# Locating the public reefs



## alle9219 (Aug 16, 2009)

The other day I managed to get out fishing for a few hours after work, and since I only had a few hours until sundown I elected to hit some of the closer public reefs to catch (and probably release)some snapper and amberjack. Specifically I went to the pcola bridge rubble and my trusty GPS led the. I got the "arriving at..." notice and nothing showed on the depth finder. I motored around and still nada. 75 feet of flat bottom with no fish marking there. Since I only had an hour to fish I said screw it and drifted through the areaanyways and still nothing that would look like a pile of rubble was dropped in the area. I decided to make a quick run to a much easier target to find, and I made the short run to the oops barge. Again, nothing but flat, flat sea bottom. I ended up making the run of shame back to the docks.

What the heck is going on? Were these two reefs moved, destroyed bystorms, abducted by aliens or did I have the wrong numbers???The numbers I have for them are 

Bridge rubble 30 14.345 87 11.998'

Oops barge 30 13.113' 87 13.813'


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## JoshH (Sep 28, 2007)

I have probably 50 numbers for all the bridge rubble piles and none of them show anything on the bottom. Never really got good numbers. The oops barge is basically gone, as far as I know.


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## alle9219 (Aug 16, 2009)

So do you just trust the numbers and hope your GPS's g-dop is only off by a few feet? Are there any other public wrecks that are destroyed as well? Fishing time is hard to come by and I'd hate to go on a wild goose chase looking for some reef that was pulverised years ago.


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## JoeZ (Sep 30, 2007)

Double check your numbers against these.



http://www.co.escambia.fl.us/Bureau...ments/Artificial reefMASTER list 21July09.xls


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## Telum Pisces (Sep 27, 2007)

See here:

http://www.myescambia.com/Bureaus/CommunityServices/documents/Artificial%20reefMASTER%20list%2021July09.xls


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## Telum Pisces (Sep 27, 2007)

> *JoeZ (1/28/2010)*Double check your numbers against these.
> 
> http://www.co.escambia.fl.us/Bureau...ments/Artificial reefMASTER list 21July09.xls


Touche. Beat by 30 seconds.


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## JoeZ (Sep 30, 2007)

> *Telum Pisces (1/28/2010)*See here:
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.myescambia.com/Bureaus/CommunityServices/documents/Artificial%20reefMASTER%20list%2021July09.xls




You're slow. oke


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## lobsterman (Sep 30, 2007)

I have also found some of the numbers to be off to where you have to search for them a good bit. With that said if it has been moved or destroyed or buried from a storm then it wouldn't matter how close the spot was.


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## opus68 (Sep 28, 2007)

some sources of numbers are from LORAN (like the numbers on the MBT divers site). When they try to convert this data to GPS numbers, there is usually a large, unknown error introduced. So, it is very helpful to know the source of the numbers (GPS) to determine the reliability.


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

Here's the answer to your problem with converting GPS numbers. just put the numbers you have and look at the place for the numbers you want. (read the instructions). NO it wont convert LORAN numbers.

http://boulter.com/gps/


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## alle9219 (Aug 16, 2009)

Thanks a lot for the help, I saved that spreadsheet of numbers and even was able to do some formula crunching and calculated the distancesfrom the pass so you can get an instant idea of how close/far the run is.

I got the numbers off of one of those captain seagull's charts so I don't think they are converted LORAN numbers but thats good to keep in mind. Thanks again guys!


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## Lyin Too (Aug 31, 2009)

You might try resetting the GPS unit. If you've had a power interruption sometimes they just fart.


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## Sea Monkey (Dec 26, 2008)

The OLE Where Is It?

I know this is going to sound as if I'm being a smart azz , but I mean no harm at all. Maybe need to check the depth the sounder is set on. The sounder screen might not be set up to read the bottom at the depth you are fishing in. I know you said the bottom was flat looking and barane(sp) looking. One day I thought my bottom machine quit working , it was working fine, I just didn't have it set up to read the depth I was in. Say I was in 100ft. and the bottom machine was showing only down to say 60ft. Just a thought.:letsdrink


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## JoeZ (Sep 30, 2007)

> *Sea Monkey (1/29/2010)*The OLE Where Is It?
> 
> 
> 
> I know this is going to sound as if I'm being a smart azz , but I mean no harm at all. Maybe need to check the depth the sounder is set on. The sounder screen might not be set up to read the bottom at the depth you are fishing in. I know you said the bottom was flat looking and barane(sp) looking. One day I thought my bottom machine quit working , it was working fine, I just didn't have it set up to read the depth I was in. Say I was in 100ft. and the bottom machine was showing only down to say 60ft. Just a thought.:letsdrink




I've done that more than once. :banghead


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