Posts: 433
Location: Cedarburg, Wisconsin | I was in a new to me area one time, running by the map in an off the beaten trail channel between an island and the shore on LOTW. The map showed "lots" of water and when the locator started to slowly get shallower I shut the motor down to neutral, coasting to a stop just in time to see a reef coming up in the middle of the channel. Not only was it shallow and rocky there were even reeds growing on it in one little spot. This happened after fishing a nearby area where we hit a rock with the trolling motor in supposedly deeper water. Whoever mapped that area took one heck of a shortcut with the data.
Most of the map is darn good from my limited experience, but after finding those spots, I sure wouldn't trust the map completely the first time through an area. Caution and patience are needed I think, unless you also have a sacraficial boat and motor with you. I fished LOTW in fall for six years and always used a SS prop on my 150 Johnson. When we got off the main channel we just used extreme caution when we weren't sure of the rocks. It wasted a little time, but probably saved much more in the long run. We had no GPS then and had the map out in a plastic bag so we could watch it constantly. It worked for us. |
