Gps- Depthfinder Combo Ideas

[TLS]

I am thinking of a gps depthfinder combo is there anything out there for inland lakes at a reasonable price?? If so how much will I have to spend to get one that works decent and what models? thanks

[Shellback]

Just something for you to think about. If your combo unit takes a crap, you are in bad shape. But if you have 2 separate units at least your GPS could take you to your hotspots, or you could find them with your sonar if one or the other went bad. Plus you are sharing the same screen. I've got 2 separate units, the GPS I bought used and doesn't have the background or computer loaded maps, but I can put in all my own points. I fish small lakes so all the fancy map programs wouldn't help me much anyhow. There's some good buys around for the older GPS's without the mapping. I paid $125 for a Garmin128.

[duane]

Just something for you to think about. If your combo unit takes a crap, you are in bad shape. But if you have 2 separate units at least your GPS could take you to your hotspots, or you could find them with your sonar if one or the other went bad. Plus you are sharing the same screen. I've got 2 separate units, the GPS I bought used and doesn't have the background or computer loaded maps, but I can put in all my own points. I fish small lakes so all the fancy map programs wouldn't help me much anyhow. There's some good buys around for the older GPS's without the mapping. I paid $125 for a Garmin128.

Thank you. I never thought of it like that.

[Moose1am]

Something to think about. Good point on the unit going bad and you losing both gps and depth finder at the same time.

I still have my humminbird LCR8000 going strong. It's a huge screen and has good resolution in the zero to 15 ft range. Not so good in the zero to 30ft range though.

The new Humminbird Matrix Systems allow you to hook up to the other brand of handheld gps units. That way you can have a Garmin etrex Vista for example hooked up to the Humminbird Matrix and use the Matrix screen to show the Garmin GPS display. Then you have two units and can still use the Garmin Handheld while traveling down the highway or out hunting in the field or just out for a walk and still use the Humminbird Matrix to see the fish and the changing depths if the Garmin goes out.

I myself was looking at the Garmin 168 combination unit. Richard Williams uses one of those to find his brush piles. Also I found out that the tracks from those units can be saved on the computer and then feed into a special program to make topo maps of your small lakes. I lost the web site address for the guy that does that type of mapping. I had to reformate my computer and lost his emails to me as well. If anyone knows how to find the favorites folder and the emails on a Windows 98se system that used Internet Explorer 6.0 and Outlook 2000 then tell me where those files may be located in Windows98. I backed up my entire harddrive on an External Winchester hard drive but now I can't figure out where the folders are located on the back up hard drive. I am sure that they must be on the back up hard drive but I sure can't figure out where or in which folder they are found. So I can't figure out where that web site is that shows example of the maps that this guy made for other people. He said that if you send him the data on your lake that he would make a map for you for free if he could use your data to sell more of the maps of your lake. Sounded like a deal to me. I think he is using autocad or some similar program that takes the track data and makes a topo map.

The track data includes a waypoint and a depth data. You can also buy data logger that will accept nema data output from your depth finder or gps or both. I think that you can save this data as an ASCII file and then use it in the autocad type engineering program to make a topo map. I remember making topo maps by hand in Geology Class. We have a map with points showing the depths in an array fashing on the map and were had to draw in the lines of equal elevation on the map for a class project. These days they do all that with computer programs. But I grew up using a slide rule in HS. Back in the Days of the Apollo Space Program when everyone used slide rules and before the days of even calculators let alone computers. Man have we come a long ways. At least if the power goes out we can still perform mathmatics.

Just something for you to think about. If your combo unit takes a crap, you are in bad shape. But if you have 2 separate units at least your GPS could take you to your hotspots, or you could find them with your sonar if one or the other went bad. Plus you are sharing the same screen. I've got 2 separate units, the GPS I bought used and doesn't have the background or computer loaded maps, but I can put in all my own points. I fish small lakes so all the fancy map programs wouldn't help me much anyhow. There's some good buys around for the older GPS's without the mapping. I paid $125 for a Garmin128.