Best Handheld GPS for ice fishing?

[mike1125]

I'm looking to buy a handheld GPS for ice fishing. There hasn't been any recent posts about this, so just wondering currently what the best (affordable) unit is. I'm on a tight budget.

[Love2Cabin]

If you have a smart phone get the Navionics app for it.

[mike1125]

No. I want an affordable GPS. Would the lowrance H20 still have up to date maps or not?

[MN Mike]

Mike,

You should be able to find a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx for about $130 - $150, if you want a GPS with a few more features, I would recommend the Etrex 20 for about $200.00

If you want to spend a little more than that, Garmin has sevral GPS's above that price too.

Mike

[mike27891]

I have the H2OC, and the Lake Master SD cards have alot of info, but I had to buy the MN card, and another one for Rainy lake. Total cost $260 for the gps, and $100 ea for the cards, total $470.

Navionics app, $9.99, already had the smart phone, and it covers the US, and has more of the smaller lakes the Lake Master card.

[nofishfisherman]

I think the handheld gps may begin a slow fad into the relic category. With so many people having smartphones with virtually the same capabilities i think you're only going to see more apps like Navionics and added funtionality. I've used a few different GPS units and frankly I think my phone has worked better then all of them.

What I'd actually love to see is a smartphone designed specifially for outdoorsmen. It would come preloaded with all of the map apps. Have a beefed up battery to allow the gps to run longer. Better weather tools showing barometric pressure, moon phases, etc, Come designed with a rugged shell that can take a few drops on the ice, maybe even be water resistant. Have a hook up for an underwater camera and use the phone as the screen. And maybe it could include a personal locator funtion that allows you to hit a button and it automatically sends your location to a preset contact person in case you are hurt or lost while in the field.

I actually think everything I mentioned could be added to a phone if someone thought there was a viable market for it.

[CaptainMusky]

Aside from the pre loading of the apps you have described the new DROID RAZR. There isn't a tougher smartphone out there. Kevlar, gorilla glass and water resistant coating are all included. The new RAZR Max has more battery life too.

[Bandit]

I have the razr maxx with the nav map, and I prefer my hand held by far. At least for Lake of the Woods.

[MN Mike]

For a lot of people, it boils down to the simple fact they rely heavily by their smartphone, to be out in the great outdoors and damaging it or losing it isn't an option, so they purchase a handheld GPS.

At $10 - $15 the Navionics app looks pretty good if you already have a smartphone, for people that don't have the smartphone, it's an eye opener when you find out what you're reoccurring charges get to be when you move to a smartphone.

2 of the guys in our snowmobiling crew have purchased new Garmins this year to the tune of about $800 ( Garmin GPSMap 62s and a Garmin Rhino 655t with the built in walkie talkie ) that's how much their smartphones mean to them.

We were just out west snowmobiling last week, out of the 7 people snowmobiling, 5 had smartphones and not 1 single person carried their phone with when we were riding, mostly because they did not want to lose it and also the area we ride has limited cell service but you can find it if you want.

Water resistant isn't waterproof, they are two completely separate things.

For what it's worth, we stopped in at Cabelas in Billings, MT last Wednesday to pickup a new Garmin GPSMap 62s, it was the last one they had in stock, apparently sales have been brisk from what the guy was telling us.

Mike

[CaptainMusky]

Obviously I know water resistant does not equal water proof. I was responding to the other poster. If I spent?$400 on a handheld GPS I would care more about that than my smartphone. That's double what i spent on it plus I have insurance on my RAZR should something happen not on a handheld so I would be screwed if something happened to it. I wish lake master had an app for the smartphones because I like it over navionics. Comparing my phone app to lake master chip on low I think either were effective. I wish the phone could zoom in farther though.

[mike1125]

Does anyone know the comparison between prices of a smartphone with a plan and a handheld gps (ex. garmin etrex 20) with the upper midwest chip? I have sprint as my provider.

[CaptainMusky]

I can't say for certain Mike because it really depends where you are with your contract status. If you are near the end you should be able to get good deal at discounted rates. Once with a smart phone you will have to upgrade your data package and that may cost you $30 more a month or so than you are paying now. You gain so much with these full data plans so don't just look at it solely for a GPS app for fishing but the web browsing GPS navigation in your car to name a few. Really it replaces home internet and a computer for 90% of things. Best thing for you would be to go to a retailer or check online to see your exact status with sprint.sprint

[schweady]

Seems like such a small thing until you run up against it, but to me battery life is the real deal breaker. Take your smartphone on a weeklong BWCA trip and it will more than likely just be dead weight after a day or so of steady use. The two AAs in my Garmin 62st last 3-4 days solid. That, and it's a waterproof unit vs something that's not-so-much. I have a dumb phone, an iPod Touch, and a Garmin gps. It would be fine if their capabilities were all rolled into one unit, but I don't really need all of what those other two offer while I'm out there.

[headcheese]

i have an older lowrance h20c and navionics on my phone.

they both have their place i guess. one thing is for sure my phone loads maps and tracks me waaay faster than the handheld gps does. like 10x faster. but i dont like it for waypoints, software is kinda weird. and i dont think it saves your track.

im sure a brand new gps would be better but still not faster than a smartphone.

i vote for both! when you are slacking at work or on the toilet you can scope out fishing spots on the phone!

[CaptainMusky]

It does save your track. There is a setting you have to turn on. I normally just leave it off but it is there.

[annasu]

Lowrance more bells and whistles for your money-$300.00

The lowrance I fish h2o . I`ve owned one for 3 years and never had a problem.Garmin is for the once a month man the Lowrance is for the weekend warrior.

Garmin vs lowrance I have a buddy that has a Garmin E Trax the Garmin is simple but the lowrance is faster and more accurate. by almost it seems 2-3 yards. this is a big difference if you are ice fishing before daybreak and want to find your honey hole from the day before in a blinding snow storm. Or when its 1 hr. before daybreak and you want to sneak to your tree stand with out a light un detected Can mount it on your boat ,your car, your snowmobile , and 4 wheeler.Ram mounts makes the mounts and brackets.They come preloaded with a standard map also I bought a chip and added hot maps platinum to it and most lakes i fish I get 1 ft. contours.cam, also you can load topo on them. You can get more detailed maps for lowrance.

lowrance is a very good company ,been around for a longer time than most. Their service is good.

[wbliceman]

i have an older lowrance h20c and navionics on my phone.

they both have their place i guess. one thing is for sure my phone loads maps and tracks me waaay faster than the handheld gps does. like 10x faster. but i dont like it for waypoints, software is kinda weird. and i dont think it saves your track.

im sure a brand new gps would be better but still not faster than a smartphone.

i vote for both! when you are slacking at work or on the toilet you can scope out fishing spots on the phone!

I have the same thing but my h20 isnt color. I would say both too if you have a smart phone where you can get the navionics on it. Other wise Lowarance gets my nod.

[mainbutter]

I was given a garmin eTrex 20. Slapped garmin's UMFG chip in it and took it to a few lakes mid january. Every outing, I looked for steep dropoffs on the map. Only three or four holes were needed to be drilled to confirm I was on a dropoff. Every time I was successful in catching fish.

I also marked some bad ice spots. Before walking off the ice, I went and double checked that my waypoints were accurate, they seemed to be working great.

My only issue is the joystick interface is not pants-pocket friendly, if I leave the unit on, I can't have it in my jeans pocket otherwise I'll be toggling menus and pressing buttons accidentally. A loose jacket pocket worked for me. If anyone knows of a "button lock" function, I'd love to know about it, haven't been able to figure that out.

[schweady]

...Garmin is for the once a month man the Lowrance is for the weekend warrior...

Not sure where you get that, but ok.

Guess I'll have to quit using my Garmin every day.

[dfeste]

Another Garmin guy here. Trying to say that Lowrance is even close to Garmin in the world of gps is ridiculous.

[DaveZman14q]

I just bought a Lowrance H2O color off eb ay for $109 total (shipping was free). It was used but works great. My H2O black and white just died on me after 5 years and I wanted a new once since I liked it so much. All you need is a lakemaster chip off crai gslist and you are good to go.

[CaptainMusky]

Another Garmin guy here. Trying to say that Lowrance is even close to Garmin in the world of HANDHELD gps is ridiculous.

I fixed it for you.

Outside of handheld units, Lowrance has Garmin covered quite easily and no, it isnt even close.

[vikingmeatwad]

I prefer to use my Garmin Oregon with lakemaster over my phone w/ navionics.

H2Oc did not run well after a couple years. Garmin runs great.

[sunniewally]

I dropped my h20 into minnawaska, and replaced it with the garmin 76csx and the minn lakemaster cd and the garmin is just outstanding, not even close to the h20 which i loved!

[MN Mike]

Outside of handheld units, Lowrance has Garmin covered quite easily and no, it isnt even close.

I dunno about that, Garmin has some really neat features on their Chart-plotters, everything Lowrance has ( with the exception of the whole sideimaging thing but I think you'll see that from Garmin soon ), mapping for us might be lagging a little bit but in time I think we will see some pretty neat features like the folks in the coastal areas and the southern parts of the U.S. are seeing with their Garmins.