Sea Floor Mapping
 

I am trying to find a good sight(since I don't have a FF) where I can view the ocean floor with all the terrain, features, everything.
Does anyone have a good place to go to find it so I am not just launching blindly!
Thanks ahead of time

Navionics android app is 9.99 & it's all you'll need

I have this also and it's worth every penny. You save about $130 not having to buy the chip for you fish finder.

The only problem I have with buying this for my phone is I am pretty hard on my phones and very sadly they make phones water proof but they don't make phones that float

Sure they do. Take a piece of pool noodle and stick it in a ziplock bag and seal your phone in there. waterproof and it floats. I can work my touchscreen through the plastic, no problem. Or you can get the app, take screenshots and email then to yourself and print then if it makes you feel safer. But thats the best that there is right there. Lotta bang for your buck. Plus it has all mpa's outlined

You can point to an area of interest on your map, hit info and find up to the minute tide, wind and weather forecasts for that spot. Its really a great tool

Ok I will give it a try

http://compare.ebay.com/like/3007049...Types&var=sbar

I put my cell phone in one of these, they work better than ziplock, I found out the hard way. Once in this you can attach the pool noodle to the case and it will float. I usually hang mine around my neck though.

One of the coolest features in the Navionics app is the fact that it will tell you exactly where you're at using your phones gps. The only drawback to this is that the gps will eat up your battery life, because of this I now carry two batteries. Regardless, at $9.99 its worth every penny.

How accurate is the positioning meaning if it says i am right on top of the structure u are really on top of it or like a 1/4 mile off?

My droid seems to be accurate to around 20 feet or better.

It has a calibrate function which you should check for on yours; basically a routine where you turn the phone through a set of rotations while it watches signals.

You lose me bro

Its close enough.

Just so you know, a 1/4mile isn't that much when you're bottom fishing. I've fished areas where I drifted a 1 mile and would catch fish all the way through. However, every so often you will have an area where the fish are sitting in an area no bigger than your kayak.........that's where the waypoint markers on your gps come into play.

I have an Eagle Cuda ff. Is the app so good that it's still worth purchasing? I like the up to date weather and conditions, that alone might be worth the price.

GPS
 

I've got a good FF/chartplotter with maps, and I got the Navionics on my droid last night after reading this thread. Sweet little app for 9 bucks. Nice to have if you want to do some quick scouting around for your next trip while on the go.

As far as my comment about GPS accuracy, go to your GPS or location settings (in Android it's settings/Location/Calibrate Compass

I also just installed a very nice free app "GPS Status" from Eclipsim.

I've had intermittent problems getting a GPS lock on my device. This tool will show you exactly how many satellites you are receiving, what the margin of error is, and other info. It has its own calibrate routine (again, involves rotating the phone around 3 axes) After I ran this the thing connected to one more satellite so I guess it works(?) Pretty cool main screen to see all the GPS info BTW.
It also has a utility to download some kind of GPS helper data that it says will speed up your GPS for a few days; haven't tried this but assume it's info about the projected location of satellites. Sounds promising...

Whats awesome about this app as well is if you zoom in on an area of interest it will ask you if you would like to download a more detailed map of the exact targeted area. FOR FREE! It doesn't come preloaded with every detail of north america and clutter your phones memory with details you won't ever use. And yes its as accurate as your phones navigational gps. If you need a piece of eqipment to get you closer then 20 foot of your target then you should just start going to the grocery store for all your fish from now on.

For $10 you get an app that you can plot you next trips, see what the depths are for the areas you may want to fish in. Even if you have a FF/GPS unit there may be some details that your system may not have. Some of the higher end Humminbird FF have the Navionic installed, but I will often kill some time at work looking at areas that I want to fish and see the depths, distance that I will need to paddle, and just to dream about fishing while I'm working.

I use google earth. I find the rock piles that I want to try, the take the coordinates and mark it out on my Navionics App on my iphone. You can not go wrong that way.

There are so many tools that are available to us, there's not excuse anymore for us not to find fish, catching them is the next step.

http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineVie...werTable.shtml

there's an iPhone app called Marine US. uses all the NOAA maps. don't have it so I don't know how it works.

if you use the NOAA maps you can find spots, write them down, or maybe plug them into the phone, then use the gps on your phone to find. there are several gps apps.