Lakemaps/GPS question

[jparrucci]

I've been thinking about getting a GPS unit to use when hunting and fishing. Any particular unit you guys would go with for a handheld? Which company has the best/most up-to-date or detailed lakemap of Vermilion with the depth contour lines? My friend said to go with the Lowerance iFinder H2o plus. Any recommendations on what to look for? Which units already have the lakemaps on them with countour lines with depths? He said the h2o model also comes with public hunting lands marked on it. Is there another place where you can buy lakemaps and load them on the GPS and if there is which is the best and cost? I know, lots of questions. Its downtime for fishing, figured it would be a good time to ask. Thanks!

[Cliff Wagenbach]

If you are looking at a handheld unit I suggest the Lowerance IFinder also.

I have the IFinder Pro with the Lowrance/LakeMaster MMC chip in it which has 3 ft. depth contour. Very Accurate! The chip costs around $100.00, but has around 120 other lakes on it too!

The IFinder H2O is supposedly the more water proof unit.

The chip also fits most other Lowerance GPS units. It works great in my 3200!

Cliff

[Paul Waldowski]

I would also go with the Lakemaster Chip, but I would stick it in a Lowrance H20C. Nothing like color to make contours easier to see.

[StillFishin']

Not to dissade anyone from Lorwance GPS, but Garin was the first to have the Lakemaster maps for ou PC aND downloadable to your your Gps. They also have chips to go in your unit.

I'm not saying one is better that the other but just mentioning that there are other players out there.

Stillfishin'

[WCS]

I have been using a Magellan Meridian Gold for about a year and a half. My decision came down to this unit or the Lowrance H2O. I decided on the Magellan because of its ability to do autorouting while driving a car. I use my GPS for geocaching, driving, hunting and fishing. The Lowrance did not have the ability to autoroute. Lowrance has since come out with the autorouting Iway 100, but I am not familiar with how it compares to the H2O. If I were to buy a GPS just for outdoors use, but not driving, I would have a Lowrance. Another benefit to the Magellan and Lowrance is expandable memory. Garmin is supposed to be updating their handhelds with a new chip and expandable memory using transflash memory. Garmin's have a reputation of losing the signal in dense forests. The new chip is supposed to improve on this. Of course this is not an issue on open water, but may be important if geocaching or hunting.

I have used the Magellan Lakes chip on Vermilion and found it to be adequate. They use the fishing hotspots map, so if you have seen a fishing hotspots map of Vermilion, that is what you get. Have heard good things about Lowrance Lakemaster maps as well.

One final note is support. Garmin and Lowrance update their software and firmware regularly. Magellan is pitiful! Since my purchace, Magellan has updated firmware twice and has not updated the autorouting software. The firmware updates didn't seem to fix what needed fixing. Magellan is moving away from the Meridian series and replacing with the Explorist series. From what I have seen, similar perforamce.

Hope this helps. I researched quite a bit before buying and am happy to pass along my findings.

[ScoutII]

I am thinking the I-Finder Hunt with the topo program will show you public hunting areas using the Find button. The H20 doesn't have a search menu for public huntihg areas.