North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

G'day all,

Just moved up (with my 5m centre console) to Darwin from Exmouth in WA. I was just wondering what charts people use on their GPS plotters up here for fishing creeks, rivers and billabongs etc?

I currently use Garmin BlueChart for all my bluewater fishing, but as you are all probably aware, they are next to useless once you travel any distance up a river or creek.

Are there any marine charts that offer good coverage of inland waters, or do people use Topographical maps for inland fishing? Are there any topo maps that are better than others?

Cheers guys.

Fables.

Navionics Plat? - has google maps overlay on the charts
Go and see Michael at In Outboard Marine

No charts will go completly up the rivers but the Platnum is one of the better memory cards. The Army topographical charts are the next best option for some idea of rivers and billabongs locations but still very little in-water information out yet. The rivers up here change to much due to the size of the wet seasons and flooding that our rivers get.

google earth is always good for a look at a particular river. to suss it out before going.
can print screen shots if need be.

Navionics Platinum is ok but not great for rivers, even the satelite overlay photos on the platinum cards are often out of whack

Thanks for all the feedback guys,

I will check out Navionics Platinum, otherwise I will try and get a hold of some good quality Topo maps and load them up on OziExplorer.

I am not too worried about depths and things like that - or even accurate dimensions, I just like to have a visual reference - especially while I am trying to learn how to fish the rivers up here.

Anything would be better than the thin blue line (or nothing at all) that I have on my chart at the moment.

Anyone know where can I get hold of good topo / Army maps - cuddlescooper?

Thanks again. Fables.

NT general store will sort it out for ya.

Hi

U'll see a previous post about gps datums.

Make yourself familar with the datums of various maps vs gps datum options before grabbing any.

The differences will be significant once u start loading data from say a military map (GDA94) onto a wsg 84 based gps (particularly in rivers). Your track will end up on dry land 250m from the river if u ignore datums.

I've just had a look at my military maps of this area. They're in both UTM (zones. eastings and northings) and lat&long based on gda94 datum.
The army survey dept had its staff numbers cut drastically in 1996.

No more checking of maps before publication. Fewer maps produced these days so series gets older and older.

happy mapping.

On my hunting tracking gps I have downloaded Shonky maps of the Internet and that has mor detail that most is a topi map but shows snake drain way out on the flood plains and marsh lands that lead to the cost it's a free down load to for garmin units dunno if it works on others ??

Thanks Ronje, Some sound advice there - I will definitely keep Datums in mind (and hadn't even considered that the would be different!!).

Doug - I just found Shonky maps last night - I am yet to play with it but it looks like it could be ok.

Cheers Guys!

Shonky maps looks good. Does anyone know how to set these up on a Lowrance?

If anyone gets stuck I have most of the river systems on my own charts I made up myself whilst driving barges all through the Nt. It's been signed off by hydrographic office so it's all good.