Garmin Mapsource Fishing Hot Spots news

[Moose1am]

I noticed that the number of regions has been dropped to only three major regions. This is good news for new buyers of the Garmin Mapsource Fishing HotSpot digital maps. Before it cost me a lot more money to get the same amount of information that someone can buy today. All the East Coast Lakes are combined in one big East Region. All the Central States are inclused in one big Central Region and then all the Western State Lakes are combined into one big West Region. Now there use to be TEN regions that cost 100 buck but today you can get one of the big region for the same 100 bucks. The bottom line is that there are a lot more lakes and states in the new regions than there were in one of old regions.

I said that the cost of those Garmin Mapsource Digital Fishing Hot Spot map were too much in the past and this helps bring the cost in line with what you get by giving us more product for the same old price.

Digital maps should be less expensive as they are easier to reproduce these days as compared to the old paper maps. Sure it take more time to compile the digital information but it does not justify the high cost of those digital maps. Beside that the maps are not all that accurate and all come with disclaminers that they are for recreational purposes only and should not be used for navigation.

Bottom line is that the price per map has dropped and that is a good thing.

I have purchased region 9 and 10 of the old ten series of fishing hot spot maps and that includes all the lakes that I plan on fishing. I had to spend 200 bucks to get these two regions. I didn't really loose too much as the dividing line between the new East and Central Region would cause me to have to buy both East and Central Regions to get the lakes that I have with Region 9 and Region 10 of the old maps. So my cost are the same basically to get the lakes that I needed. But with the new maps I would get more lakes than I could use. Now someone who likes to fish and travel to lakes in the Central and Eastern USA would benefit from the new products. I didn't get any lakes in PA or in NY or in CT or in West Virgina or in South Carolina or North Caroline in my region 10 digital map but someone who purchases the new Eastern Region Digital Map will get the lakes in all those states along with the FL maps and the KY and TN and OH maps and a all the Eastern States Lake maps that are on the fishing Hot spots maps.

[CatFan]

There is a $30 rebate for FHS4 owners who upgrade to FHS5 through the end of the month. I'm in the same situation as you Moose, the old version has Illinois on it, but the new version has Kentucky. Since I live an hour from the KY/IL/IN tristate, I wanted them all. Fortunately both versions can stay installed. I hated to buy a region just to get Kentucky and Barkley, but with the rebate, I upgraded. Now I can use all of the lakes I fish.

[Don G]

There is a $30 rebate for FHS4 owners who upgrade to FHS5 through the end of the month. I'm in the same situation as you Moose, the old version has Illinois on it, but the new version has Kentucky. Since I live an hour from the KY/IL/IN tristate, I wanted them all. Fortunately both versions can stay installed. I hated to buy a region just to get Kentucky and Barkley, but with the rebate, I upgraded. Now I can use all of the lakes I fish.

Would it be better to get the CDrom or the card? I have a 76S GPS and I don't think it is compatible with the card. What are the advantages & disadvantages of the CD vs Card?

[Moose1am]

The only thing I didn't like about the Rebate is that you MUST surrender your ORIGINAL receipt and I never give up my receipts.

The CD can be used on your computer and the Garmin Units can download the information off your PC. So the CD would work with any Garmin Unit that has a cord that connects the Garmin GPS Unit to your pc via the PC's USB or Serial Port.

I am reading the book called "GPS for Dummies" and I found one page that gives a link to a program that is freeware and this program can let you make digital maps that can be loaded on the Garmin GPS units. I have not tried the link yet. I found that some of the links mentioned in the book don't work any longer. They worked at the time the author was writting the book but they have had the links changed or for some other reason the links don't work any longer.

I started reading this book since it has some information about using digital maps and using OziExplorer and other third party programs with gps units and computers.

I want to learn more about digital mapping and using gps and the computer to find fishing spots.

There is a $30 rebate for FHS4 owners who upgrade to FHS5 through the end of the month. I'm in the same situation as you Moose, the old version has Illinois on it, but the new version has Kentucky. Since I live an hour from the KY/IL/IN tristate, I wanted them all. Fortunately both versions can stay installed. I hated to buy a region just to get Kentucky and Barkley, but with the rebate, I upgraded. Now I can use all of the lakes I fish.

[Bart]

I just left the garmin web site and it seems that there are still 10-15 regions. Where did you hear that there were just three now?

[Don G]

I just left the garmin web site and it seems that there are still 10-15 regions. Where did you hear that there were just three now?

There are just 3 now. From Homepage click on Mapsource unlock. Under Mapsource click on "on the water". Under On the water go down to Recreational Lakes and choose East, Central or west. Click on East and you are there. Scroll all the way down and you will see what states East covers. I hope this helps...

[Don G]

There are just 3 now. From Homepage click on Mapsource unlock. Under Mapsource click on "on the water". Under On the water go down to Recreational Lakes and choose East, Central or west. Click on East and you are there. Scroll all the way down and you will see what states East covers. I hope this helps...

From Homepage click on Cartography,Click on the dropdown arrow for "select a map product" and you will see the 3 FHS when you scroll down...