Fish locaters

[croixflats]

After looking through past posts I see Lowrance and Hummingbird are the most popular but I dont see very mamy referances to Garmin. I also see lots of people are happy with their locaters. I also see quit a few problems with Lowrance.

Have poeple had problems with Garmin, or are people buying these other models because of familularity to the name. I ask because I had broblems with my Lowarance from day one until it finally peaterd out.

Humming bird is my next try, only because of name familularity. But if Garmin is worth looking into I would like to know.

Also is it better to get external gps vs. internal

[PerchJerker]

I think Garmin units are okay but I don't think fishing is Garmin's focus --- but their combo units now take LakeMaster chips, something you still don't get with Humminbird. Garmin GPS is excellent, it's where they've focused their efforts. And their color screens are really good.

I'm not going to stand up for Lowrance and say they're the only way to go, but they have probably 75%+ of the market (a guess on my part) once you get above the most basic entry level units. So of course you will hear of more problems with them. I've been really happy with my Lowrance units (have had several of them) and have only had 1 service issue and it was resolved quickly.

I'd go with an external gps if you can.

[snoozebutton]

By say external GPS are you referring to 2 separate units, one for just the GPS? If you're talking about antennas, go with an external antenna. Mine has an internal antenna and it constantly loses position and when it does, it automatically zooms out to the 5 state map. It can be a real pain.

[Sandmannd]

I've got a 522c internal and have had no issues with it reading the GPS.

[fishermatt]

I have owned humminbird since I got a Super Sixty back in the 80's, and I'm on my 4th "LCD" type humminbird graph. I just got the 787c2 last year and it's a sweet piece of equipment.

The only problem is for Ice Fishing a guy needs a handheld, so I still mark the really good spots on both so I'll have them in winter too. I'd really like to update my handheld to the iFinder H20C so I can get the lakemaster chip, because lakemaster won't work with humminbird.

[Vexipro]

ive never had a problem with my eagle, although im thinking about upgrading to the lastest and greatest model. Just got the eagle intellimap gps with external antenna and LOVE it. Best thing that ever happened to me in terms of fishing. For those of you that may not realize, EAGLE AND LOWRANCE ARE MADE BY THE SAME COMPANY! Same exact everything almost except your paying about 100$ more for the name when you get a lowrance. The only difference i've seen is that the lowrances have the option to change the display to a flasher.

[snoozebutton]

I've got a 522c internal and have had no issues with it reading the GPS.

That 522c is the newer model if I'm right. I've got the 334c and searching the net, I've found that a lot of people have the same problem with this unit.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

The only difference i've seen is that the lowrances have the option to change the display to a flasher.

I think Lowrance also has a better color screen for sunlight viewing. SolarMAX, I believe it's called.

[PerchJerker]

Lowrance has more power than Eagle (which is a non-factor for any freshwater fishing anyone does around here except MAYBE for deep salmon and lakers on the great lakes), Lowrance has tons of networking capabilities and external sensors and Eagle has none of that, and there are a few advanced features here and there in addition to the flasher screen. Overall Eagles are really good units and really good values.

Regarding an internal or external gps antenna ..... the internal units have come a long ways in reliability and performance, but I'd vote for an external antenna if it works in your application. Two reasons - first, they want the antenna 3 feet away from the unit, so in the internal units they need to do a lot of shielding to get them to work ---- second, all the high-end units from Lowrance and Humminbird come with external antennas, internal is not an option.

[blueroof]

I'd really like to update my handheld to the iFinder H20C so I can get the lakemaster chip, because lakemaster won't work with humminbird.

I've heard rumors that Humminbird has updates in the works to use Lakemaster chips. I really like the way the bird units display the Navionics data (far better than how Lowrance displays the info IMO), can't wait to see what they do with the Lakemaster.

LB