GPS Shopping

[motley man]

Which GPS is a good one for lake maps? I'm looking for a new/used one.

[MN Mike]

Motley,

Whats your price range?

Garmin released the Upper Midwest Fishing Guide mapping chip, covers 7 states and over 9500 lakes, some with 1 foot contours. That runs about $99

You can use that in a lot of Garmins, take a look at the Etrex 20 or 30, thats a good place to start. Garmin's HSOforum is pretty easy to use and you get a good idea on prices and options. You can spend anywhere from $130 - $600 on a Garmin. Popular Garmins are the Etrex Series, Dakota's, Oregon 450, GPSMap 62 and 78's.

Most Garmin Nuvi's can run this mapping chip too, Nuvi's are Garmin's in-car navigation units, if you are looking for something to use out in the elements, I probably wouldn't look at one of these but if your GPS is going to mostly be in the vehicle, they are worth a look.

If you are looking for a used one, make sure it can accept data cards, it's the easiest way to put mapping products into a Garmin, some of the older Etrex units ( and others ) had to have the x designation on them in order to accept MicroSD Cards ie: Etrex Legend HCx Etrex Legend C could not accept data cards and the mapping data had to be loaded via software from your computer, not really a big deal, you just had to make sure you purchased a CD Rom or DVD instead of the MicroSD Card.

Mike