hand held gps?

[npauls]

I am wondering if anyone can give me any info. on a good hand held gps? I am looking for one that I can use on my boat in the summer with lake maps for marking way points, walk and wade fly fishing trips in the back country, Ice fishing spots, and bow hunting spots. I need something that can have map chips plugged into it so I can load maps of all the lakes, rivers, streams, and creeks on it. Preferably water proof with a colored screen, and something user friendly and easy to use. I have no experience with these but though I would get a hand held that is a good all around unit instead of upgrading to a gps/sonar unit on the boat.

Nate

[backpacker]

Nate, I would suggest looking into the Garmin brand as you can purchase the "Topo Canada Maps" from them as well. That is what I have for backpacking and I like how I can upload a specific area into my GPS for the hike I am doing. I would suggest doing some research though as some units receive satellite signals under heavy bush better than others.

[tonyflyfish]

i have a garmin vista HCX (?) and i like it. need to read the instructions though!!! very seldom lose the signal and have been in some pretty odd places.

[npauls]

Thanks for the input guys. Anyone have any experience with the lowrance series of hand helds? I have run lowrance on my boats since I bought a boat and was wondering if the navigation and controls are similar to the set up on the sonar units? Also can the map chips be used in both the hand helds and boat sonars?


Nate

[GFORCE]

I have the Garmin Map60cx and love it. It uses microSD cards so you can change out maps easily. I was also able to find torrents of topographical maps for it. You can also load City map's into it and get driving directions.

Cheers,
Lindsay

[Fireman911]

I have the Garmin Map60cx and love it. It uses microSD cards so you can change out maps easily. I was also able to find torrents of topographical maps for it. You can also load City map's into it and get driving directions.

Cheers,
Lindsay
Hey Lindsay, have you been able to find digital underwater topo maps for Alberta lakes for your 60cx

[GFORCE]

Hey Lindsay, have you been able to find digital underwater topo maps for Alberta lakes for your 60cx


No, but keep in mind I haven't looked. Let me see what I can find.

[huntsfurfish]

Nate I have a Lowrance I finder Hunt(BW) it is compatible with the software from Lowrance and all their fishfinders/gps units. The black and white version is slashed to about $125 or so right now the color version is still probably in the $350-450 range. It has all kinds of hunting icons plus altitude, Bar, compass etc. I really like mine plus I can use the same mapping with my 332s,337s and HDS7s.

[ungodly]

Nate I have a Lowrance I finder Hunt(BW) it is compatible with the software from Lowrance and all their fishfinders/gps units. The black and white version is slashed to about $125 or so right now the color version is still probably in the $350-450 range. It has all kinds of hunting icons plus altitude, Bar, compass etc. I really like mine plus I can use the same mapping with my 332s,337s and HDS7s.

I got one of the Ifinder hunting black and white ones a few weeks ago and have yet to put a map into it. What did you end up going with?

[deanmc]

Hey Lindsay, have you been able to find digital underwater topo maps for Alberta lakes for your 60cx

http://www.gpscity.ca/garmin-inland-lakes-canada-alberta.html

[huntsfurfish]

"I got one of the Ifinder hunting black and white ones a few weeks ago and have yet to put a map into it. What did you end up going with?"

Lowrance MapCreate 6.3 (Canada Topo version) comes with lowrance branded reader and allows for 5 SD cards.
or
You can also just get a preloaded SD card as well.