My fishing pals have been scouting out new places to get into some speckled trout but the trecking into them is straight through the woods until you hit water. One of them has a GPS and has been plotting the new spots this fall after the leaves have come off the trees but he is the only one with a GPS, which is OK if I am fishing with him, not so good if I am not. We hit the lower sections of this same stream this past July and the fishing was absolutely fabulous, caught and released 26 trout all 12-16 inches in just over two hours. This place is extremely remote, only a couple of woods roads and one wrong turn will put you into complete “lostness” in about 40 feet. I used the compass quite diligently last year, didnt stray too far from the stream and kept close eye on how the stream was turning in relation to the way the road had been running (logging road that is straight as a gun barrel at this part, I only traversed about 1 km of stream) but am thinking about upgrading to a GPS so I could mark the spots a little better, keep track of the road and how far I am away. How many of you have these little devices, do they work well for you and which model do you have? What should I look for in terms of features? There are a pile of them out there from basic to ones that I think make toast. My friend has an Explorist 200 and I would like to get one and learn to use it before next season hits.
I have used a hand held for over 10 years. They keep getting better and less expensive. You can get software for your laptop and down and uplaod maps and waypoints so you always know exactly where you are. The waypoints you download to your laptop or desk top can be kept and printed for permanant records of where you have been and how to get back there.
You can set a waypoint at your car at the end of a 2-track and find your way back w/o triangulating. Be sure and carry spare batteries and you will never be lost again. There is even one you can put a transmitter on your German Short-hair and find where he went when the deer ran by. Right on your GPS.
I wouldn’t know how to get along without one. Daniel Boone I am not.
I have 2 GPS and they are great to use and make hiking in and out much more enjoyable.
BUT… I never leave for the bush without my map and compass at the same time, as Mr Bolton has stated take a spare set of batteries as well, I have never had my GPS fail in the bush, yet I have run my batteries down and out. A map and compass will get you out while a dead GPS is just more to carry.
I use a Garmin E-Trex Legend most of the time. Might need to replace it, since I ran over it with an ATV this past week and now part of the screen is blank. Sigh. It does everything I need it to do, which is, usually, to display a set of coordinates which I write down in my notebook or on an incident report. Come to think of it, I use two, one of whcih is set to lat-long and the other to UTM.
Frankly, I don’t use it for navigation very often, although I occasionally print off an aerial photo with a UTM grid over it when I do lots of thru-the-woods field work. Read the UTM on the screen, glance at the map, know exactly where you are on the map.
Duck, there are businesses out there who specialize in selling GPS coordinates of hot spots. That way, you don’t have to figure out where to go, you can pay someone else to do your exploring. Not my thing.
I have the Garmin Gecko 101, which is pretty outdated, that won’t get me to that certain oak tree among a hundred others, but will get me to my vehicle, it has stated accuracy of 15 meters, but in practice it is usually accurate to about 25-30 feet. As others have said, you can get them that will sync with maps on your computer, have topos for all of N. America, and like you said, will almost make your breakfast for you. The only setback I see with my old one, which may also be true with others, is the LCD screen will get a little hinky in cold weather. Keeping it close to my body, and under my outer layers seems to help this problem. I haven’t seen the need to upgrade yet, but, many of the newer models feature WAAS(Wide Area Syncronization System), that uses both satellites, and ground stations, to give you accuracy within 3 meters.
Not a problem with most portable handheld units these days to do a switch from brush to Street or Hi-way.
For ex. I own a Garmin Etrex Legend and a Garmin Rino 120, since they are both from the same company and I use them both for road and bush I have loadable Garmin mapsets for them. For everyday use on the roads I have Canada Metroguide V4, USA Metroguide, Great Britain and others. For the bush I have Canada Topo V2.
Unlike the car map type the handheld GPS at least mine do not have voice enhanced messaging for turns and direction.
My buddy was relying on his gps to get him home from hunting this fall when he fell into the creek. fritzed the electronics in his gps unit. Luckily he was with another guy packing one. He noted that he had been out several times alone and hadn’t thought about it ever getting broken. Now he carries a map and compas as a backup just like he always did in the olden days before gps.
DBenner … have you ever thought about taking some popcornor cake with you to mark the trail so you could find it again. Worked for Hansel and Gretel.
How long was the GPS in the water and what type was it?
Most GPS have an under-water rating that will let you drop them in the water such as a creek or small river for several minutes. Pluck it out of the water dry it off and continue.
I have an Explorist 300 which i purchased as a closeout model. When you are near an interstate or a state highway you are doing fine here in Idaho, but when you are not you can only see the track log. The track log works very well and I use it Hunting and Fishing both. I can set up to 2000 waypoints with this unit which I then get on Google earth and mark and name. Some times I think I need a better GPS but I so far have stuck with my curent unit. My daughter and i went to Seattle and we used the GPs to navigate the freeways around there fairly successfully. :lol:
I have the Garmin Legend and it does everything I need and then some. You don’t have to spend much money to get a very functional GPS for the field. Lots of good ones out there, but I happen to pick the Garmin for a variety of reasons at the time.
IMO, there are units for the road, and units for the wild, but the ones that do both don’t do it as well or simply. You are better off with a basic woods model and a basic driving model (with turn by turn instructions). You’ll probably have less money in it than the all-in-one types and 2 units that will perform more simply. With that being said, take into consideration that I haven’t shopped for GPS for about a year, so my opinions/observations may be a bit outdated at this point.
At the time when I bought mine the Magellan handhelds were waterproof and floating. Most of the others were not. It don’t know if this is still true but it made a big difference in my choice of units. I still carry a compass and while I don’t usually carry a paper map for short hikes I study one beforehand and know the way out to a road or river I can follow to the road. Sometimes, especially when hunting grouse in dense cover, the GPS won’t work. I would imagine the same would aply to a deep canyon with limited view of the sky. The bigggest drawback to using it I have found here in Mi. is that while the GPS shows a straight line path from where I am to a marked waypoint that path often goes through a cedar swamp or a lake and I end up backtracking anyway. I don’t think it can replace paying attention to where you are and how you got there but will let you have some confidence about looking at the ground for mushrooms or watching the dog more than the terrain more of the time.
I’ve had a GPS for about two years now and I’d be lost without it ;).
When I was trying to decide what I wanted; all I knew is I wanted Garmin because of their reputation. I was going to get the eTrex but was talked out of it by the salesman who asked me where I would be using it. Some of the locations I fish are rugged and under dense tree cover. He recommended the Garmin GPS Map 60csx which has a high sensitivity GPS receiver so I took the bait and I am SO happy I did. There are quite a few places where it can be tough to get a signal believe it or not. My GPS Map 60csx hasn’t failed me yet. The GPS Map 60csx also has a few other nice features like being waterproof and having a barometric altimeter, electronic compass and most important to me; ROUTING.
Unfortunately the GPS is only part of the expense. Mapping software is extra, at least with the Garmin. I added their Topo software to help me in the woods AND the City Navigator software which at least on the GPS Map 60csx will give you turn by turn directions WITH signals to indicate turns and upcoming turns so you can get to the woods in the first place. You can also hook up the GPS to a laptop computer and with a program like Microsoft Streets & Trips which is a mapping program that you can buy at Staples for $30 or so; you will get turn by turn directions AND voice prompts!
With my GPS I can create routes on the highways to get me places or just pick a waypoint and let the GPS do the work. Once at the stream I can toggle over to the topo map and walk into the woods to find the steam I am looking for. I find the City Navigator software with the auto routing function INVALUABLE for me. It is just as good as any ?routing? GPS you can buy to get you to places, with the added bonus of also having all the other “in the woods” features.
I also take my GPS on business or pleasure trips to help me find points of interest like restaurants and help me to find my way around town. The coolest thing is taking it on an airplane so you can see where you are flying. The Garmin mapping software is pretty good to use in your PC for other things like creating directions “a-la Mapquest” and also just scouting locations. Garmin also routinely updates their software which sort of eases the pain of the initial cost. The bad news is that by the time you add up all of the software and accessories along with the GPS you will be spending over $500 but I guarantee you won’t regret buying the GPS Map 60csx.
If you budget is less than that; check out the Delorme Earthmate PN20. This is a new unit made by Delorme that INCLUDES their Topo USA software that is both topo and a street map in one. I use the Delorme Topo USA software on my PC because it is really nice software although at times the topo part isn’t as accurate or I can?t find certain streams that I can find on the Garmin topo software. The Delorme Topo USA software IS nicer looking and has more features than the Garmin Topo software BUT I have no idea how good the Delorme GPS is; although there are plenty of reviews out there. One complaint I did hear is that the recalculation if you make a wrong turn; can be slow. That can be a real pain in the butt when driving. I also don?t know how the Delorme GPS stacks up feature wise with the Garmin GPS Map 60csx, but unfortunately you won?t know what features you will really need until you buy one.
The other thing I don?t like about Delorme is they NEVER update their software. You just have to wait until the next version comes out. Topo USA costs about a third of what the Garmin software does so it isn?t too bad although is does stink if there is an inaccuracy or issue that you have to live with until the next version comes out. Garmin software while more expensive does get updated all of the time and they have some cool add-ons as well.
Having a GPS has opened up a whole new world of fishing to me and has allowed me to easily find MANY new places to explore. I would never go back to the hassles of paper maps & compasses again.
I started out with the Garmin ETrex Vista. I used it for work and fishing, and it seemed to hold up just find (even after several dips in the Truckee). I now have the Garmin 60csx. I like the ton of memory, the SD card that you can remove and buy pre-loaded maps. there really is too many features to mention, so I recommend that you go to www.geocaching.com and read their reviews. They were very helpful to me when I was in the market.
I have used handheld GPSs for many years for many different applications. I too started with the eTrex Vista and was very satisfied, but the one thing that really sold me on Garmin was when I called tech support, I spoke to a real person, who spoke English and was in North America! I now own a GPS map 76S. Even in Alaska (typically poor reception of digital sats) I am close to 2 meter accuracy… unbelievable!
I suspect that you will not be dissatisfied with any Garmin product or their support. By the way, my Vista was a bit out of warranty when it flooded. I called tech support for repair if possible, they replaced it with a new unit, no questions, no charge! They truly won my devotion.
I now have three all Garmins. For jsut marking fihsing spots etc. I find my old 12 to be easy to use and reliable although I don’t use it at all anymore … just no time to fish much… If you want mapping etc, the Garmin V for me has performed well . and you can download all the topos etc to it as well as reegional hghway maps, For travle I have now picked up a Garmin Nuvi 650 voice prompts for traveling anc color which is nice . so in my opinion it depends on what all you plan to do with it … the etrex and rhino are all excellent or look for a ussed 12 to try out …
Tom
I have really been reading these posts and checking out all your references, keep them coming.
I always have a compass with me and notebook to draw out the roads, etc. There are no maps really and only a couple roads where we go, you really have to head down into the woods until you “hit water”, then come back out.
Gnu Benn Flyer, as much as I like the popcorn idea, I would end up eating it and if I didn’t get it the Gorbies (Gray Jays) would, they are vicious out there.