arm. There are a few that come to mind, but in the main lake area, seems most have a marker on them. I know you have mentioned where your staying, but please remind me. I can get you some data from last year if you send me your email info. We come in the same time as you this year and are staying at Amik again. Price is good and the cabins are very nice for the $$. Vince does a good job. We are trying to get in a couple of days earlier now but if not, we also get in on the 28th.

Bitz

Bitz

[eyepatrol]

Yeah, we've been going to NW Bay for quite a few years now and know where pretty much all the rocks are at. Some through Dale at LaBelle's, some by experience. I don't have any chip capability, but my unit does have GPS. I also have my maps in which we have 25yrs of "notes" on them.

You're going to be at Amik that week? Well heck, since I'm at LaBelle's that week we'll darn near be an ear-shot away!

If you see this rig, it'll be me.

I'll have my wife with me and then our 2 little kids (2yr old curly haired blonde girl and auburn haired 4yr old boy). Usually the kids are right up in front with me tugging on both my arms while I try to fish. We spend 95% of our time in NW bay anywhere between LaBelle's and Camp Narrows. And oh yeah, to answer your first question, yes...used to be "bc".

What rig will you be in?

[RainyPro]

Hey Bitz

How is Amik's? I have been going to Dale's close to 20 years. We have been wondering about the new place since they built it. Do they have all the services? I see the rates on their web site are cheaper than Dale's by quite a bit. Do they have gas and minnows? Do they have a lodge? Good parking, if you bring your own boat, a launch ramp?

[RainyPro]

Hey TN Rick,

We are going to be at Dale's from 6/20-6/28, I think we were there at the same time with you last year. We stayed in cabins 3 and 4 with three Lunds. I think we may have talked to someone in your party last year, I rember thinking that your drive was twice as far as ours. Have you been going there for awhile? What do you fish for?

[RainyPro]

Last year I had the Fishing Hot Spots Map for my Garmin. I went out to the main part of the lake to fish three humps someone told me about. I went to the spot on my GPS and they weren’t there, I finally found them and fished them and caught some nice walleyes. I had to mark them with buoys to fish them. So every pass over the humps I set a waypoint. After getting back and loading everything on my PC I tried to figure out what was wrong, every waypoint was 100+ feet southeast of each of the humps. I also noticed that all the waypoints I had set through the years seemed to be off the same. I looked into the datum and different options on my GPS and everything was ok. I never could figure out what was wrong.

After doing some research on the net I came across the LakeMaster High Definition map of Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods. It has 1 ft counters of the entire lake, It’s amazing. It was $99 for the Garmin Data card. I loaded it up and every waypoint I set on those humps were dead nuts on. It shows much more structure than any map I have ever seen, even paper ones.

WARNING, don’t trust you GPS map rock locations unless you find a good verifiable location on the lake and see if your GPS says that is where you are.

[eyepatrol]

Hey RainyPro....what time will you be leaving on the 28th? We're in Cabin 4 when we get there on the 28th, so the earlier you leave, the better for us!

Just kidding!

[RainyPro]

Hey eyepatrol, we try to get out of there really early, usually 6:00am, we have a 11-12 hr drive and we want to get home.

I know what you mean we usually arrive on Saturday morning about 10 and it's a pain waiting for them to clean it. We used to stay night in Fort Frances and then go to camp in the morning. This year we are going straight to camp on Friday night, that way we get a full day of fishing on Saturday.

[eyepatrol]

Good plan!

I was just joking about getting out early. I don't think it matters too much as usually things aren't ready until 1:00 or so anyway. Just like you, we get there a bit early ourselves....sometime around noon. Then like you, we have to wait an hour or so which is just KILLER because we're so pumped to be there!

We always stay overnight at the Falls Motel on the Friday before in I'Falls and then Saturday morning we're up early, cross the border, grab breakfast, etc, etc. We've talked about driving up in one day, but it's nice to break it up a bit plus go out for dinner and cocktails.

Well best of luck to you and your group! I really hope everything comes together when we're up there as it seems the water temps are a little behind "normal" for this time of year.

Leave the light on for us, would ya?

[RainyPro]

Yes watching them clean and waiting was awful.

We used to stay in I'Falls too but several times we got stuck in early Saturday morning bridge traffic and had to wait to cross, and that was eating into our fishing time. Then switched to staying at the Red Dog Inn or whatever it's called now. That way if we had a long wait at the bridge it was on Friday night. Last year at camp we decided why not just come straight to camp the cost was pretty much a wash and we can unpack and get the boats ready Friday night. Getting a full day fishing on Saturday seemed like a no brainer. We do have to pay duty on beer for one more night, but then we don’t have to buy beers at the Red Dog either.

I’m hoping that we get into the Crappies. We never seem to catch many and maybe the late spring will help.

I’ll be sure to leave anything we don’t use in the cabin 4 refrigerator. We always seem to have some sort of food left over that we don’t want to take back with us.

How long you been going up there?

[eyepatrol]

Quote:

I’m hoping that we get into the Crappies. We never seem to catch many and maybe the late spring will help.

I hear ya there! We're hoping the same as well.

We've been going there since the mid 1970's. Twice we went to Lake of the Woods, once to Shagawa and once to Kabetogama, but we've gone there for 25+ years now...even before Dale bought the place in '81 I believe. Some things have changed over the years, but what hasn't changed is the peace, quiet and excitement of being up there. The fishing has changed quite a bit...but to the better!

[RainyPro]

Yeah my Father-in-law prorobably started about when you did, He passed away a few years ago, he started taking me and my borther-in-law up there when we married his daughters. 1989 was our first year. Back when the old lodge and Linda were still there and they took you pictures of nice catches and hung them up on the wall in the lodge.

There used to be some old guy who owned it before Dale right? From what I rember from my Father-in-law it was pretty run down when Dale bought it.

[eyepatrol]

You know, when we were there in '81 I was 8yrs old, so I don't really remember the guy. What I do remember about the 'ol days is they had these red/white checkered curtains for doors, no screened in porches I don't believe and yeah, it was getting outdated. Dale has stuck quite a bit of money into the place over the years. The rock dike that protects the docks is also a result of a suggestion made by my dad after a huge east wind pounded the boats and many got tore up pretty good on the docks (always the engineer my dad is).

I remember the pictures on the wall now too! Boy, it's been a while since they stopped doing that! Geez...I'm starting to feel aged now.

[RainyPro]

There a really good new fishing report on here for mostly the US side of Rainy.

I think our first year up was the first year that they had built the dike. You rember that year when the water was really high? the concrete was covered down by the launch.

[eyepatrol]

Ohhh yeah....there's been a couple years where the water has been real high like that.....and then a couple years where the water is so low you have underwater rocks sticking out of the water. Those years are scarier than high water years IMO.

[RainyPro]

Remember when steamboat was sticking out one year.

[eyepatrol]

Nope, don't remember that. Where was that at?

[RainyPro]

You never heard of steamboat? Great big rock in the middle of the lake.

[TN Rick]

For some reason we always seem to be running up to Alexandria and Ash to fish. I know that NW holds lots of fish too. Which area would you say is the best for Smallmouth in NW Bay?

[RainyPro]

The best fishing is always on the other side of the lake. We only fish for walleye so I don't know any smallies locations. TN did u have to leave early last year and one of your group that stayed wanted my nephew to fish with them? Is that you guys?

[eyepatrol]

Oddly enough, no, never heard of Steamboat. Obviously as you know there are lots of humps that come up to 7' - 10' out from LaBelle's. There's the 2 red markers out from LaBelle's. South of Moore's Island there's a hump that comes up to 1' under the water surface (depending on water levels) that someone usually puts a white jug on. But I'm not aware of any other rocks out in the middle. Where abouts would Steamboat be at? I certainly wouldn't want to hit it!

[bitz]

Steamboat is the big reef just as you come out of the ash narrows heading towards the cascades. it has a green marker on it and pops out of about 40 ft to ripples if normal water. We have fished it for years (since early 60s) and last year we picked up 3 eyes over 25 inches the one day we fished it. Same week as you will be there Eyepatrol. It covers a lot of area, so don't get suckered in on the marker. it runs south and west from the marker towards the island. if you are coming from NW bay, its on the big open water even with the mouth of the little canoe river only about 2 miles west. Good smallies depending on the time of year also. You can also get a big pike. we usually use a crank with a deep diver and troll the outer edges.

Bitz

[eyepatrol]

Rick,

I don't fish the smallies all that much either. There's a few islands across the bay from Dale's that I've caught some smaller ones off of. Right out in front of Dale's lodge I've caught a few over the years. Three Sisters has put out a few and the big point leading into Camp Narrows has put out a few. Otherwise when it comes to bass fishing, I've done most of mine in the bays you talk about, the southerly side of Turkey Island (the shoreline that would be the under side of the Turkey's buttox...south of what would be the feet) and then some of the islands over by Woodchuck as well. Most notably the west side of the longer island that runs north/south on the west side of Woodchuck (the island just northeast of the 37' hole).

Most of the bass I get are happenstance while fishing for walleyes.