AEM 2021 release

For the end user, the water levels fluctuate so much up river. I've had as much as an 8' depth difference on some spots from when I originally autocharted a reef or hump to when I've gone back to fish it later in the year or on years after. Jamie Bruce talked about the depth offset function of the Birds in his Rainy River video last month.

Its a non issue below Lamprey but if you guys ever push up river its something guys will have to pay attention to when they use the map to go up river.

I'm still too new to the Lowrance to have checked if they have the same feature

 

Lowrance doesn't have that feature, but you can ask guys that run our maps on Nutimik and Numao how much they like em. Nutimik and Numao have similar water level fluctuations to Eaglenest and Tetu (I have spent lots of time on both). We try to calibrate our maps to a low water level datum, and then combined with our colour palette it becomes second nature to adjust for the variation in your head. I don't think a lot of guys are going to be thinking....hmmm well given that we are 2' higher than the level the map reflects, I think I'll risk running over that reef at WOT! lol

 

Any northern goodies?

 

Just a couple pretty minor ones. There is some other big stuff in the works, but it requires more data before we can release it.

 

Gord, it knows it's own way....auto pilot so to speak, just let go of the wheel and she will get you up to Tetu and back without a scuff, no matter what the water level.........yes she's that good! I'm in the process of training the new one, maiden voyage today. Spent 4,5 hrs on the water around Pinawa, Sylvia and Eleanore today getting some of the break in period outa' the way before the season starts, putted around for two hours then I got to open her up a bit, WOT no more than 5 minutes at a time. Pretty impressed with the new rig....ok actually quite impressed! She's a keeper! Even got the transducer mounting spot on the first time, was prepared to do all sorts of tweaking on the big guy, mounted it up in the garage last fall, set it up to the best of my knowledge! Spot on, doesn't lose bottom at WOT and no rooster tail, LOL! That doesn't happen very often the first time!

Water levels on that part of the Winnipeg River seemed pretty normal to me! Good news!

 

I never used the function so I won't miss it but that stretch of river is an area where a guy could make good use of it. It was really frustrating trying to add on to already auto charted areas because I would always forget to use the offset.

 

I use it all the time, especially up above Lamprey. Thing is, you gotta' know what water datum was used to make the map and you gotta' know how different the water level is from "normal"......it comes down to a best guess!

I have been up river in years where the camp site and picnic spots have been under water. I have a picture somewhere that has the post with the government /\ camping spot sign on it, it was just above the waters surface, that's 7 feet of high water.........I also have seen that sign 20 feet from the waters edge where it's normally 10 feet of sand beach to the sign post.

 

If you were doing a lot of user mapping, 100% I can see why you would want to deal with the offset or your map would be garbage if you combined data collected at high and low water levels. I should have clarified...this can be done with Lowrance, but it involves setting a transducer offset. I have never found stuff related to water level offsets to be intuitive....it seems you never get it quite right, and the data suffers. Even post-processing data in very structured (computer environment) way, it is a PITA to manage. Most annoying part of the AEM work-flow by far. If I can find the link, I'll send you some information on some of the stuff Lowrance has patented with regards to water-level offsets and automation in relation to contours.....

 

I was just curious if Lowrance had the offset feature, I won't be using it..

and I don't know how to make my own maps with the Lowrance yet so yet another reason not to bother using it

 

I started using Genesis live on some of my northern trips, Reed, Wekusko etc mapping my routes and spots. Really easy to do but takes so much time, really gives me an appreciation for the complete mapping these guys do. Just figured out the color shading and pretty much set it to AEM standard colors/depth's so its consistent to what i am used to.

 

This is a great addition! It's one place I have wanted to go try for a long time but was never brave enough, lol.

 

Just a wee one (only 186 km of on the water survey conducted)....Royal Lake in Ontario.

 

Cool! Royal lake is just South of Gundy Lake and Tannis Lake where I spent a lot of time years ago. Pretty neat back country and structure rich area with lots of adjoining channels and short portages into several other lakes. Lots of rocks to hit if you don't know your way around though!

 

lirwin4 - Any bass in Gundy/Tannis? I tried it once right after ice out a few years ago but only caught a bunch of pike and a couple small walleye , but maybe I was fishing too shallow too soon for bass. Would appreciate your thoughts please? Thanks.

 

No bass in Gundy and Tannis, just Walleye Perch, Sucker and Pike. Some real good fishing to be had if you know where to find them. Never had a problem ever getting limits. With all the hazards and rocks mostly in channel areas and even some in the middle of nowhere, I wouldn't recommend exploring in Gundy and Little Gundy but Tannis isn't as bad. Never caught a Walleye over 27" but there are some monster Perch and Pike there. Royal Lake does has Bass though.

 

Thanks lirwin4. Did not know Royal had bass. Will have to check it out sometime down the road after restrictions lifted. I'm usually just making day trips to NWO so am interested in some of these lakes just over the border to shorten the drive. And AEM has it mapped. Thanks guys!

 

The correct answer is always-- "I caught a snot rocket there." It's not lying.

PDB .....insane amount of structure packed into one area. Just stunning to see on the AEM color palette. It's a testament to just how functional and intuitive AEM's color palette really is. At a glance, you know what you're dealing with, even without ever traveling it.

AEM---not just a pretty face.

 

Any timeline on the upgrade, what lakes are included this year?

 

Obviously……

 

Hahah, ye bastard Well played

No kidding...hide the kids so they don't get scared, that guy is fugly!

#Krakenoneoffintheshower

Hey Gord, thekraken could teach you how to use the interwebs. He's quite good at comperting and internetification that often results in an "ah, sunnava!" moment.