I have been thinking about buying a hand GPS unit in the off season. Got any suggestions?
I try to make a trip to KY lake every spring and I hope to get to a few more Indiana and mid-west lakes. Some of the lakes I fish are small enough that a good map is tuff to find so how much can I expect from a units detail?
What is out there that will work on the PC and then download to the unit?
Just thought you guys might have some insight in this area.

RW-reeler

I got the Lowrance I-Finder H20, for Christmas. So far I like it alot. It has been very accurate on going from point to point that I saved in it. I been playing with it every day and its been working great. The maps that come loaded in it leave something to be desired but hey what can you expect. I will be purchasing the Map Create USA Topo 6.3 very soon and you can do all kinds of stuff with that on your PC and download it onto SD Cards and put it on the Handheld unit. Or you can go to the lake with the card in the unit and save all the waypoints that you catch fish and down load that into your PC. I have a feeling that this will be my new fishing log.

Think about that for a moment. Each day that you fish you record the weather pattern for that day. Go to the lake use what you know save all the places that you catch your fish down load it into the PC onto your maps. Compare the maps for places that are close to the same on other lakes all from the comfort of your home. I beleive that this would help alot on prefishing for tournaments as well as helping you the day of tournaments, or just fun fishing which ever you do. I'm one of the worlds worst about taking down notes so this would help me out alot.

There are also other detailed maps that you can get for the unit but I dont know if they let you work from your PC or not.

Here is a link to all the mapping software that Lowance says will work in their units. http://www.lowrance.com/Mapping/

I did some checking. Bass Pro Shops has the one I got for $169. Then the Map Create software is about another $100 so for about $280 you could have a really nice hand held unit that you can take anywere and in anyones boat and have every thing you need. Works good for hunting also if you hunt alot of public land.

Hope that helps you some.

Conley, I have had my eye on that same unit but just couldn't pull the trigger. I need to check my PC out to make sure that I have the ability to down load to the sc chip what I see on a PC map.
It would help in tracking a fishing trip, I have a hard time stopping on the water to take notes. That is something that needs to change if I am to get better at patterning fish. I have fun fished for awhile and am thinking of looking at the club sceen again.
Hope you like the unit, I think it will be in my hands soon too.
Do most guides let you take these units on paid trips?


Safe Fishing,
RW-reeler

I dont know about guides letting you take the unit with you, but it never hurt to ask.

I have a older Garman, never really liked it as it was far too complicated to use. I'm hopeful the newer models are better. Main gripes: too many steps to mark way points, too slow to find signals, navigation prompts to saved way points are impossible to read while operating the boat at any speed above trolling motor pace.

If anyone trys a new one that easy to operate and has a larger display than a Game boy please post.

Bassin Butch

Bassin Butch, I understand the problems with the older units I had a Megellan that was difficult to operate. The unit I have you just hit the enter button and hold it down and it saves the way point right then. Then you can go back later and name it. This unit has pop-up windows that walk you through each step and tell you what each function does. I can't believe the difference there is from the old unit and the new. It is very simple to operate. Which is great when you on the water and go across something that you want to go back to and check out.

RW-Reeler

When you buy the MapCreate Topo USA 6.3 the package is suposed to come with the SD card reader and all the soft ware. The only thing I see so far is that you can only use 5 different cards after that it will not allow you to put stuff on different cards. The H20 uses up to a 512MB card and you can save and change info on it then down load that to the computer for each of the lakes that you visit. I cant imagin putting that much info in there that you would need a different cards (or more that 5 cards) since all the info is saved to you computer and you can make back up fills on CD's also. Then when you want to revisit that lake and go back to those same spots pop in the CD and save that to one of your registered cards and go fishing.

As you can see I'm pretty excited about this. I see a whole new world opening up to my fishing plans.

Here is another site that can help you alot too. He uses the high dollar gps and sonar units but assures me that it can be done with a hand held too.
http://www.hightechfishing.com/lowrancetips.html

Pretty interesting reading there too. Also the Map Creat topo USA has some enhanced maps that you can down load for free, that show contor lines and all the submerged roads and river and creek channels. That will be a big plus to the software.

I will post more on this as I learn and even try to write a couple of things about it to put here as I go. Like I said I believe that this will help patterning fish in the differnt seasons that you can use over and over.

Thanks Conley, I have been on the lowrance site reading up on the unit. On the BPS site it does not talk about the MAPCREATE package but I remembered a catalog that was selling both together. I am trying to gather info now since we have the INDY boat show next month and I thought I would try to find a both there and get some hands on teaching.
I appreciate the update and the site to get more info from. It may not be like you are here showing me your unit but the BASSIN' site is a great place to get a helping hand.

Thanks again
RW-reeler

I have a Garmin Etec, and so far it seems to be a good unit. It dont have all the whistles and bells of a bigger unit, but i can also take it camping and hiking

Conley, How's the I-finder test going? Did you get the MapCreate with the unit?
When I was on the BPS site I did not see the MapCreate availible.
Checking the link you had for Lowrance, did it say you would need additional mapping software or does the MapCreate give plenty of coverage to start out.
Indy's boat show is in the middle of the month and I hope that they have a good rep there to check it out. I made a contact in KY lake who has sent me some GPS coordinates to check the next time I get there.
Thanks and good luck this year.

RW-reeler

I have not purchased the MapCreat software yet. The gps does not come with it unless you buy the PRO version or something like that. Still debating on the MapCreate. They have an updated version of it now.

I been playing with the GPS to and from work and on the water some. I put in a blank SD Card and saved the info to it and down loaded it into the computer. You cant look at a map that way but it does save all the waypoints and trails that I created. Then I cleared the units memory of all points and trails, put the card back in and then loaded the info from the card back to the unit. It work perfect. I could follow the trails that I had saved and everything! You could make a file for different lakes and have the same thing without the maps. But then again you would have to take good notes to remember it all.

From what I understand the MapCreate has the lakes but not much detail to them (same thing you get with a paper map since that what they are taken from.) Navionics cards have the contour lines in 1 ft intervals on the High Definition maps, and they same as Mapcreate on the non HD maps. The real advantage of the Mapcreate is being able to map out what you want to do before you get to the lake, save it to the card and then load it into the unit.

Let me know what you find out at the show? Because right now I'm undesided on if I really want buy it or not. Most likly I will!! It just looks to good to pass up.