These spots offer the surest action for anglers targeting redfish near the mouth of the Mississippi.
Dear Capt. Paul:
I received a Magellan Meridian Gold GPS for Father’s Day. I would to load a more detailed map of the Atchafalaya Basin and Venice area into the unit. What products do I need and where can I find them? What is the best software available to use with this system on my home computer?
Thanks,
Todd
Capt. Paul’s response:
Lucky you! You must be one fine dad to get such a gift.
My recommendation is that you get Magellan’s MapSend TOPO 3D USA mapping for your unit. It is designed for the Meridian, and will serve you nicely for the Basin areas.
The Magellan MapSend TOPO 3D USA will also serve as a trip, track and route manager in your computer, allowing you to download waypoints, routes and tracks from and to your GPS unit as well as save them to backup files.
The MapSend Topo program has topographical maps of the entire US in the packaged set.
After installing the MapSend program in your computer, you simply select those maps that you want to install in your GPS unit, write them to a Secure Digital Memory card and plug the memory card into your Meridian.
To accomplish all of this, you will need a connecting cable from your computer to your GPS unit, a card reader/writer that will accommodate SD cards and an SD card that has at least 256 MB of memory. One such card can accommodate all of the maps found in an area that would roughly cover all of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, West Florida and East Texas from Houston to Dallas. I have several cards, each installed with different area maps of the country.
While you are at it, get the marine mount and the 12-volt supply cable for the unit. This will allow you to use the unit hands free and powered by your vehicle’s 12-volt system.
Any stocking Magellan dealer should be able to supply these items for you as well as several GPS discount stores on the web.
Use your search engine, and search for GPS SALES. You will find over 15 such locations listed. Shop them all, and get your best price.
Dear Capt. Paul:
I just bought a GPS unit, and would like to find locations in the Catfish Lake, Timbalier Island, Caillou Island, Brush Island and Wine Island areas to fish reds and trout.
Thanks,
billmax
Capt. Paul’s response:
I am presently working on a Capt. Paul’s Fishing Edge for those areas, but it is not yet ready for release.
Horseshoe Reef
Horseshoe Reef is located in the northwest part of Trinity Island, just east of Whiskey Pass on the Lake Pelto side of the island.
The reef is actually located at the opening to a cove that is just east of Whiskey Pass on the north side of Trinity Island. The mouth of the cove at Horseshoe Reef is at or about N29 03.395 by W90 44.521.
Good luck. I heard that the area is very crowded on the weekends.
Brush Island
Try the northeast tip of the island. Fish around the point and the shoreline in both directions. The northeast tip of the island is at or about N29 05.766 by W090 25.379.
Timbalier Island
Fish the rocks that were placed along the northern shoreline. A starting point would be around N29 04.181 by W090 18.339.
And when in the area, always try the Timbalier Flare farther to the west. The Flare is located at or about N29 04.165 by W090 19.723. Try all of the structures around the Flare as well as the point located just to the west of the location.
Catfish Lake
Try the large platform located at or about N29 23.028 by W090 18.621, as well as all of the smaller platforms throughout the area.
Caillou Island
Fish the points and oil platform around the north side of the island. Some of the platforms are located at or around N29 05.408 by W090 28.681.
These positions as well as over 80 more will be shown in my Capt. Paul’s Fishing Edge for that area. I anticipate that it will be available by early August.
I call the programs Capt. Paul’s Fishing Edge because I believe they give the angler an advantage in getting to, moving around and getting back from some of the most-productive fishing areas in the state.
The Capt. Paul’s Fishing Edge is a unique electronic media program that can be downloaded directly into various GPS units from their manufacturer’s mapping program or via several of Maptech’s mapping software programs. This technology saves countless hours of having to manually enter each separate waypoint value into the GPS receiver.
The entire procedure of loading over 150 waypoints from a Capt. Paul’s Fishing Edge file takes less than three minutes from the time you view the email file to the time it is loaded in the GPS receiver.
Presently I have 12 Edge files, including Barataria Bay, Lake Borgne, Hopedale to the Mississippi Sound, Hopedale to Bayou Terre Boeufs, Delacroix to Pointe a la Hache, Bayou Bienvenue, Port Sulphur, Calcasieu Lake, Lake Pontchartrain, Myrtle Grove- Lake Hermitage, Empire to Buras and Pearl River WMA.
