Triangulation

[WRB]

LORAN C was the last version relied on fixed shore towers and limited range. LORAN listed longitude and latitude numbers that you used a paper map to determine location. GPS is satellite overhead signals with nearly unlimited coverage that digital shows your location, the way points are Long/lat numbers you can save.

Tom 

[J Francho]

9 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Sounds about right.

Bet he used a little card to plot 'between' the lines ?

A-Jay

 

This looks like what he had https://www.ebay.com/p/18037246504?iid=324094443132

 

[Tennessee Boy]

My favorite spot of all time has been lost forever because a tornado took out my markers.  I've tried to find it but I don't think I can get within a half mile of it now.  GPS has a lot of advantages.

 

[Catt]

@Team9nine Only 69 ?

 

Get what ya saying about lost art, I got 4 sons & 4 grandsons, all of them say that's to hard.

 

@A-Jay What you see in that picture is what we used, well that & a little formula of speed, distance, time or something like, give me a minute I'll get.

 

Our depth finder was a paper line graph that was only used once we arrived at the coordinates.

[J Francho]

I loved the paper graphs. My uncle would give me the used rolls and I thought they were so cool. 

[Mobasser]

41 minutes ago, Catt said:

@Team9nine Only 69 ?

 

Get what ya saying about lost art, I got 4 sons & 4 grandsons, all of them say that's to hard.

 

@A-Jay What you see in that picture is what we used, well that & a little formula of speed, distance, time or something like, give me a minute I'll get.

 

Our depth finder was a paper line graph that was only used once we arrived at the coordinates.

Catt, I agree this can be hard on a huge body of water. The lake I mentioned in my original post is an old qaurry, about 6 acres. I found a hump with my depthfinder that rises 7ft in the middle of this lake. It lines up with the painted tree I mentioned. My grandson and I have caught many bass fishing on either side of this hump. Some guy found this spot a long time ago, by using triangulation.  I don't think it should be written off so quickly. It can still work, especially for folks who don't have any electronics. It can work on lakes, ponds, rivers, or anywhere that has some bass. It takes more time and effort, but once you find a spot like this, you've got a good fishing spot for years to come.

[Way north bass guy]

7 hours ago, Logan S said:

Used to do it all the time before GPS was common....It's gone the way of the dinosaurs for me along with marker buoys (which made triangulation easier too) .  If my electronics died or something (and couldn't be fixed within an hour or two) I'd be able to dust off the cobwebs...

 

Even basic electronics these days makes it obsolete.

Even though I have top of the line gps units on my boat nowadays, I’ll still often kick an orange buoy or two over the side when I’m on a certain large piece of structure, especially way offshore. I can and do use the gps all the time, but if you know what the structure your on looks like, and you can drop a couple buoys at certain points on it, I find it’s quicker, and easier on the neck to just have a quick look at them to figure out exactly where your sitting rather than constantly staring down at the screen. 
 

One big offshore hump that I used to ice fish for lake trout, we used to triangulate with two specific boathouses and an island to find. It was about 2 acres in diameter, and those boathouses would put you right smack in the middle of it every time. 

[Williep99]

8 hours ago, A-Jay said:

I used Loran A & Loran C

and at the time - they were high Tech.

The Loran A  unit was Huge - Loran C it's replacement, was 90% smaller, more accurate and considerably easier to use. 

They are both long gone, and no one's sad about that.

A-Jay

 

Used them when I navigated on helos in the Coast Guard. Had to dead reckon also. LORAN was notoriously inaccurate. I’d take a spot as we left shore and compare it so I would know how far off we were. I would have loved GPS back then.

[E-rude dude]

That’s how we fished Erie for perch when I was a kid. Grandpa and dad didn’t have electronics.

Granda put a knot in his anchor rope every 2’. For years I thought it was to pull the anchor up. Then one day he came back load with perch and said “they are 6 knots about 12’.”

 

 

[Darth-Baiter]

I use this to find a sunken car.  It gets me close; my down image does the rest. 

[lo n slo]

singing my kind of song brother, although i have employed my sonar to a certain degree these days, not to mention reference pics on my cell phone. boat sets in 24 fow, cast between the two trees to the brush pile located on the drop off.

[MGF]

I've done a lot of compass navigation including under water. Triangulation with a compass (not the same as the survey method) only needs two landmarks and a measured heading to each. The third point in the triangle is the spot you want to mark...where you are and where you want to get back to.

 

The GPS on my Lowrance hook-5 doesn't seem very accurate. I messed with it quit a bit and decided that I had better keep my floats. I can use it to find a general area like to make certain I'm on the right point or in the right cove. It's nowhere near good enough to park the boat in position for casting to a small rock pile or something. When I want to mark a "small" offshore spot to fish I throw a floating marker.

 

When my children were very young (30 something years ago) I had them finding on abject that I would hide out in a big field. I used to take them to the state forest and they would navigate with a map and compass.

[slonezp]

On 3/25/2021 at 11:23 AM, WRB said:

When you fish over the horizon shore visual points are worthless, you need some type of fixed point to triangulate.

Back in the day before GPS fresh water anglers used shore line points like Preachers house , Rock wall, Towers, Green House, Eagles nest etc. would get you close. Flasher sonar could get you closer using depth and structure combined with a good topo map for off shore area. 
Most anglers today use visual way points unconsciously and sonarGPS to pin point locations.

Older anglers who learned to triangulate  using visual can get close to areas without electronics and continuously are looking at terrain changes to read structure, we don’t totally rely on a sonar screen. We are not lost when the battery goes dead?

Tom

There is a river 10 minutes from my house that I haven't fished since I bought the Lund in 2013. The Lund was too big to launch. My waypoints were "The 3 legged dog" "The Living room" "The iron worker" and "The **** crows" It wasn't about navigation, but just smallmouth fishing spots.