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Posts: 24
| I am going to get a handheld GPS and was looking at the Garmin ETrex Vista or Legend, but they don't take the Navionics or Lakemaster chips. They only use the Hotspots maps and from what I have seen those maps are not as accurate or detailed as the others. I was at Gander today and saw that Lowrance also makes a handheld that does take the lakemaster chip. Which way does a guy go? |
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| Are you sold on a handheld for some reason?
Not being wise, just wondering. Going to use it for hunting and stuff too?
Then handheld is the way to go.
When I got my GPS, I had several chances to spend time in boats with guys who all had different units.
I bought a Garmin 162 because the one thing that I found to be most useful in a GPS untit was a large viewing area.
When you split the screen between a locator and a GPS, it's just not enough screen size for all of that.
You are talking a handheld. My advice. Get a Garmin, and get the biggest screen that you can get. |
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Posts: 24
| I want a handheld for now, but will probably get a locator GPS for the boat next year. I just want the ability to mark some spots or fish on big water so I can come back to the spot more easily. Was on a huge weedbed in the middle of the lake the other day and moved a few tankers in one small spot. There were boats all around so I couldn't drop a buoy and I could never find the spot or those fish again. My impression is that Garmin makes the best GPS, but the fact that they don't take the lakemaster or navionics chips is a negative. |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | I have a garmin GPSmap60. I do have the hotspots map software, and while that software is not entirely acurate, it aint bad.
I'm pretty happy with my unit, and the software is easy to use. I can actually "draw in" other structures that I find on my computer, and reload that info into my gps, via a ubs cable. If you have any other questions about Garmin or the hotspots software, e-mail me directly at:
[email protected]
Rob |
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Posts: 53
| I bought the Garmin ETrex Legend a few years back and it works great for marking spots and other basic GPS functions. I wish I did more research before I bought though because it only has 8MB of memory. It won't store that many maps because of the lack of MB. I put on the North American street map software for my sales job and I need to change the map every time I travel to a different city. I know this unit was not made for that so I am not that upset. Back to the point, for fishing, it works great! |
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Posts: 1243
Location: Musky Tackle Online, MN | My recommendation would be for the Lowrance H2O. You have color or black and white options there and it's as solid of a hand held unit that you'll find. It can take either Lakemaster or Navionics chips. This is the second year going on mine and I have absolutely no complaints. Take this for whatever it's worth, but when I used to work at Gander the Lowrance H2O units outsold the Garmin units by at least 10 to 1.
Aaron |
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| I bought the Garmin ETrex Legend a few years back and it works great for marking spots and other basic GPS functions. I wish I did more research before I bought though because it only has 8MB of memory. It won't store that many maps because of the lack of MB. I put on the North American street map software for my sales job and I need to change the map every time I travel to a different city. I know this unit was not made for that so I am not that upset. Back to the point, for fishing, it works great!
for a unit the size of a computer mouse, 8MB is a ton of storage.
i've got an eTrex Legend and the memory is one of it's best features. if you get the Fishing Hot Spots software it will load lake and street info for half of the state of WI at one time. before i go on a trip, i generally know where i'll be at, give or take half a state, so i just load up the coverage for that region... |
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Posts: 1937
Location: Black Creek, WI | I'll second the Lowrance H20 units. I can't compare to the other Brands... but I've been very happy with both of mine. |
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Posts: 480
| I bought a handheld a few years ago and used that to mark spots then last year I got a color gps with lakechips for the boat, then I just transferred the waypoints to the boat gps. I bring the handheld when fishing with friends and need to go back to spots not in my boat and I can add new places along the way. |
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| If you go with the H2O spend the extra and go with the colored unit.( about an extra 100.00) I have one with the Navionics Premium Hotspots North and find it to be quite accurate.(with a few exceptions) |
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| I have been told by tech people at Garmin, and I concur, that what we perceive as inaccuracy on the unit's part, is just a bad base map to begin with. The unit tells you where you are, period. If it doesn't correlate with a map position, the map is wrong.
I ran all over one big MN lake on a sunny, flat day marking areas that I intended to fish later in the week. Some spots, like the tips of points, or inside turns were right on the money sometimes, but off by a hundred yards other times. So I just disregarded the map on the screen, and used my waypoints instead. It was amusing when fishing a steep inside turn the unit showed me in the woods, but the end of the point was right on the money.
Rely on your map to put you in the ballpark, but use your unit to find your seat, and mark it when you find it. |
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Posts: 23
Location: Oak Lawn, IL. | My issue is that I'm going to Eagle for the first time on 7/9 and would like a GPS to navigate and mark spots and hazards. I'm not a techy but can figure out most things with practice. The bigger screen of the hard-mounted units and all the features make these seem like the better option but installation is my concern. Installing the new transducer and power cord correctly has me concerned. For this reason a hand-held would seem like the perfect quick-fix but I'm concerned that I won't get the features I would with the hard-mounted units.
Are the hand-helds pretty user friendly and easy to figure out? Would I be limiting myself by getting a hand-helpd vs. a hard-mounted unit in the boat? Like I said, all I really want to do right now is navigate and mark hazards/spots. As I learn to use it I'd probably look to upgrade at some point.
Any suggestions would be great. |
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Posts: 680
Location: Muskoka Ontario,Canada | Well said. Great points about relying on your waypoints instead of just the map. Quite a few times it would appear that I made a terrific trolling run right over the middle of some farmers field! lol
I use a Garmin Map 60C and love it. The autoroute feature is great for finding your way to and from lakes you've never fished. The Bluecharts are very good also and I use mine to locate bottom contours quite often. |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | one thing you have to take into consideration, with any gps and lake map software, is the degree of accuracy at any given moment. The degree can vary widely from hour to hour, due to weather, availability of sattelites, etc. I'll check the the degree of accuracy from time to time, and I've seen it go from +-5 feet, to as much as +- 40 feet. It all depends on how many sattelites you are able to hit and hold.
Rob |
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