GPS-looking for more info

[Erloas]

So I'm looking at picking up a GPS unit. A phone is possible but not likely, given my needs (only have Verizon and Union Wireless available, cell service is not available where I want to use it, and I'm not going to upgrade to a data plan to get it).

Since every GPS will give basic road directions, what I'm more interested in is using it on the lake, specifically for fishing. I'm looking for one that will give lake bottom contour information, I know Navionics makes the charts and a few other companies have their own charts but some only seem to work with their fish finders, or have limited functionality (but not well defined on how it is limited) on handheld GPS units.

Its not hard to find this in a fish finder. In fact the fish finder I'm looking at has some built in, but not necessarily the high definition lake maps. But an increase in screen size comes with a very larger increase in price, and with the fish finder I'm going to have a few scans going at the same time anyway so I don't really have room for the GPS information on there at the same time (I'm looking at the Lowrance HDS-7 with StructureScan specifically). Since the upgrade to the next larger size screen with a 4x screen split (instead of 2 in the 7) is $600, so anything less then that is pretty much my target.

So short version is water resistant at least, color, handheld, and will support detailed lake maps.

Anyone have any recommendations?

I'm thinking I'll probably have to check with a site more dedicated to this sort of thing but I thought I would check here first. I haven't been able to find much online that talks about using the lake maps on handheld units (or even compares the details of the various companies selling the maps) and the only references I've seen to it actually working is a few product reviews from individuals for one of older Garmin units that says it works but with limited information compared to the same maps on the fishfinders.

[Erloas]

Well since no one seems to know about the fishing side of things, does anyone have any experience with the basemaps of some of the brands.

I've heard that for the most part the base maps are almost completely useless and don't show much beyond major roads.

[wnana]

{Scrubbed}

[Dubious Pie]

I am a electronic engineer, give me money and I can build one for a... price. :smallcool:

[TheThan]

I really don’t know anything about GPSs, but best bet would be to Google it and see what sort of information you can dig up. This is my basic plan before buying anything expensive or hard to replace.

From the above you’re looking for one that has contour maps of lake floors but for what purpose? Fishing? But it doesn't really look like your specifically looking for a fish finder.

[Erloas]

Well I've already picked out a fish finder... and it happens to have GPS, but it has limited screen space, space I want to use for using the sonar and imaging outputs. In order to get enough screen space to view 3-4 different things at a usable size its a $600 price increase. I figure for much less then that I can get a separate GPS unit and use the fish finder screens for that aspect of things. And I'll have the handheld to use for other things, like camping, when I'm not on the boat with it.

One reason for the GPS, rather then the straight fishfinder, is without the lake contour lines you don't know what the bottom is doing until you are right over it, and the lakes I fish have some very drastic drop-offs, where you might go from 80ft of water to 30-40ft of water very quickly. And when that happens and you have the downriggers at 70ft deep they get caught and break off. And for being a big lead weight, downrigger balls are fairly expensive, so I don't want to be replacing them.

And I have been searching various places for information, I just haven't found anything with the information I'm wanting. Most reviews only talk about update speed, accuracy, signal strength and things like that. I haven't been able to find anyone that directly addresses the map quality between units. About all I have found on map quality is that the lower end units' basemaps are almost useless, but even the higher end ones that come with better basemaps I've found very little information on how much better those basemaps actually are. And the catching point is that a new map on almost every unit is in the $80-150 range, so something with a decent basemap (if only for the land side of things) could be a big advantage for that unit.

The other problem is that no place around here sells the units. So to actually get some hands-on viewing of any of the units to see the maps would require a drive to SLC... which is about 3 hours one-way and $40 in gas round trip, something I'm hoping to avoid.

edit: and I have been searching online for information for about a week or two now. The problem is that GPS is so wide spread that its next to impossible to get a search from any search engine that doesn't just have places selling them or fake links or secondary search results for 95% of the links. The majority of the reviews I can find are about in-car units rather then hand-held, and the bit about hand-helds I can find only talks about geocacheing.