Handheld GPS opinions

[getinmerry]

Hi to all,

I'm in the market for a new GPS. I only want it for fishing. Basically marking hot spots and tracking trends with the fish. I would like it to have uploadable map ability.

I really want a color screen and don't want to spend more than $300.00. I've been looking at Garmin Venture, and it looks pretty good, but in the store I can't get the water to zoom in as much as I'd like to use for fishing. Maybe I'm not working it correctly, but that's why I'm asking here.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Chuck

 

[HyperFox]

Re: Handheld GPS opinions

Personally, I use the Garmin eTrex Legend.

Things I like:

Waterproof
Floats (for a little while)
Simple and easy to use design.
Water mode (inverts colors to make water bodies more visable)
Tough. It survived Afganistan. Nuff Said.
Over 16h on alkaline batteries.

Things I dislike
Only 8mb of memory
Smallish screen can make things a little difficult to see at times.
Black and white screen (there is a color model now, I believe the Legend C)

Hope this helps you out some.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Handheld GPS opinions

I have a Garmin Etrek handheld also. Its very inexpensive and my GPS requirements are very basic. If the only thing that you want to do is to mark a few fishing spots, or find the ones posted in your favorite fishing publication, they are fine.

 

[rndn]

Re: Handheld GPS opinions

The reason you could not zoom in as much as you wanted is because the detailed maps for the area were not loaded into the unit. You need to buy the detailed maps, load them in, and then you will be able to zoom in on a specific area of water.

 

[id30066]

Re: Handheld GPS opinions

Can units like the nuvi wide be used for on the water? Looking for something with a nice big screen but not the nice big price?

 

[nrf414]

Re: Handheld GPS opinions

I picked up this MIO Digiwalker C310x with a good size Color LCD screen, MP3 Player, and pre-loaded with the updated maps for about $150 on Craigslist. No complaints as of yet. I've used it in the boat, on foot, and in the car. Used it yesterday to drive an hour to Bass Pro Shops and then the wife to Outback for Dinner while out of town. Worked great.

 

[xxturbowesxx]

Re: Handheld GPS opinions

i have one of those mio's but wasnt aware it would work on the water..when i go off a road the indicator just stays where i got off..

 

[tommays]

Re: Handheld GPS opinions

I own a Mio 230 a 5" 3500C Lowrance and and old Magellan


The Mio works great in the car but it is compleatly NFG on the water due the way software is written to kind of pick the road it things your own AND if you even look at it with water it will DIE (it is aslo USELESS for GEOCATCHING truste me i have tryed


The Magellan is old and slow and you have to preplan your trips on a paper chart WHICH in a way is a good thing because you study a lot more about navagiton



The Lowrance 3500C with a chart chip totaly rocks i know were every shallow spot is AT THE TIME the chart was made (which is the same even with paper) which way the current is flowing all the tides it gives a pretty much endless supply of usefull info for any type of boating or FISHING