Hand held GPS recommendations

[johng]

Anyone using a hand held GPS on their boat they like/recommend?

I'm not looking for something that offers highly detailed water depth/structure, just want to be able to mark way point when locate school of fishing trolling to get back on them, and maybe use on cascade for ice fishing so I can return to spots that produced fish on past trips.


Thanks,
John
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[sdhuntandfish]

Handhelds for fishing work, but the battery life is fairly limited.

Why not something simple like this Lowrance Mark 4 HDI Combo? Available brand new online for $150. You don't have to use the transducer, you can exclusively use it for the chart plotter. It has down-scan and has an SD card slot for Navionics cards. They come with leads that you can run right to a small 12v battery (like a winter flasher, vexilar/marcum, etc)

Way more bang for your buck than a handheld, and with a ram mount, you can use it for hunting with a ATV, etc.



If you don't want to spend the money, you can download the Navionics app for your smartphone (assuming you have service on the lake) and have maps, gps speed, mark waypoints, tracking, etc. It's like 10$ or 15$.
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[dtayboyz]

I've got all 3. Two finders on the bass boat, fish finder on the jet boat, smart phone and a handheld. The more you spend the better they work. You'll never get a thousand dollar performance out of a hundred dollar unit. Now a days you can move a thumb drive between devices including your laptop or home computer. My son can run his trolling motor with touchscreen on his fish finder. Not to many lake maps available for Idaho.
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[kandersonSLC]

It's hard to beat the Navionics SmartPhone App. The app is free and then it's something like $20-$25 to download and store their bathymetric charts on your phone. It uses the phone's GPS to save waypoints and tracks including speed and time data. Because you download maps to phone, you don't need cell service to use it. The bathymetric charts are helpful in finding drop-offs, old stream beds, etc.

The iPad app is the same but the maps cost $50 -- not sure why they're more as same maps just on a larger screen.

You can preview the maps at http://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=en#@6&...cwF~i%7BiT
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[Koke-Fiend]

[quote sdhuntandfish]Handhelds for fishing work, but the battery life is fairly limited.

Why not something simple like this Lowrance Mark 4 HDI Combo? Available brand new online for $150. You don't have to use the transducer, you can exclusively use it for the chart plotter. It has down-scan and has an SD card slot for Navionics cards. They come with leads that you can run right to a small 12v battery (like a winter flasher, vexilar/marcum, etc)

Way more bang for your buck than a handheld, and with a ram mount, you can use it for hunting with a ATV, etc.

[.IMG][url "http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/saleen281gt/mark-4f_lg_zpspuoow2ul.jpg[/IMG]"]http://img.photobucket.com/...pspuoow2ul.jpg[/IMG][/url]

If you don't want to spend the money, you can download the Navionics app for your smartphone (assuming you have service on the lake) and have maps, gps speed, mark waypoints, tracking, etc. It's like 10$ or 15$.[/quote]

I would have to disagree with this, my Oregon 550t uses AA batts and those will last you 2 days of constant use.

Keep in mind any GPS app for your smart phone will drain your battery fast.
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[psanders71]

I have an IFinder H2O that I have had for years. Works well both on and off the water. As was already mentioned, battery life is not as good as a dual unit wired in on the boat, but rechargeable batteries as well as 12V lighter adapter that make things last as long as needed.

Paul
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