Handheld GPS units

[CMorg]

I am wanting to get a handheld GPS unit , at a good price.. any thoughts on this one ?

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...233&hasJS=true

Also , what are the odds that the little lakes I fish from will be on here ?

[CMorg]

Actually the reviews arent that great. I dont know what to look for in a GPS Unit at all , so any help appreciated. I would rather have a portable unit to use for hunting as well as fishing.

[BassBandit]

iFinder H20. Works great for me. Prefer the black/white over color because its 100 dollars cheaper and easier to see than color on bright days.

[pig n jig]

I have nothing to add to the post.I found it disturbing to have the title Handheld unit directly underneath the beer and boobs title. P N J

[CMorg]

Sometimes you gotta do what cha gotta do....

[Jim80]

Originally Posted by pig n jig

I have nothing to add to the post.I found it disturbing to have the title Handheld unit directly underneath the beer and boobs title. P N J

LMAO .... that right there is funny , at least he added gps before unit if not it woulda been real disturbing .


Jim

[Bender]

I have the H2Oc and like the color, but it does go through the batteries rather quickly if you have the backlight on all the time. I mainly keep it plugged into the the cig lighter adapter so the backlight stays on all the time.
I don't think any of them come with the lake maps preloaded. I have the LakeMaster and Navionics Hotmaps chips for that one and the hardmounted GPS in the boat, just go to their websites to see if they have the lakes you fish.
Here's the Fishing Hot Spots list: http://www.fishinghotspots.com/e1/Low_North.htm
And the Hot Maps list: http://navionics.com/Premium08LakeList.asp?RegionID=3
HotMaps seems to cover a lot more lakes.

[CMorg]

Bender , thank you very much for that information. Navionics has both of the decent sized lakes I fish on it , so that will be my choice. Now , if I am on a smaller lake that is not on that navionics , can I still mark where I know there is structure or will it not show up as a lake ?

[woody]

Are the colored displays as difficult to view in direct sunlight as I have heard some people say that they are. I'm looking at the Eagle FishElite 480 (non color)GPS or the FishElite 640 (color) GPS which is about $200 more in price. The Eagle FishElite 500 (color) has less resolution that the other two (240x) compared to (480x) I difinitely will get the one with the higher resolution.

[Rebbasser]

woody, I have a Magellan Explorist 600. No trouble seeing the screen in sunlight-it is color.

The next depthfinder I get for the boat will be a depthfinder/GPS combo, but I haven't really researched it to offer an opinion yet.

CMorg, I have heard good things about the H2Oc I-Finder.

[BassBandit]

Originally Posted by CMorg

Now , if I am on a smaller lake that is not on that navionics , can I still mark where I know there is structure or will it not show up as a lake ?

Yep you can mark anywhere if a lake is excluded on map. It depends how small the lake is. County park I fish is 66 acres water and doesn't show as lake on either navionic nor built in map.

[zooker]

Originally Posted by CMorg

Sometimes you gotta do what cha gotta do....

that should be stated as " a man has to do what a man has to do"

Originally Posted by woody

Are the colored displays as difficult to view in direct sunlight as I have heard some people say that they are. I'm looking at the Eagle FishElite 480 (non color)GPS or the FishElite 640 (color) GPS which is about $200 more in price. The Eagle FishElite 500 (color) has less resolution that the other two (240x) compared to (480x) I difinitely will get the one with the higher resolution.

skip the 500c get the 480 i have the 360 since they came out with it.. i love it, absolutly a great depth finder with all features that you'll find on $1000 graphs with out payin out the butt for one..i am not a fan of color graphs they do bleach out in strong light..as any graph will the ONLY way to solve this is with a plasma screen...

zooker

[pig n jig]

I have a Lowrance w/GPS but it is grayscale instead of color.I can adjust the grayscale level and with the 10.5" screen, it reads everything I need to know except for reading weeds, you need a old style flasher unit which my super sixty crapped out on me 2 years ago.The only thing I really use my GPS for on any kind of regular basis is to know the trolling speed when downrigger fishing.Ivan

[CMorg]

Zooker , thanks for correcting my speech ( by way of typing ) that always cracks me up when some know it all has to correct people all the time. But , as you may or may not know , women have to " do what they gotta do" as well....so , maybe it was correct huh ? J/K.

[zooker]

Originally Posted by CMorg

as you may or may not know women have to " do what they gotta do" as well....

yes about every one can nag and complain some to GREATER degree than others..

zooker

[CMorg]

Ha , you got that right. I am sure if you look at everyone of my posts you can get me alot on that.

[Tall]

I got the Lowrance I finder hunt c and Yesterday was the first time to use it. We stayed fogged in all day long on Lake Degray yesterday. I had a buddy ask me if I wanted to tag along, that he was going and wanted someone to go with him. I told him I did not plan to fish much, I wanted to play with my new GPS and to just go along for the day to get out. Just getting over surgery (spinal Stenosis 3 weeks ago). We used the GPS to go all over the lake where we could not see 50 yards I guess. I put my Hot Spot chip in it out of my 522 iGPS that is on my ranger boat. My buddy was impressed to see how to navigate and the contour of the lake etc.

I almost got the H20 model but the I finder hunt had a lot more features looked like and I hunt a lot too.

CMorg my unit shows all the body of waters (Lakes, creeks, sloughs etc.) just does not have contour, the river channel etc. if it is not an enhanced lake. It does show the roads etc. Where I hunt it even shows sloughs however you spell it, creeks. I hunt in the saline River Bottoms and I can even get around where water is standing in the sloughs because it shows them on the hot spot map chip. All the roads etc. even exit on interstates, The hot spot chip has resturants etc. all kinds of (POI) Points of interest. like a GPS you would buy to put in a car. If your in a city you could use it to see where you are and to navigate around seeing where your courser is at on any street. It is pretty neat and multi useful.

This is not a cheap unit, but I knew I could put the hot spot chip in it I already had and if I were ever to be a coangler it may come in handy like yesterday.

It worked great for us yesterday. The water was 42-48 degrees, rainy all day long and the bass were slow to bite so I am glad I was just along for the ride and messing with the hand held GPS. He did get two on a rattle trap. We talked to a few and that is about all any one got was one or two. The other fishermen were jig fishing.

I liked the way it got us around with the hot spot chip in it. It uses batteries up fairly fast. It says up to 12 hours but not with the light on I don't think.

Just my experience yesterday.

[zooker]

Originally Posted by CMorg

Ha , you got that right. I am sure if you look at everyone of my posts you can get me alot on that.

don't worry i wont forward these pages to her email...


zooker

[CMorg]

Thanks Tall , for the info. I am going to get one soon , just checking out all the prices..

[zooker]

c morg
take a look at the garmin trex legend.. the up loads you can add are a definate plus.. one of the best hand helds i have ever used.. i use the rec map software..which is extra but worth the $100

zooker

[MIbasser]

CMorg, I have the XOG for my car. This weekend I put my map chip in it and it worked great (well, just moved to my lake) and all the contours were on there. I'm pretty sure it will work on most lakes that have a DNR launch. Good luck with your seach!

[CMorg]

Zooker , does that garmen have a sd card , from the looks of their website they sell preloaded chips ?