Combo FF/GPS Experience

[DLWKFW]

Looking for anyone who own's / has experience with any of the following:

Eagle SeaCharter 480DF / Lowrance LMS480 DF
Garmin GPSMAP 178
Humminbird 767

Specifically, I'd like to know your thoughts on the FF capability, usability and detail of the base maps included.

Thanks in advance!

[mendy]

I run a Humminbird 937DF and I love it! Both the GPS (with the Navionics Gold Chip) and the Fishfinder have amazing clarity. The fishfinder is head and shoulders above my old Garmin unit. I carry a handheld GPS as a backup so I have redundancy on the gps side.

I would highly recommend the Humminbird units.

John

[DuffyB]

I just bought this unit and am pleased. The screen is small but using it is very simple, although I must admit I haven't begun to master all the functionality. I did get the chip which provides greater detail, if I remember right it was about $100. This was also recommended.

The FF is better than the cheap humminbird I had before with more options and capabilities most of which I haven't used yet.

DuffyB

[fishingdan]

The Lowrance/Eagle base map is probably the best if you enhance it with mapcreate (Lowrance's PC software for managing their GPS data). Even with this enhancement, you will get some coastal nav aids, wrecks, and really big hazards. The base Hbird map is similar.

That said, they are not very useful for fishing. I would plan to purchase the companies map (Lowrance NauticPath/Garmin's bluecharts) or a third party map (like Navionics - lowrance/hbird) for fishing purposes. These maps will give you depth contours, marine points of interest, tide data, etc.

I find the lowrance/eagle monochrome screens a little hard to read in the sun. The garmin 's screen and the hbird screen is ok.

The fishfinder side of all three, I think, are about equal in capability.

If you can find a way to get a color unit, the difference is significant in all light conditions and, with the smaller screens of these units, your eyes can quickly pick up the color differentiation of things.

Good luck with your choice.