Priority1

Kevin and crew, Good fishing out of Holland.

Nick and crew. GJ out of Holland. Wish I could have been there.

Terry and crew, GJ on the fish. Sorry to hear about the engine problems. I hope it's something minor.

GJ guys. What a day to be on the water.

GJ Tom on a tough bite.

Mike and crew, FANTASTIC.

I need to get the skunk off the Priority1 for the 2010 season, so I teamed up with three real pros. It was a pleasure to have Mike G (FishMonster), JWheeler (HuskyJerk), TJ (Twill), aboard. The four of us boxed 18 walleye, 1 Whitefish, and a King. The Salmon and whitefish came in as a double. All fish were caught on crawler harnesses and bouncers doing about 1.5 MPH over 22-30 FOW. With a dream crew like this it made it easy on me. Gitter Done:)

Joel, Way to kick off the season.

Jimmy, GJ man. ^5s:)

Capt. Russ, FANTASTIC.

Mark, ya got a wall hanger. WTG:)

Capt. Bill, Gotta Luv Dat Lake O.

Tim, GJ on Holloway. I have never fished Holloway.

Capt. Bill, Thanks for the Lake O report. Nice looking fish.

Thanks for the UP report. It's been a wet windy week here also.

I didn't realize you were talking about a hand held. The newer fixed mount plotters have a place to add a card. You can buy a card reader cheap if you can figure out a pin out for the Garmin. I'm sure they would give you that info. RIGHT.

I hope it works out for you. It's not for everyone. It wouldn't be at all practical on smaller boats. There are some hot key functions that make using it very simple. Like everything there are pros and cons. The nice thing about the toughbooks is they are sunlight viewable, shock resistant, and waterproof. I kind of like the OpenCPN software also. It runs a slightly different style NOAA chart, and is compatible with Auto Pilots. I like the flexibility of running either. It wasn't all that difficult to download the charts from NOAA and load them into this program. Hopefully I'll be on the water Sat, Sun, Mon. I'm not normally a weekend warrior but this weather has darn near made a land lover out of me.

Andy, GJ out of Ludington. I have fished that area a quite a few times. I like the Ludington Manistee area.

You can load the charts on to all kinds of blank removable media. I don't have a Lowrance or Garmin unit that takes the chips. I think the Lowarace and Garmin use a standard format card. It wouldn't take much to load a couple of charts on one and try it. The last chart type I posted along with OpenCPN program is Auto Pilot capable. The Charter Boats are required by law to have charts of their areas. The Raster and Vector electronic charts provided by NOAA meet this requirement. So a commercial vessel wouldn't need to carry paper charts. I'm not sure if the Navionics or Blue card meet this requirement. Maybe some Charter Captains will know the answer. The charts on the laptops perform far better when put on the HDD. They will work on CDs DVDs Thumb drives, SD, CF, etc. I have done this with a CF, Thumb drive, and CD.

Nick, GJ out of Holland.

James, A very warm welcome to the GLF site. You will like it here. We all learn from one another. Let us know if you need anything. I'm looking forward to your fishing reports.

NOAA has had a ship in AuGres for about the last month. I haven't had my system up and running very long. So far I haven't noted any errors in the data. Data for Navionics (Lowrance), and Blue Chart (Garmin) is gleaned from the NOAA Vector and Raster Charts. Every piece of navigational hardware and software has a disclaimer. I will not post any, but read them yourself on your user manuals. Here is the FULL user agreement for the NOAA Electronic Navigational charts. Note they are approved by the CG for certain commercial vessels. USER AGREEMENT By using the website and the NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (NOAA ENCs®) distributed there, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and accepted the terms and conditions stated in this User Agreement.NOAA reserves the right to change this Agreement at any time and without notice.Your use of the website and/or the Electronic Navigational Charts available there shall constitute your agreement to be bound by any this Agreement and any changes. 1. Description of NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (NOAA ENCs®) The NOAA ENCs distributed here are a geo-referenced database(s) of NOAA nautical chart features and their attributes, published by NOAA in the format of the International Hydrographic Organization S-57 Standard, "IHO Transfer Standard for Digital Hydrographic Data." NOAA updates the ENCs for Notice to Mariners on a weekly basis (timing of their availability is not guaranteed). NOAA ENCs are an official product of NOAA. 2. Permitted Use The NOAA ENCs are intended for navigational use. They are intended to be used in their electronic form only. You may download, use, and redistribute them without restriction, and without payment to NOAA, except as noted herein. They may be used to meet federal chart carriage regulations published in the Code of Federal Regulations. On November 15, 2005, the regulations were as stated below. These regulations may change, and mariners are advised to check the Code of Federal Regulations for their current status. 1) On May 2, 2001, the United States Coast Guard amended the United States chart carriage regulations to permit government vessels to use electronic charting and navigation systems in lieu of paper charts. 2) On July 1, 2002, the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) amendments to chapter V of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) became effective after being accepted by the Contracting Governments to SOLAS (Jan 2002) and the IMOs Maritime Safety Committee (Dec 2000). These amendments, in part, allowed an electronic chart display system (ECDIS) using ENCs to be accepted as meeting chart carriage requirements of SOLAS chapter V. 3) On August 15, 2002, the United States Coast Guard issued a statement of policy to bring its regulations into agreement with SOLAS Chapter V (as amended by the changes taking effect July 1, 2002). The policy statement said that, if a ship has an approved ECDIS installed according to SOLAS, Chapter V, the ECDIS will be considered as meeting the ship's nautical chart carriage regulations. The ships that are affected are: a. U.S.-flagged ships of 150 or more gross tons that engage on international voyages. b. U.S.-flagged ships certificated solely for service on the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. c. Foreign-flag ships to which SOLAS, Chapter V, applies that are operating on the navigable waters of the United States. This policy is not applicable to U.S.-flag ships engaged only on domestic voyages. These ships must continue to comply with existing navigation equipment requirements until the chart carriage regulations are formally amended. 3. Limitations on Use NOAA ENCs® may be redistributed, but redistributed NOAA ENCs are NOT considered official NOAA ENCs, and do not meet federal chart carriage regulations for regulated vessels unless redistributed by a "Certified NOAA ENC Distributor" or by a "Certified NOAA ENC Value Added Distributor". Click http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/mcd/enc/fedreg_encrule.htm for further information on ENC Distributorships. Copying of the NOAA ENCs to any other server or location for further distribution is discouraged unless the following guidelines are followed: 1) this User Agreement is displayed and accepted by anyone accessing the NOAA ENCs, and 2) a reference to this Web site is included so that anyone accessing the NOAA ENCs is advised of their origin. If these NOAA ENC's are incorporated into any other product in a form other than as provided by NOAA, the producer of that product assumes full liability and must adhere to conditions described in the paragraph above concerning copying. 4. Warnings Weekly updates to the ENCs are done on a "best efforts" basis. The timing of their availability is not guaranteed. You are responsible for ensuring that your ENCs are the most current edition and that the most recent updates have been applied. While NOAA has accuracy standards for each step in the data collection and chart production process, much of the depth information found on NOAA charts is based on surveys conducted before 1940, the shoreline is more than 20 years old, and paper charts used to be compiled manually. For more information regarding the accuracy of electronic charts, click http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/mcd/enc/encartcl.htm. 5. Trademarks and Copyright "NOAA®" and the NOAA® emblem are registered trademarks of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA ENC® is a registered trademark of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Click OK to download MI_ENCs.zip

Here is a screen shot of another NOAA free electronic chart. This is part of a Vector electronic chart. It's is running on another free program called OpenCPN. The Raster charts, that I have running on the SeaClear program, are scanned Raster paper charts. They both have their advantages and with the two programs I can run either. NOAA doesn't have all the electronic Vector charts available yet. Producing them is more time consuming than scanning the paper ones. This time I just downloaded the MI Vector ENC charts and loaded them into the OpenCPN software program.

GJ Capt. Russ.

Capt. Bill, Gotta Luv dat Lake O.