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I am tired of outside sources (JOB) influencing my life. I am gonna start fishing like I used to. Got to rig the boat again. Trolling battery, new electronics, etc. I don't want to buy a fishfinder that cost more than my boat is worth. I am looking at a Hummingbird Helix 5 DI GPS. Don't know much about units you can use a Navionics card in. Are they necessary? Anybody know how accurate the GPS is for speed? thanks DP
Now were cooking with Gas Don...Fish like the wind buddy, you deserve it. I just bought a new Helix 5, with color sonar and GPS for my 15 foot WarEagle still got to install it tho... but ill bet the GPS is accurate as well as speed. I would not invest in a navionics card for a small unit like the Helix 5.:twocents
Im glad to hear it buddy! Go with the GPS! I could almost fish using navionics alone with the fishing logs I have been keeping up with and not even need a fish finder. Im not saying I dont need a fish finder, I'm saying the GPS is VALUABLE in my opinion!
DP, I have found my 998 to be off 2-3 tenths at trolling speed of .2 to .4 over that pretty accurate. It all has to do with the refresh rate of the antenna on mine which is the remote. I have heard that the internal like on the Helix models may be a little mor accurate. At running speed they are about as accurate as you can get. I am also one of those that fishes of my GPS map anymore more than depth finder. If your lakes are covered on it the new Lakemaster chart is the only way to go. Have Navionics and Lakemaster. Lakemaster much beter contours has color shading for depth and the nicest thing is lake level offset. You figure out wat depth lake is over or under normal pool then set your off set with the difference. Get you a foot or two of actual depth on any given day.
I use Lowrance so I can't tell you jack about Humminbird. However, I can tell you that on my Lowrance Elite 5 DSI, my oldest unit, that the GPS only refreshes at the rate of once every second. And as far as motoring across the lake I think it reads the speed accurately. However, if you're going very slow, single poling or spider rigging, it may show your speed ok enough but it won't show directional change fast enough. And this would gripe me to no end. In order to know if I was correctly heading toward a waypoint I had marked I would have to speed up too fast to get it to show change in direction and many times I would over shoot the waypoint by the time the unit would catch up to my change in direction. My newer HDS Gen II updates the gps positioning at 5 times a second, and is much better. But I bought the point one antenna which updates 10 times a second and always shows which way the front of the boat is pointing at all times which makes it very easy to navigate to waypoints and I absolutely love it. So, in my opinion, whatever unit you're thinking about, if GPS accuracy is important to you then I would check out the gps refresh rate.
I figure you are better off with inexpensive depthfinder . Buy a cheap yellow etrex for 40 or so dollars for gps. That way you can carry it in any boat you fish in . I can even download COE way points on Nimrod for brushpiles .:twocents
The Helix 5 is a nice unit. If the lakes you fish are on the card, it's well worth the price.
Good for you...Do it while your young, cause the older you get, the tougher it gets.....:cheers2Quote:
Originally Posted by DRPEPPER
Go get em' Don. We'll see you on the lake soon.
I have heard the Helix 5 is a nice little unit for the money. If you haven't already pulled the trigger I would encourage you to shop around. Just before xmas we bought a Lowrance elite 7 dsi, retail was seven hundred and we paid three hundred. The big box stores will discount the units with older technology(I mean about two days old) Good luck with your fishing in the coming year.