Garmin 250

[shadow]

Anyone have any comments on the garmin 250? I got one recently with the dual beam transducer and havent mounted in my boat yet.

[spoonfish]

I have one and it works very well. It can be programed to alarm for small, medium or large fish. The only thing is the alarm is too quiet. It does however show the alarm fish in a seperate small window at the bottom of the screen so if you don't hear it you still see them. I think they are a good unit for the money and you will be happy with it.

[shadow]

Thanks Spoon. After reading the manual I have figured out that the thing is much smarter than I am-- :crying: Hope I can get it programed to show where the "small" fish are---that's all I ever catch anyway. :rolleyes:

[barry]

Garmin has a web site with tutorials and they can be a great help in learning to use them. ;)

[shadow]

Thanks Barry. I will spend some time there trying to figure this thing out.

[spoonfish]

I'm thinking of adding a gps to my unit. I contacted Garmin and they say all I need is a basic unit, recommended a garmin GPS 72. It would allow for all gps functions, however being a basic unit would not allow for mapping to be loaded. I would think a lot of the benifit of haveing it would be for the mapping, other than marking spots. Theres quit a bit of price increase to have the mapping and just wondered what everones opinion was as to if the mapping is the way to go.

[brad kilpatrick]

spoon are you talking about an base map?

[spoonfish]

Brad, the one I was looking at is the garmin gpsmap276c
http://www.deepblueelectronics.com/Garmin-GPSMAP-276C-P222.aspx

[brad kilpatrick]

just My thoughts on GPS. if it doesn't have a base map I don't want it. I had a magellan unit w/o a base map and found it to be helpful but not all that. bought a Garmin 60cs, a handheld unit w/ color screen and base map and now I don't leave home w/o it. bought the metro guide map disk for it and will soon get a set of area lake and river maps as well VERY useful I have several hunting and fishing spots maked on it that I never would have found my way back to witho ut it. also very handy when traveling, with the metro guide I can type in an address and it leads me there turn by turn. one handy son of a gun

[basstardo]

Brad K is right about the base map. I think most GPS is generally useless without it. My GPS just does generic waypoints and, while it works, I generally find to be more of a pain than anything without having some sort of reference on a map to look at. I plan on dumping my current unit for a Garmin in the next couple months.

[TOPS]

I just recently ran across a deal for a garmin 250. The price was in my range so I baught it. This will give me 4 on my boat yep, 4 [ my boat came with 2 and I added one with a GPS in it.] I do not wont to get in there and risk creating a electrial problem trying to remove the old ones. Over kill, well maybe but they will stay!! :D

My question is how reliable is the garmin? Have any of you actually caught fish that is being shown on the finder? :confused:

[spoonfish]

I use my 250 all the time Top, never had any trouble with it.
Shows good detail and has lots of options. They are good units.

[Patmansc]

My boat came with a Garmin 240, and I am very frustrated with it because what often shows up as fish is actually structure that I'm constantly getting hung up in. I have located and caught fish with it, but more often than not it's just structure (trees/bushes). I"m beginning to figure out that when the fish appear stacked up horizontally, it's really structure. But rather than wasting time finding out whether it's fish or a tree (and losing equipment), I think that I'd rather get a new one that shows a 3-D view of the bottom, with GPS. From what I've seen, they're kinda pricey, around $400 - $600 bucks, but prolly worth it.