# gps for ice fishing?



## hardwaterfan (Apr 6, 2004)

do any of you guys use a gps as an aide for ice fishing?

what kind would you recommend, i dont know anything about gps.

i need it to do 3 things:

1. mark spots on the ice that i would want to return to.

2. make it easy for me to get to marked spots either from spots ive found on the ice or promising spots ive found on a map.

3. be rugged....waterproof would be nice. and withstand cold temps.

any suggestions (pro or con) are very much appreciated!


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## Parrothead Jim (Apr 7, 2004)

Hey HWfan, I use a garmin hand held. Its real easy to use and I can store and name up to 250 waypoints. I get a lot of my spots when I'm fishing in the boat. If I have luck in a spot or find good structure, I just save and name it in the waypoints. All I have to do is scroll down, punch in a waypoint and hit the GOTO button. It will show me how to get there, how long it will take and will beep when I'm at the spot. I also punch in a waypoint when I first enter the ice so I can find my way back in the dark. It also helps to get you back if its snowing too hard. I had to use it one time when I was at Mogadore coming off the ice at night in a comlpete white out. I did a lot of walking that day and punched in a waypoint everytime I would change direction and put it in a route. It was snowing so hard and so dark that I could not make out any sense of direction. A bad feeling when you are by yourself.  I just punched in the route and backtracked all the waypoints back to the truck. A GPS is a nice thing to have.....JIM


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## hardwaterfan (Apr 6, 2004)

wow...that sounds great! which model garmin do you have?


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## Papascott (Apr 22, 2004)

Hardwater, any GPS will do what you listed. I would look at the etrex or any of the smaller units. You will not need a unit that takes chips for what you listed so I would go small and cheap. The most important thing for battery life in the winter is keep it warm. I put mine in my shirt pocket under my suit so its safe, dry and warm. also carry a spare set of batterys in your tackle box. If you get caught in a white out it can get scary, worse than fog IMO. Learn to use it and trust it, befor you need it, if you fish big water like Erie. It can be onte of the toys that help catch fish and help you get home.


Scott


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## crooked stripe (Apr 17, 2004)

I have a Magellin hand held and the batteries only last about an hour. I bought the adapter for my boat and truck. Is any one battery better than the other? A GPS is the greatest tool I have for finding my way around. I think I only gave around 1 bill for it. It has helped me back many times when hunting and fishing. It takes all of the worry out of wandering around fishing or hunting and not knowing just where you are.


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## KSUFLASH (Apr 14, 2004)

If you use Ni-Mh "AA" batteries, you will notice a significant ammount of increased time that you can use your GPS Units. I have a Magellin as well. Switched to these type of Re-Chargeable's and have longer use of the unit.

flash----------------------------------out


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## Hook N Book (Apr 7, 2004)

Crooked Stripe,
You sould be able to get much more than 1 hrs. use out of your Handheld. I Have a Garmin 176, which size wise, is somewhere between a fixed mount and hand held unit. It takes 4 AA batteries and they'll last approx. 3 days using the unit continuously for 8 hours without the backlight on.
I normally use the Duracell batteries but the suggestion to use the rechargeable's is s good idea. They're a little more pricey but you can use them over and over. Something though really doesn't seem right if you're only getting 1 hr. out of your setup. I would take it back or call the manufacturer to find out if it's normal to only get such limited use out of a fresh set of batteries.


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## KSUFLASH (Apr 14, 2004)

My Magellan uses 2 "AA" batteries, and I noticed during cold weather thats when I noticed the short life. 

flash--------------------------out


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## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

I keep my Garmin GPS12 in my shirt pocket during cold weather and get 6 to 8 hours out of the rechargeable batteries.


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## exexec (Apr 12, 2004)

Harbour freight has rechargable batterie pretty cheap, and watch fro a sale on them. I get about 8 hrs with my ifinder.


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## crooked stripe (Apr 17, 2004)

My Magellin also only has 2 AA and there is no way I could even think of 8 hrs. I will try the rechargeable type and see what happens. My brother in law has one and his is the same way. No more than 2 hrs. I was told when I bought it that it will eat batteries so I never gave it another thought.


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## chaunc (Apr 11, 2004)

I have a magellan that i dont use any more. I found out why the battery life sucks so bad. Even when the unit is turned off, it still uses the batteries. As long as you leave the batteries in it, it will eat them. No joke... I've had this handheld for 2 years now. I went and got a Lowrance i-finder. Its great on batteries and easy to operate.


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## papaperch (Apr 12, 2004)

Bought an expensive magellan mariner , guaranteed to be waterproof and it would even float. Worked good until it got wet. Then it did not work at all. magelllan would not back their guarantee. 300 plus bucks for less than three months use. Have an i-finder , no problems , after fighting with magellan i promised them i would never recommend them to anyone.  So this post helped me to keep that promise.


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## hardwaterfan (Apr 6, 2004)

thanks everyone for your help and advice in understanding gps units. i am going with a Garmin etrex Legend.

good (ice) fishing!!


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