I am in the market for a handheld gps and hoping you fellers and gals can help me get the one I need. I am illiterate on this subject. But I know I want one that will hold the most points for the money. Any help would be appreciated.
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I am in the market for a handheld gps and hoping you fellers and gals can help me get the one I need. I am illiterate on this subject. But I know I want one that will hold the most points for the money. Any help would be appreciated.
I use a Delorme pn - 60 and its dead on accurate for speed when long lining and trolling, and with a map of the lake its more accurate on bottom features if you download USGS topo maps of the lake and install on it. But,,I also use it for hunting and backbacking western mts. and southern mts as well. There are other units that are just as good as delorme, like the garmens. Delorme has a pretty steep learning curve and have used it since delorme started making them...before that,,I used delormes mapping software with a hand held lorance model. One thing you have to get really used to is the small screen..but fishing out of a jon boat,,this works for me with my lorance fish finders front and rear. You can use most hand helds with a 12v cable attached to them, or with delorme, I get about 8 hrs of battery time before switching out the lith. ion batteries that are rechargeable. Waypoints are dead on accurate as well with hand helds today. If it were me,,I would read up on each at their websites. I never have like Magellan but my 2 picks for best handhelds are Garmen and Delorme. both are waterproof and shockproof to some extent. Both have fantastic service and warrantee depts. as well. Good luck on your picks.
been using a yellow etrex from Wall-Mart for 5 plus yrs. no problems .
I had a blue etrex legend one of the black and white models. Used it for 8 years and it held all I ever needed. I let a guy take it with a boat I sold.... one of my top 10 worst decisions ever.
I just purchased the Etrex 10 (yellow one) this past weekend at Academy. Years ago I had a Garmin Cx10 I believe and liked it but the new one seems pretty easy to operate and more features. It will do for trolling speed I believe.
I have used a Lowrance H2O for a long time and have found it to be very accurate.
When I upgraded to the HDS unit for my boat, the waypoints transferred directly to the HDS unit. It is not available any more but if the Endura models are as good as the H2O they should make a good unit.
They accept the Fishing Hot Spots Pro USA, and LakeMaster chips.
I use Magellan. Accurate. The best thing I like is the ability to not only number a spot, but to also name it. Once you get close to a 1,000 spots marked you can remember a name a lot better than a number. I have several of the handheld units. I have each area named by a common name. like colors, states, trees, birds, cars, etc. Each name is a certain area of the lake and each area is for the mot part at a constant depth of water.
I have been using a etrax as well for the past 3 years. Very functional. Mine came with a 12v accessory plug and I keep it plugged in all the time. Batteries get expensive.
Garmen eTrex 20, best bang for the buck IMO. Use mine for hunting and fishing all the time, absolutely love it. Not too pricey, has all the features you'll want and has some nice upgrades available too.
Etrax. Been using one for years with the fire department to relay coordinates to land lifesaver, accurate and easy to use. I think it will hold up to 2000 waypoints.
Thanks guys
I too use the cheap Garmin yellow etrex. I buy my off ebay and have 2 with same spots recorded in them for finding tops in my home lake. Everything is backed up on paper and on each GPS. I seldom fish without it. If one quits I'm not in a bind and also keep large packs of batteries in my boat. They hold 500 waypoints and that is plenty. I have bought a third for other nearby lakes to maintain waypoints as first pair nearly full.Quote:
Originally Posted by eagle 1
Years ago, I used an inexpensive Garmin for around $100. Make sure it is WAAS enabled. What I liked about it is it would make a big arrow on the screen to point the way to your waypoint. Pretty accurate. Probably better and cheaper now.
I kept a portable GPS for a lot of years but now I'm using a waterproof motorola cell phone that I bought refurbed for about 80 bucks. I purchased the navionics app for it and it is nice to have the lake maps as well as the camera ability built into the phone. The GPS is fairly accurate in my opinion. The battery will get used up quickly, but then extra batteries come cheap. The only down fall is that the screen can be tricky to read on a really bright day. I don't really use it as an active phone but I do have a prepaid sim card in it with some minutes to use as an emergency backup phone if needed.
I use the Garmin etrex yellow black got mine off ebay for $60 about 8 years ago, been using it every year since, takes two AA batteries which I can get about 6 months out of..... only thing that took me awhile to learn, was for my brush piles and pvc beds in the lake, keep moving at about .2 mph and it will hit the mark dead on..... stop and mill around and it is a pain in the butt...... just go out some distance and hit it again and keep moving, drop marker on stuff when it shows on the graph...... good luck with what ever you purchase......
What he said but at 1 mph or greater going in a straight line. I shut off big motor at 100' and steer boat with trolling motor. When it says 0 then drop your bouy , most times it will appear on your depthfinder as you pass over. Pull back around and fish bouy. I have 4 of the Garmin etrex and use them alot. I have 2 that are for my home lake with duplicate coordintes and one for others. Thinking of loading up the 4th and auctioning it off here.Quote:
Originally Posted by olesilverside