I know nothing about GPS, but would like to buy an inexspensive one. What should I look for?

Thanks
Mgresham

I use a Garmin GPS72 handheld. There still may be a few around but they have been replaced with the GPS76 series. Here's a place to start reading up http://www.garmin.com/marine/products.html#handheld

You can really get a bunch of bells and whistles that start driving up the price. However, all you really need is a basic GPS with WAAS (wide area augmentation system). It is the mapping screen (even without Mapsource to show details) that will show you your present position in relation to your saved waypoints within a specified distance that allows you to relocate your fishing spots quickly. As you get closer to the waypoint you begin to zoom in and the WAAS will put you right on it instead of just the general area.

I also suggest you purchase a D/C cable and a Data Cable. You can really go through the batteries and with the data cable you can download your GPS. Always need a backup. It's not fun loosing all your coordinates and starting all over. You will need software to communicate with the unit to download. Here a freeware the works well. http://www.easygps.com/

__________________
Quit Wish'in and Let's Go Fish'in
Darryl Morris
FAMILY FISHING TRIPS

after you've done your reading up check out www.gpscity.com for low prices. From the shopping around I've done they seem to have the best deals and from what I hear they have great service. I plan on ordering a Garmin Rino 130 handheld soon if my wifey don't get me one for Christmas.

__________________
"To catch fish, you gotta be on the fish!"

No matter what you do get a GPS unit that has WAAS capacity built into it. With the WAAS correction being used the accuracy is plus or minus 3 meter or 10ft. That is **** close and will allow you to find that brush pile faster. After all the fishermen use the GPS to find a spot on the water where they want to fish.

Many of the less expensive units still have WAAS capabilty.

If you want to learn more about GPS there are many online sites that talk about them. Thrimble is one that comes to mind.

I read a lot about GPS and how to use it with maps.

I purchased the book "GPS for dummies" and have read it also. It's a good book for the beginner to read before he makes a purchase. It covers a lot of the things to look for. It won't go into any details about any one particular unit as that is beyond the scope of the book. But it does discuss the WAAS satellites and how the Global Positioning Satellites work.

Another thing to look for is to get one that can receive at least 12 satellite signals at one time. As the more satellites singles that you can receive at one time the more accurate the GPS location will be.

If you want a mapping unit then you will have to buy the digital maps from the maker of YOUR GPS. Garmin maps don't work in Magellian GPS and vise versa. The digial maps are all propriatory and very expensive.

There are some third party programmers that are trying to get around this and are making programs that may allow you to scan some maps and input the data into your mapping gps. I have not tried any of these out so take this fact with a big grain of salt.

I do know that the digital maps from Garmin Mapsource (fishing Hot spots maps) are fairly accurate but some of the data that FHS used to mark the Fish Attractors at Patoka Lake are not very accurate. Also the fishing spots at Kentucky Lake (FHS MAP) are not that easy to locate. The digital icon on the map is too big to help you zero in on the spot. I spent a long time at the TeeZur tournament trying to use my GPS unit from Garmin eTrax Vista to find an underwater brush pile in the back of Sulfur Creek. I finally found the spot by seeing a small turtle surfacing about 50 yards south of where I was searching for the brush pile. I had read or head that turtles often spend lots of time around brush piles and that if you saw a turtle surface there might be a brush pile under them. So I put the GPS unit down and went to where I saw the turtle and found the brush pile ASAP. Sometime the digital maps are not very accurate. So use them with a grain of salt.

I had the same thing happen to me at Patoka Lake. There is a spot on the Patoka Lake FHS map that shows a brush pile or fishing attractor. I have use the Garmin eTrax Vista's Patoka Lake FHS map on several occasions trying to locate that fish attractor and still have not found it using the map. I found it accidently later on one day by accident. I had put the GPS unit down and then just started searching around the entire area using my Depth Finder. I think I finally found the attractor or if that is not the attractor it's someone's brush pile. Because it was much shallower than the other area and there were lots of crappie on that spot.

Now when I actually find a spot on the lake that has brush or a submerged tree and I mark that spot with my GPS and then come back days later I can go right to that spot.


Bottom line is that the GPS unit's work but I would not trust the accuracy of the Garmin Mapsource FHS maps of Patoka Lake and KY Lake. They are fairly close and show the outliine of the lake and will show you the old river channel pretty accurately but the fishing attractor spots are not that accurate from what I have found. They are off by a good 100 yards or so. And I double checked the Datum to make sure that I was using the same map datum on my gps that the map was designed to use. That also can be a huge source of errors if the map datums don't match. But I got that part right so I know that the map's position for the fish attractors is not very accurate. Well not accruate enough for my tastes.

Do some research before you buy a unit.

And remmber that Magellan is a FRENCH Company. LOL

Do you think that the "honey holes" were deliberately misplaced so that someone could have them for theirselves? LOL.
I appreciate you good tips on GPS units.

__________________
"To catch a big fish you need to use good bait"
Dave Haugh

Not sure. I think that they did the best they could using old maps of the lake. You see the first maps that I collected back when the lake was first built in 1977 showed these fish attractors. They even further described them as Circular Tire Attractors or Rectangular Fish Attractors. Most were made out of big timber that had been cut down and stipped of it's limbs and wired together with big cables. I fished a few of these when they were new. The ones I fished were in shallow water and you could see the big logs under the water. Some of the deep ones I could not find. But that was before they used GPS.


I just think that they looked at the old maps and then put the symbols on the new digital maps as close as they could do by eye. Obviously it was not a very accurate way of putting in the fish attractors. To top it off when they digitized the paper FHS map of Patoka Lake they changed the name of these things from Fish Attractors to HAZARDS. Now people will avoid them thinking that it may sink their boats.

Best thing to do is get a better topo map of the lake. The Corp of engineers did a survey of the flood area before the lake's dam was complete. This aerial survey shows the land elevations in 5 ft contours. The FHS maps only show the elevations in 10ft contour lines and that does not show a lot of the details on the elevation changes. The 5 ft contour lines have some supplimental 2.5 ft contour lines (dashed lines). So with the highly detailed maps and a good WAAS enabled GPS one can pretty well find the fishing holes. But it takes a lot of work to get this system going. First off the maps are using one grid type system and the GPS units these days don't come with that grid system. Therefore a lot of math is required to turn the map coordinates from one grid system to another grid system that the gps units can use. That is very time consuming.

Just beware that the FHS maps of Patoka Lake have some inherrent inaccuracies. But they do pretty well show the river channel. I have used my Patoka Lake FHS map on my Garmin eTrax Vista and followed the old river channel by watching the small map display on the Vista unit. I only did this for a few spots but those that I checked showed the river channel pretty accurately.

I may check my Patoka Lake Digital Map by putting it on my main computer and then finding the exact coordinates of each of the hazards (fish attractors) shown on the map. Then when I am out on the lake I can go to those map coordinates and use the depth finder to see if the fish attractors are there where the map says they are suppose to be. I have a feeling that they are within a few hundred yards of where they are shown on the map. But they don't seem to be spot on.