Line Numbers Options

[htroutner]

Hello: I fish pretty much fish north of you guys, but your blog is great and you're a lot better fisherman then I, so I hope to learn something. I see in your reports you often refer to a "Line number" (example 450 line). I thought you were referring to a fathom line but in Still Thinkin's blog he wrote the 450 line north from 50 to 200 fathoms, so it must be some type of chart line. What is it?

thanks, keep the decks bloody

[Voodoo]

That is the LORAN line that you saw in his post. Look at most charts and you will find the lines marked on them. Then look for the fathom we were working that should put you in the area. Good Luck.

VooDoo

[Volunteer]

I, for one, wish you guys would retire the LORAN lingo and just go with GPS. We USAF types transitioned to GPS many moons ago, and I haven't had a LORAN on either one of my boats for many years. I do know how to refer to the LORAN numbers on a chart, but I have a hard time visualizing in my mind's eye the specific location when I don't have a chart handy (like now).

Yes, I am from Tennessee, which automatically reinforces the fact that I'm slow, but I had no problem with Bob's (Still Thinkin') post mentioning Norfolk Canyon.

[Persistence2]

I, for one, wish you guys would retire the LORAN lingo and just go with GPS. We USAF types transitioned to GPS many moons ago, and I haven't had a LORAN on either one of my boats for many years. I do know how to refer to the LORAN numbers on a chart, but I have a hard time visualizing in my mind's eye the specific location when I don't have a chart handy (like now).

Yes, I am from Tennessee, which automatically reinforces the fact that I'm slow, but I had no problem with Bob's (Still Thinkin') post mentioning Norfolk Canyon.

It's really not that hard to visualize. The canyon tip area is the 500 line. East of the 22f Finger or affectionately known as "waynes world" is the 400 line...Wx buoy is down around the 200 line area. Heart of the Cigar is the 100 line. Every count of "100" is 10 miles north/south. So from the Canyon to the 400 line is 10 miles, etc...

Luckliy for me, I have a gps but also another display unit that gives me loran converted from lat/lon. It makes it very easy to look at my chartplotter then look at the loran numbers visually.

Hope that helps a little

Glenn

[gradyman]

One reason the offshore crowd presists with the LORAN numbers is that it is easy to say on the radio (or cell phone) "425 line 50 fathoms"
rather that getting wrapped around the axle with a long speech about degrees, minutes and seconds of lat/lon.

A lot of intell on fish being caught (or not) is coming from various charter fleets captained by a bunch of guys pretty set in their ways. The minute someone (insert "weekender" here) on the radio launches into a discourse on lat/lon you can hear "Oh God here we go" - so don't expect a change in the offshore speak in the near term

Kent

[Volunteer]

Fellas, let me explain: I didn't mean changing the lingo when actually out there fishing, I meant when posting here on the board. That is, areas like Norfolk Canyon, Cigar, Fingers, etc, are very familiar with most everyone here, while the TDs aren't necessarily so familiar. While I always have charts handy while offshore to refer to, I don't have them handy while here at work. That's all I meant... sorry for the confusion.

[gradyman]

Fellas, let me explain: I didn't mean changing the lingo when actually out there fishing, I meant when posting here on the board. That is, areas like Norfolk Canyon, Cigar, Fingers, etc, are very familiar with most everyone here, while the TDs aren't necessarily so familiar. While I always have charts handy while offshore to refer to, I don't have them handy while here at work. That's all I meant... sorry for the confusion.

The loran line thing came up in the 70's/80's when we got the magic loran c box and we actually knew where we were - for the first time. Before that - you ran the boat 3 hours east on you compass heading and your watch - then figured "this where we got em last week - so put the lines in" we didn't have a clue where we were. It was very interesting when you broke down then called the coast guard and they asked you where you were.
Haven't stopped using those numbers for 30 years. So that habit hard to break.

K

[Persistence2]

I hear ya...I used to have the same issue...no charts at home, all of them are on the boat. Just over time, I've been able to have them visualized in my head. It is actually easier for me now to think in loran for n/s and fathoms for e/w than it is to deal with lat/lon.

[BLACK PEARL]

I just switched over to LORAN after using LAT/LON for 20 years and find it alot easier to figure out.

[Knot Wish'n]

Yeah but all Jeffs maps are in Crayon ........
Todd