GPS (Handheld) for West Coast

[Eyes Up Chuck]

I'm looking to purchase a new GPS (hand held) for fishing. It'll be my first one and am thinking that a mobile would be good in case of battery problems on the boat.

I believe i've narrowed it down to a Garmin 76CSx.

Question(s) are as follows:
1) Would you actually have a hand held unit, or mounted - or both?
2) Is it worth the money to get a mapping hand held?
3) Should I get a Topo Map?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Sitkaspruce]

Do you have a GPS on your boat? If so buy the same name brand so that you can pop in the same marine card as the one on your boat GPS.

I have a lowrance on my boat, so I am going to buy a Lowrance handheld so I can run my Navonics card if something goes wrong with the main.

Also get one that takes AA batteries, as they can be replaced when dead. Can not do that with a lithiums, unless you carry lots of lithiums.

SS

 

[juandesooka]

I don't have any feedback for you on this, but I'm looking forward to any you might get....I just bought a Garmin 76CS off ebay today!

I've had a handheld GPS, and it shows land but not charts....which keeps you off the big rocks, but not off the little ones under water. So I definitely wanted a chartplotter.

I have been looking for a fixed mount unit, but with tax and charts, they approach $1000. Because I found a free fishfinder, I decided to go with this mobile chartplotter instead of a fixed mount unit. If I get a fixed mount unit later, this will still be good backup. Also, I can take this mobile unit on other people's boats, which is handy too.

Garmin lists a boat mount as an qccessory, so I'm going to invest in one of those, as well as 12v power adapter.

For maps, the one I'm getting comes with BlueChart Americas (hope it works).

From what I've seen in my brief search, these units go for about $230 used to $350 new on Ebay.

 

[scott craven]

Garmin make a great chartplotter and the blue charts have amazing detail.
I have a fixed mount plotter in the boat, and a hand held backup
in my tacklebox.
the only problem with the handheld plotter's is the small display
screen.

 

[Fish Nutz]

I have a Lowrance H20 works great, aquires and keeps satelites good. Haven't bought the chip for it yet but i've seen it demonstrated and the detail is actually pretty surprising. As for the screen it is small but they also sell a mountable magnifine glass if thats the way you want to go. Also I think the garmin chips may be cheaper than the navonics ones. With the lowrance you're spending about 270 for the gps if you get the color one and anywhere from 200-250 for the chip. I won mine and if I were going to spend the money I would go for the fixed mount..Oh and u can get a lighter attachment for the gps so no wasting batteries.

 

[MyEscape]

I run all over the coast and as a back up and as a primary on MyEscape I use a Lowrance H2O Colour with the chip love the fact once I have locked in I can put it on the dash of a aluminum cabin boat and it still works awesome. Great unit owned it for over a year user friendly and no complaints.

Cheers ME

 

[daddystoy]

I bought the Lowrance Ifinder Expediton handheld (colour)GPS last year. Get a colour model. In fact I'm not sure if monochrome are still being offered anymore on any brands. Paid $280.00 at Nikka then bought the Navioncs chip for it for another $280.00 The chip covers the whole BC coast and Puget Sound. That's inside and outside waters of Vancouver Island all the way up to the Queen Charlottes. It took a while to figure out all the features on the Lowrance but once you get a handle on it it is a FANTASTIC tool! I've seen the Garmin 76cx handheld model and it is very similar to the Lowrance handhelds. The Lowrance has a bigger screen than the Garmin. The navionics chip can be transferred into a fixed mount Lowrance unit whereas the chips for the Garmin were different for their fixed mounts ( at least that was what I was told). Hand held is a great way to go to get started in the world of GPS. And you will want the chip for the marine information.

 

[scoopy]

I have a garmin 76 cx and it works great on and off the water. I use it to mark crab trap drops and spots where i hook fish. You can use for navigation, but I would not rely on it 100%. ( just in case) On the whole, I am happy with the unit, I purchased the mounting unit for my boat as well as the 12v power cable. You can also hardwire it in to your 12volt and your VHF to take advantage of the DSC function for if you ever got in trouble. It goes through batteries very fast so make sure you get the power cord for your cig lighter. The batteries are not used when you plug it in and you can keep the backlight on. I give it 8/10 for handhelds.

 

[fishingbc]

Don't buy anything until you check out the brand new Garmin Colorado....300 or 400.....there is nothing that comes close to what this new unit has to offer...

 

[Gone Fishn]

Battery Life is not so great though!!! Other than that its pretty sweet, especially with the Vision G2 cards!

 

[Tips Up]

I have the Lowrance Ifinder Expediton handheld (colour)GPS also.
Great unit very detailed. I have the gold chip for the ocean and the land chip downloaded for hunting. No complaints at all.
Get a map chip for what every you purchase.

Bought it locally but if price is a big deal check gps.com. I could have got it a lot cheaper.

Tips

 

[Eyes Up Chuck]

I looked and found that it is an exceptional unit. In a year or two, because of issues with the software & hardware of the unit, will be the unit of choice. However, price is a little high right now for a hand held (for me anyway). Thank you for pointing this one out though, I had not looked at it all until you mentioned it.
Cheers

quote:Originally posted by fishingbc

Don't buy anything until you check out the brand new Garmin Colorado....300 or 400.....there is nothing that comes close to what this new unit has to offer...