Thread: What kind of cheap GPS will help me find underwater structure?

Originally Posted by CatFan

Normally you don't use a GPS to give you numbers. You find a spot and then mark a waypoint You can mark hundreds of waypoints, so it's best to have some kind of log telling you what they are.

Hmm, my lack of experience with a GPS had me thinking i could punch in coordinates and it would lead me there. I guess the only other way would be to visually find them with a sonar.

The lake i am looking for isn't on any map chips last i looked, and most of the other places i go are farm ponds so i would have little use for anything that uses mapchips. I may need to find another way of easily locating these structures.

You can enter coordinate numbers into a GPS and use them to find your spot on a lake. So if you have a paper map, online map, or a buddy with the coordinates already located, you can enter them into your handheld that you purchase. Then you just use the goto function for the location you want, and the GPS will show you the direction of travel needed, distance to, and alarm you when you are approaching it. One with a base map would be helpful, but even one without mapping will still show you the way to go and let you know when you are there.

Originally Posted by Iowabucks

Hmm, my lack of experience with a GPS had me thinking i could punch in coordinates and it would lead me there. I guess the only other way would be to visually find them with a sonar.

You can, but where do you get the coordinates? If somebody gives you a spot or you've been there, it works great, but the accuracy required would make it difficult to look at map and enter the right coordinates.

Originally Posted by CatFan

You can, but where do you get the coordinates?

Luckily this lake has all the structure coordinates on the map straight from the Iowa DNR. Should be accurate.