Free technology could help find a spot ice fishing spot


Free technology could help find a spot ice fishing spot

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – If you plan on going ice fishing this winter, there’s some free technology available that could help you find a good spot.

Advancements in technology allows ice anglers access to more than 200 lake contour maps in North Dakota, providing yet another tool in the angler’s tackle box.

“You can actually look at that fishing map if you want to study it, do some things at home. Now we want to have our active map, just like we do our Lowrance or Hummingbird when we’re in our boat, then right below there, there’s links to the two different mobile apps, the Avenza PDF map for offline service and the as a ESRI GEO Explorer app that’s the real time based,” said NDGF Fisheries Supervisor, Jerry Weigel.

There are benefits to downloading maps to your mobile device before leaving home because cellular service is iffy, at best, on about 30% of North Dakota’s fishing waters. Where service is available, Weigel said it’s like using navigation maps in your vehicle.

“It’d be the same benefit that any of you that have a fairly new vehicle with the built-in navigation. Same exact thing here is when we have the fishing map information electronic and you see there’s a sunken island or something out there on the map, you can now literally drive right to it on the ice using either of the two technologies,” said Weigel.

There is something to keep in mind when using this GPS technology on your favorite lake.

“They imply they’re absolute. In other words, when it says it’s 15 feet deep, we say there’s 15-foot depth in that general area. But folks need to keep in mind that their GPS’s are plus or minus 10 feet at the best,” said Weigel.

Weigel also says ice fishing is different than open water fishing for anglers.

“We’re all on an equal playing field. We can all get to any part of the lake,” said Weigel.

If Mother Nature allows, ice fishing should be good this year.

“There has never been stronger populations of fish than there is now. It is amazing. And the number of lakes, we are literally twice as many fishing lakes now as there was,” said Weigel.

To download the Apps for the lake contour maps, visit the Game and Fish Department’s website and click on the fishing tab.

Copyright 2020 KFYR. All rights reserved.


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