hand held GPS

[barrelslime]

I went to Bass Pro Saturday to buy a Garmin, and the salesman told me I couldnt use my electronic Hotspot maps with these units. I had to buy the Garmin software that had MOST US lakes on it. DohI asked if my lake was on there and he said "I dont know". So if you cant plug in a particular lake map to one of these units, what good is it? I also asked what the USB port was for if you cant down load info from a laptop? He wasnt sure about that either. What about the sd slot, whats that for if I cant put a map in there??????
I got discusted and left without one. Guess Ill save my money and get a fish finder with lake map capabilitys and a way to mark brush. Doh

[Shellback]

Go to the Garmin website, and you can download the manual for the product you are interested in. You can also look up what lakes are covered on their chips. Your BPS salesman probably just moved up from selling Slurppies at the 7-11.

[wannabe fisherman]

Another thing is if you put in say a Navionics map they have a lot of lakes on them. I have an east map and it has almost all lakes from the Mississippi to the coast and from Tenn. to Canada and I don't think the average guy would know what or how many lakes are on it.

[TN Hillbilly]

Why would you expect some guy working in a retail store to teach you to use your electronics?

[Tracker123]

I have a Garmin etrex hanheld GPS that works for me. Garmin has lots of lakes and waterways in their software, so many in fact that you buy them in specific regions (mine is the southeast US). I also have topo software. You can get the software via a sd card, download, or DVD. The usb slot is for hooking up to your computer to download software, upload routes, etc. Also the usb slot is for the charger as well. The customer service people at the Garmin website are very helpful (if you email them). They told me where to find the information on the lake maps, etc. What I did was look at the software first, and then find out which units are compatable to the software I was looking for, etc.

Hope this helps.

[keeferfish]

I transfer waypoints from my computer to my garmin all the time???

[killum]

I went to Bass Pro Saturday to buy a Garmin, and the salesman told me I couldnt use my electronic Hotspot maps with these units. I had to buy the Garmin software that had MOST US lakes on it. DohI asked if my lake was on there and he said "I dont know". So if you cant plug in a particular lake map to one of these units, what good is it? I also asked what the USB port was for if you cant down load info from a laptop? He wasnt sure about that either. What about the sd slot, whats that for if I cant put a map in there??????
I got discusted and left without one. Guess Ill save my money and get a fish finder with lake map capabilitys and a way to mark brush. Doh

I just bought a Garmin GPSMap 60CSX from BPS and my salesrep actually knew his stuff. We talked about options and what I wanted it for. I want it for waypoints and also to hunt/hike with, so a handheld is a good option. The Navionics maps are good and you can upload and download to your hearts content with their software or other easier apps from the web. You definitely spoke to the Slurpie specialist man, cause I don't know much about them yet and I coulda told you about the lake maps. Don't despair. You'll find most of the info you want/need right here!

Good fishing!
Killum