Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

A thinking of getting a GPS but wondering if I should get a handheld one. I want to be able to take it off the boat and download my trips to the computer and note the best fishing spots. (Am thinking optimistically that I'll find good spots worth remembering!). Anybody doing this? What brand would you recommend? Thanks all!

I have a dinosaur of a Lowrance (Global Map 100). It's outdated but effective and reliable. I use it hunting and on the boat.

If you have a smart phone or tablet take a look at the Navionics app. It's amazing for $10. Keep gps tracks of your fishing routes, take a photo of your catch and if maps it for you, navigate to a secret fishing hole using gps coordinates. Im still learning all it does.

I have a Lorance Color Portable. I use the Lakemaster chip. It's a great tool, but the screen is very small, and hard to read. On my new boat, I added a Hummingbird 597 CI HD. A five inch screen is much easier to read. I can store thousands of waypoints with it. No need to involve the computer. The only advantage to the portable is the portability of it. If always used on the boat, why a portable?

I have other boats I could transfer the GPS to. So portability would be good. Also, if I could download trips to computer, I could log tooning and sailing trips separately.

I have a Garmin GPSMap 60. Great little handheld.

My dad gave me his old Garmin GPSMAP 176C with maps of all the waterways in the Pacific NW, way overkill for my needs but it sure is a sweet portable unit. I think you can find them still on ebay?