The ramps are way up the bank. There are heaps of places where the dried bank is firm gravel so you can back your boat down. Other places are soft mud and some people get bogged to the doors.

Martin that is the same on my lakes over here. A lot of ramps are not used (out of water) and it places more traffic down at the ramp near the Dam or well up river.


Some of the lakes can be a hairy trip when you do not know the lake in winter pool or are able to offset depth to get a good idea of what is ahead.

Charts for waters with fast variable depth level (barrages)

The first that You must decide, is what an intervall You want to use. I believe for normal fishing application 1 m or max 0,5 m difference is sufficient

I see two ways in principle:

1. The present chart will used, only the depth lines will be adapted. It's the much simpler way, but not optimal for the flooding, shoreline area.
2. Each depth level requires a separate chart. The charts contain different area- and line combination. This way is much heavier and also the datas for the shallow areas are not simple to collect.

For the use of such charts in the unit there is also 2 options:
a. Each chart is a separate AT5 file. In this case max 2 SD-cards required. One card contain all different AT5's. With help of the internal memory of the HDS You can copy files in a second SD-card again and again.
b. All datas (different depth charts) are located in a single AT5 file.

Point b) requires explanations. It's a new property of the IMC, which the user can use in the the next release v0.7.4, für HDS units only I think. With this function it will be possible to give the chart categories own names, whatever You want. In this case, You can name each depth chart with a separate MIN_CAT. Now, the chart categories You can switch on/of on the unit, if You want

Here is a sample, which show the principle (e. g. with - 1 … - 7 m, 0 m , + 1 … + 20 m offset in meter steps)

Pic. 1 show my fictive sample lake in overview. The inaccurate shoreline area for higher water levels are yellow-green in color.




Pic. 2 show the elemental chart with "0 m".




In pic. 3 You can see the open chart categories. I have switch off all charts unless the new "+ 4 m" chart.




Pic. 4 show the result: "+ 4 m"



Note: If the new IMC appears, i will add explanations. You must also apply a trick with the unit, otherwise the unit will be freeze.

We hope, that Matt also can find a way to implement any solution to RM.

Matt wrote:
Hi Matt, Any word on when this might be available?

Another idea:
- Export all depth data of the map as one csv. If there are great amounts of data, you might need to use two or three files.
- These csv can be imported in a second step and you can add a depth correction to these data.

- Generate a separate map of each depth-level you want and export the data as shapefiles.
- Create a map with IMC using the feature 'setting up maps for chart selection' and name them perhaps with a water level addition. If you do so, you can select separate maps of the same area, that are on only one SD and you can switch these maps selecting it instead of 'Lowrance map type'.

How 'setting up maps for chart selection' works, you could find here:
www.tacklefever.de/index.php?topic=4409.0

The disadvantage is that you need for each map its own shoreline and island lines. You could create these shorelines with Reefmaster, if you use the correct depth line and export it for further use as shoreline.

This way is a little extra work at home. On the water you only need to select the right map for each level.