Water temp integrated with GPS

[Nomad]

Anyone aware of any surface temp meters that integrate with your gps to be able to plot surface temperature trends?

[DOGHOUSE26]

I think you need the NavNet Type System where the temp sensor is part of your sonar package and feeds in info into the system, I think you can do it with Furuno, Garmin, Lowrance, and I'd be surprised if it wasn't available in your Raymarine system; I don't know of any stand alone temp system which would talk to your plotter in our price range.

[yellowfin1]

Charlie,

I understand that the Garmin XM GPS chartplotters/receivers as well as a couple others (Foruno, Magellan, Ray marine) all have the capability to download and depict SST's from the overlays generetad by NOAA. As you know these are not real time shots but they might be helpful if you can get a download within 24 hours.

Other than that, if you are just looking to display your observed SST I think you'll have to do that manually. I would recommend that you just designate marks along your transit route where temperatures change significantally.

I'm not aware of any systems that automatically plot the observed SST's along your track by integrating with your temp indicator.

Happy New Year.
Scott

[Nomad]

The Raymarine sonar on my Blackman would plot a temp graph. It would maintain a history and you could scroll back and see temps over ground covered. Unfortunatly they didn't keep that functionality on the new units which makes no sense. Given how important temp and temp tracking is I'm surprised no one has come up with a more robust unit for tracking temps and position. Guess until then I'll keep staring at the temp readout on my unit!

[DOGHOUSE26]

I typically take the latest Terrafin chart with me (usually within 24hrs.) and make a mental note when I pass a break and reference it to the chart to see which way if at all the currents are moving. That only works when we get a decent satellite shot which isn't often enough during the tuna season. My older plotters had an "Event Marker " function where I could mark locations from a selection of symbols in the unit without having to assign them a waypoint which made jigbites and kelps easy to record on a trip by trip basis. They don't have that function anymore either. The price of progress!

[Nomad]

I do the same thing with the terrafin charts as well as use the looped feature to plot movement. What do you think of the new chlorophil charts Jeff is putting out (Terafin)?

[NoSlack]

Does the water temp really change that much in Mission Bay? ;)

If you have the Raymarine sonar with the temp graph, that's about as good as it gets. I called Furuno 10 years ago and asked if they had any plans to add a temp graph to thier sounder to match what Raymarine was doing. At the time they didn't thik it was worth pursuing.

Mike

[DOGHOUSE26]

I made it a point early in the season to study the charts in relation to where the tuna at first and then marlin later in the season were being seen and caught; by understanding the levels of life in the water column in a given area I can now interpolate where the fish might be 75% of the time and also have a 90-100% degree of accuracy where the fish WON'T be which is just as important! The chloro charts combined with the temp charts also lets you predict where the fish will be going as well. While the tuna were rarely seen in the dirtier water this year's marlin batch was never very far from the edge of dirty water and when bait was abnormally thick in the dirty water the marlin would tend to spend alot of time hunting there this season. The lower the chlorophyl number, the cleaner the water. I believe water below .10 is typically clean deep blue but sterile. For tuna, you are looking for water in the .16-.25 range on the chlorophyl charts, clean blue water. For marlin, .16 to .40 is optimum however this year for example they spent alot of time in the bait rich area inside the 182 towards the 178 and closer which was between .70- 1.0 on the chart and off color blue getting to solid green! Keep in mind when in .70 or greater water they would always be within 1-2nm from the edge of the green water; I think they would typically start in blue water and hunt downswell into the green because there was so much food in the green, and then pop back out to the edge of the blue water. This next year I will able to test my theories with more confidence and either be the hero or the zero!