grimsbylander Posted July 15, 2011 Report Posted July 15, 2011 I need to think about setting my "new to me" boat up with some decent electronics and since it's been a hell of a long time since I bought some, I thought I'd put it out there and get some advice. Now I know we're going to have the Lowrance guys, the Humminbird guys, etc. and that's fine, but I'm not too fussy on brand and more interested in learning what's available, what's a must have and what's fluff you just for and never use. Money is an object...isn't it always? But I don't know a Nav chip from a tostito chip. Right now there is a basic Lowrance unit at the console and a basic Eagle unit on the trolling motor. I'm trying to avoid rushing out and buying something for the bow and later wishing I'd done it different when I go to get one for the console. Does this make sense?? Ok, I'm ready...hit me Dave
mercman Posted July 15, 2011 Report Posted July 15, 2011 If you fish the same familiar waters all the time, GPS isnt worth it for you. You probably now the lake enough to get by. Gps is fine and dandy, but the Unimaps it comes with are worthless, and NAV Chips are way over priced.$199 bucks and up. If you have an I Phone, the Navionics app available for them is inexpensive and quite good. Get something with a decent sized screen, dual beam, color or gray scale, up to you. Lowrance or hummingbird, they all have good and bad points, i have one of each, and prefer the lowrance.The humminbird is a 586Ci, and i cant aford or dont want to pay for the chips, so for me, i wasted money for nothing. TrackMaps give you most of the info GPS units give you, and you can plan your day in the comfort of your livingroom before you leave the house. It all depends where you fish, and how you fish, that will determine what you NEED.
beagle dad Posted July 15, 2011 Report Posted July 15, 2011 fishfinders dont find fish usually depth , structure and knowledge of the area work better as well as knowledge of the species you are probably equipped enough already ...gps is great if you are in waters where you cant see shore...otherwise local lake maps are cheaper and quite often more informative just my opinoin based on 40yrs expereance
jedimaster Posted July 15, 2011 Report Posted July 15, 2011 ALso what you fish for makes a big difference. a fish finder for bass isn't always required, but for lake trout, or smallies, even walleye a good fishfinder of flasher in the boat can be worth gold.
Big Cliff Posted July 15, 2011 Report Posted July 15, 2011 I have the HDS 5 and love it! Last evening we were on a part of the lake that I am not familiar with and needed to find a particular island (very small and hard to detect because it was fairly close to shore). I was able to pull it up on my GPS, see depths, even a couple of submerged rocks long before the fish finder would have seen them and by then it would have been too late. I also use it to help me when I am looking for likely shoals that might be holding fish and even for just getting around Sturgeon Lake up through Scugog, Balsam Lake). To carry all thise charts around with me would be a hasssle. If I was buying another unit it would be an HDS 5, 7, or 10 Biggest my dash would accomodate. I use the GPS probably more than I do the fish finder, I know I trust it more.
Dan668 Posted July 15, 2011 Report Posted July 15, 2011 I just bought a lowrance hds 7 as a finder/gps combo. Bought the Premium Navionics maps. Love the gps, even when fishing familiar kawartha lakes, it helps.
mike rousseau Posted July 15, 2011 Report Posted July 15, 2011 If you fish the same familiar waters all the time, GPS isnt worth it for you. You probably now the lake enough to get by. Gps is fine and dandy, but the Unimaps it comes with are worthless, and NAV Chips are way over priced.$199 bucks and up. If you have an I Phone, the Navionics app available for them is inexpensive and quite good. Get something with a decent sized screen, dual beam, color or gray scale, up to you. Lowrance or hummingbird, they all have good and bad points, i have one of each, and prefer the lowrance.The humminbird is a 586Ci, and i cant aford or dont want to pay for the chips, so for me, i wasted money for nothing. TrackMaps give you most of the info GPS units give you, and you can plan your day in the comfort of your livingroom before you leave the house. It all depends where you fish, and how you fish, that will determine what you NEED. I would never discourage anybody from buying a gps... After what happened to you... Dont you wish you would have spent the extra $$$ on a gps... I know my local waters but rockpikes and chanels and underwater points are hard to find... Even with paper charts... There are combos for under $500 now... Walmart in the USA has a 5" lowrance unit... Color... Gps and sonar for around 500 bucks and I know there are cheaper ones...
mercman Posted July 15, 2011 Report Posted July 15, 2011 I would never discourage anybody from buying a gps... After what happened to you... Dont you wish you would have spent the extra $$$ on a gps... I know my local waters but rockpikes and chanels and underwater points are hard to find... Even with paper charts... There are combos for under $500 now... Walmart in the USA has a 5" lowrance unit... Color... Gps and sonar for around 500 bucks and I know there are cheaper ones... Absolutely right. Fact is, i'm disappointed in my Humminbird, and may be a bit bitter Sure beats the hell out of a busted prop and skeg for sure.
DRIFTER_016 Posted July 15, 2011 Report Posted July 15, 2011 I have to disagree with all of you who say you don't need GPS (for what ever reason). GPS gives you the ability to find, work and return to structure again and again. It also gives you the ability to stay with bait in open water as well as being able to get you back to shore in dense fog. I would be lost without my GPS and would catch way less fish without it. There are humps and dropoffs I fish that are well within sight of land that I would not be able to stay on with out it. GPS in partnership with my sonar is an integral part of my fishing package and I would not go without it any more than I would not leave my rods or tacklebox behind on an outing. As for a combo, in this day and age I would be looking for a colour unit with a 5" or bigger screen and dual frequency transducer. If you ar thinking you might upgrade in the future I would get a networkable unit that can communicate with this new unit. That way if you decide to move the new unit to the bow and get a 7" or 8" unit for the console they can share info. I don't know a lot about the mapping cards (not much available up here), but the Navionics cards seem excellent and the price doesn't seem too out of line when you look at the cost of paper maps these days. A full set of paper maps for Great Slave Lake cost me over $100 so $200 for an electronig map that includes more lakes doesn't seem bad at all. IMHO
mike rousseau Posted July 15, 2011 Report Posted July 15, 2011 (edited) But if he never intends on leaving an area he knows like the back of his hand then yes... I agree... With mercman But they still make it easier and if your caught in fog or snow... They will get you home safely... Edited July 15, 2011 by Musky Mike
Terry Posted July 15, 2011 Report Posted July 15, 2011 If you fish the same familiar waters all the time, GPS isnt worth it for you. You probably now the lake enough to get by. Gps is fine and dandy, but the Unimaps it comes with are worthless, and NAV Chips are way over priced.$199 bucks and up. If you have an I Phone, the Navionics app available for them is inexpensive and quite good. Get something with a decent sized screen, dual beam, color or gray scale, up to you. Lowrance or hummingbird, they all have good and bad points, i have one of each, and prefer the lowrance.The humminbird is a 586Ci, and i cant aford or dont want to pay for the chips, so for me, i wasted money for nothing. TrackMaps give you most of the info GPS units give you, and you can plan your day in the comfort of your livingroom before you leave the house. It all depends where you fish, and how you fish, that will determine what you NEED. I have paper charts of most lakes, but I will take a GPS over paper any day my maps also work on the computer so I can plan my day and put a waypoint or routes on the computer and upload it to my gps and drive right to it rather then looking at the paper map while drive to the spot I knew simcoe like the back of my hand but to find the one finger on cooks bay often took 1/5 an hour to find now point and click and I am there......gps changed fishing for me...now if only I had a working boat to go with the gps
Uncle Buck Posted July 16, 2011 Report Posted July 16, 2011 first thing is first, whats the max you wanna spend??
mercman Posted July 17, 2011 Report Posted July 17, 2011 Absolutely right. Fact is, i'm disappointed in my Humminbird, and may be a bit bitter Sure beats the hell out of a busted prop and skeg for sure. Further to this post, i recieved a lesson on GPS from my brother today. He took my "Worthless" Humminbird GPS/Sonar unit, and proceeded to show me how to properly operate it. I had no clue how to make the GPS work properly, and was convinced that the unit was defective.He inserted his hotmaps Premium card, and after a few quick, easy to remember steps, was showing me how valueable this small piece of equipment can be in protecting both boat and its occupants from hidden dangers on the water. I stand corrected, and learned a valueable lesson today
zeeter Posted July 17, 2011 Report Posted July 17, 2011 I was in a similar situation last year looking for a combo unit that wouldn't break the bank. After a lot of research I decided on the Lowrance Elite 5 - Gold. This is a gps/sonar combo. You have the option of purchasing the unit with a navionics card, but I decided not to get one. The unit has a base map with it for the Lake Erie which I fish the most. The base map is pretty good. I'm very happy with the unit. The total cost was around $550. This is a very good price for a solid combo unit. Hope that helps ! Here's the link: http://www.lowrance.com/Products/Marine/Mark-Elite-Series/Elite-5-Gold/
grimsbylander Posted July 18, 2011 Author Report Posted July 18, 2011 All great advice...thanks everyone. I think I'm going to look at the HDS-5 and build from there. That will give me options later on with maps and like Drifter suggested, I can move it to the bow if I want to upgrade again. Thanks again.
Stoty Posted July 18, 2011 Report Posted July 18, 2011 I highly recommend going with the Lowrance. I've had an HDS-5, 7, and now 10 and swear by them. Lots of amazing features.
Stoty Posted July 18, 2011 Report Posted July 18, 2011 And as for chips you should def get the new "Fish'n Chip". 1 ft depth increments. Insane detail!
DRIFTER_016 Posted July 18, 2011 Report Posted July 18, 2011 And as for chips you should def get the new "Fish'n Chip". 1 ft depth increments. Insane detail! Unless you live in the arctic, where you can't get squat for electronic maps.
Fish Farmer Posted July 18, 2011 Report Posted July 18, 2011 Plus something to think about in my post about Static on VHF radio.
limeyangler Posted July 18, 2011 Report Posted July 18, 2011 first thing is first, whats the max you wanna spend?? BINGO!
grimsbylander Posted July 18, 2011 Author Report Posted July 18, 2011 BINGO! How much I want to spend has nothing to do with it. I'm more interested in how much I NEED to spend. First I need to understand what's available, then determine what I need for my type of fishing. Only then can I price them out and decide. Spending any amount of money is a waste if it's not the right product for your needs. From what I've read, GPS is almost not an option. Especially when fishing big water such as Erie. The Lowrance units seem to be quite popular and well respected. I'll look at the HSD5, 7 and 10, compare the features and spend what I need to. If I think I'll be happy with the 5, I'll buy it.
Raf Posted July 18, 2011 Report Posted July 18, 2011 (edited) How much I want to spend has nothing to do with it. I'm more interested in how much I NEED to spend. First I need to understand what's available, then determine what I need for my type of fishing. Only then can I price them out and decide. Spending any amount of money is a waste if it's not the right product for your needs. then you need to tell us where, how and for what you fish. your existing units are fine if you're fishing some small puddle. you could also keep using them on bigger water just fine and get a standalone gps unit either fixed or hand held. or buy a combo sonar/gps - many options. if you're not gonna network and don't need the big screen of the 7,8 or 10, i'd say don't bother with hds. save some coin and look into the elite 5 with nav chip Edited July 18, 2011 by Raf
scugpg Posted July 18, 2011 Report Posted July 18, 2011 How much I want to spend has nothing to do with it. I'm more interested in how much I NEED to spend. First I need to understand what's available, then determine what I need for my type of fishing. Only then can I price them out and decide. Spending any amount of money is a waste if it's not the right product for your needs. From what I've read, GPS is almost not an option. Especially when fishing big water such as Erie. The Lowrance units seem to be quite popular and well respected. I'll look at the HSD5, 7 and 10, compare the features and spend what I need to. If I think I'll be happy with the 5, I'll buy it. The price jump from HDS 7 to 8 is high, but from 5 to 7 isn't as bad from what I've researched. If you want to see sonar and chart at the same time, the 5 will be really small.
grimsbylander Posted July 18, 2011 Author Report Posted July 18, 2011 Just out of curiousity, any opinions on a LOWRANCE LCX-19c?? I assume it's an older model but is it worth a look buying a used unit?
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