fishing reports gps cordinates

[musky_ken]

Oh this is a newbie question and its been answered before but I couldn't find it. I'm using one of captains chucks reports for example. What numbers do they use in the reports, like 34's to the 40's and 49's to the 15's out of ludington. Is it the last 2 numbers in the cordinates? I've got google earth up and trying to figure it out.

[musky_ken]

Or is the first numbers after the degrees.

[DIRTY DOG]

It's the middle 2

[1HI4X]

If you look at GPS coords from the area of the report you will notice that they all start 43*N, 86*W (in Lud for example). Same thing goes for other areas, only with the degrees respective to the area. The coords in the fishing reports just chop these off since it is always the same. So if a report gave the coords between the 52s-55s, it would actually be between 43*52.xxx' and 43*.55.xxx' N. The same could be done for the west coordinate.

[musky_ken]

Thanks guys i got it now

[arbogaster]

FYI

One minute of Latitude or Longitude is approximately one mile for purposes of fish finding.

If you wanted to be more precise on the distance it gets a lot more complicated. I'm a Land Surveyor / Engineer . . . .trust me you don't want to go there.

[SUPERTRAMP]

FYI

One minute of Latitude or Longitude is approximately one mile for purposes of fish finding.

If you wanted to be more precise on the distance it gets a lot more complicated. I'm a Land Surveyor / Engineer . . . .trust me you don't want to go there.

Thanks for that information, I had only assumed that 1 minute equaled 1 mile. Now I have solid confirmation. The good thing is that GPS is a lot m ore accurate than our old LoranC positions. My current GPS readings can get me to within 10 feet of my way point, close enough.