Re: ? quality of these fish maps ?
I just bought a Lowrance LMS 520C this spring. Transducer included. At Bass Pro it was $550 and came with 10,000 inland lake maps built in. Navionics chip was $200 for the Great Lakes region which includes all the Great Lakes and St Lawrence Seaway all the way to the Atlantic. Internal or External GPS antena was my choice for the same price. So far I've got lake maps for any lake in Michigan that has a public boat launch. The only thing I didn't like was no swivel mount and if you want to pull the unit it is a bit of a pain but when I do an ovenighter I usually sleep in the boat (I'm frugal not cheap!). I went to a GPS unit after getting lost on Lake Michigan last fall after dark, when you are a few miles out it's hard to tell where you came from! Now all I have to do is figure out how to be more productive with the walleyes!!!!! Whole new ball game for me. And salmon season is coming too.
Thx for your reply. I've seen that unit at "over priced" West Marine on display for $649. That's where I saw how crisp the Lowrance screen was to all the other units. And 5 inches too as compared to similar priced smaller screen Garmin units.
But for me I think it's as you say: The Lowrance disconnect knobs are their worst feature if one needs to take it off frequently. I keep my boat on a trailer under cover in my back yard and I can't leave the unit on the dash.
Without question the Humminbirds have the best release system. My dash space for the unit is tight. Less than 7 inches between the side of the windshield and the side of the gauge cluster dome. Even now with my small Humminbird Piranna fishfinder I have to squeeze my fingers in to turn the knob and free it up.
I could possible get by with the Garmin's 1 knob release because the Garmins Swivel, as do I think the Humminbirds.
I've always used a handheld GPS on my boats as I've found you can go just a few hundreds yards from the shore and everything looks the same. Let alone when a light mist or a fog rolls in . . .
Most Lowrance units come with what they call a global base map which is not very detailed and pretty much useless for my needs, mostly just the shorelines. From what I saw there was not much detail as compared to what the Garmin's come with. So buying a Lowrance one needs to also spring for the Nav maps for another $150 just to turn the unit on! True some of the more expensive Lowrances do come bundled now with higher detailed maps but you pay up for them.
Here is what I'm down to:
1. Need color, with better than average resolution
2. Internal antenna preferred
3. Larger screen, I like 5 inches but can't have the overall case wider than 6.5 inches.
4. Dual Transducer included
5. Optional higher detailed cards like fishing hot spots that show bottom structure, marinas and boat launches. I think Garmin has these types of optional cards, more so than Lowrance for the lakes I need.
6. I think Humminbird uses the same cards as Lowrance does unfortunately.
7. I need detailed maps of the NY Hudson River and Lake Champlain.
8. Would like to stay near the $500 price range (excluding the extra cost of the optional maps).
I also have a problem with all these Lowrance/Eagle models . . . They should combine these brands as it's too confusing now.
