Brian – You are the 2003 grand prize winner for the mouse turd issue of the year. Congratulations – I know that it took a lot of thought and creativity to work yourself up to reach this far out. Your Cheesehead Hat grand prize should arrive any day – wear it proudly. 
Thanks Comm, it beats movie quotes
Were you out to the lake or river today or yesterday?
I spoke with a fella at Vexilar. He thought I should change xducers with someone, because he thought mine is bad.
Thursday when I was out, I thought it was interferance with other units. When I flipped up to go home, I was all by my lonesome. I don’t want to spend the $60 unless I know for sure that’s the problem. Now, if I can just get out fishing, I know there will be a ton of people willing to help me with this…
Hey, does a cheese hat come with ear muffs? 
Of to read about catfish’en….
Ummm… it actually sounds like you might have ISSUES. Plural. LOL
Seriously… if you write a new description, I’ll use it. (I reserve the right to adjust for content… lol) I don’t know beans about the croix except that it flows into the river I love and people with big boats love to play there.
You are right about the movie quotes thing too. 
Thanks, Mr. H20!
Now let’s work on changing the name of the Mississippi…. 
BB, don’t you have greater causes to pursue? I swear………..are you sure the 1/4 barrel is “full of beer”? 
I figure………..if James wants the Croix to be a WI water, ain’t no harm in giving our state a little extra attention! Anything to take the focus off those dang Packers! 
Rename the Mississippi? 
Now I KNOW where that 1/4 barrel is AND what it’s full of! 
This just in… WI gets to keep the St. Croix River! We took a vote over here in MN and it didn’t go well for thsoe that wanted to move the river to our wonderful state. To be blunt, we don’t want it. Sorry. But I did change the intro to use some of the text sent me by BB. Notice I said “some.” The original copy looked like a sample from War and Peace for Pete sake! I had to cut it down a little to say the least. But at least now it accurately reflects the input of someone that actually fishes the Croix. Me? I know nothing… and like it.
Thanks BB.
I now have no issues…… ….Except with my sonar/gps…but Jolly Ann Marine will take care of that!
Thanks BB. Might I suggest taking a look at the Garmin 162 if you want a GPS only unit. I used mine up on mille lacs this fall and it tracks speeds down to tenths… never freezes up like my lowrance products… easy to use. I guess what I’m saying is I like it. Lots. And I’ve used most of what’s available out there. The internal antennae is a huge plus for me as I can move it all over the boat for the price of an extra power cord.
Food for thought anyway.
JAMES!!!! FREEZE UP!???
I must not have done my research very well! Are you talking about the Lorance units freezing up like a computer locks up or LCDs freezing because of the cold?
I was imagining my new Lowrance LMS 480 Fishfinder GPS with Single Frequency Transducer and 480 x 480 pixils on my boat already! Are you telling me I should take a step back and re look at the Garmin line?
Your opinion is respected. (Damn it!)
I have had a bunch of problems with the Lowrance X-15 I owned up until a month or so ago. When my trolling speeds would drop below 1.0 mph the gps portion of the unit would lock up and would not begin to display speed until I restarted the until. I also went through transducers on that unit like crazy. A total of 4 over 18 months… 12 months of which I ran without functioning sonar on the unit out of disgust with the need to constantly replace transducers.
Two final points…
1) My Garmin is a better GPS unit than my Lowrance EVER was.
2) I’m the only guy I know that has experienced this level of troubles with that particular unit. A lemon? Maybe.
If anyone is out there looking for a stand-alone GPS unit I’ll sing the praises of the 162 over anything else I’ve used. Very functional. Not the most bells n’ whistles on the market but for tracking plots, going to and from waypoints, saving points and monitoring speed precisely, that unit gets a 5 star rating from me. Not sure what else 99.9% of use would ever ask a unit to do that this one can’t do flawlessly. And it costs around $320 delivered to my door.
But it sounds like you’re looking for a combo unit – sonar + GPS. In that case the 162 just doesn’t fit the bill as it’s a GPS stand alone. A Garmin counterpart would be the 182 and frankly, I would not suggest it due to slow scroll speed. Even the guys at the factory will tell you that the sonar portion of that machine could use some improvement. Personally I LOVE having a unit dedicated to GPS. I don’t have to split screens any more to get a sonar reading and navigation info. Your space limitations and budget may influence descisions regarding having 1 or two units. Not sure how the dollars would stack up going one route over the other but my gut tells me that going with a combo unit will save you some beans. Although it pains me to say it after all my troubles with Lowrance, if you’re looking for a combo unit and sonar capabilities are important to you, stick with the Lowrance line.
Happy Holidays!
Brian, if you want an explanation as to why the St. Croix ends and the Mississippi keeps on a’ rollin’, just drive down to Prescott and take a gander at where the two converge. You’ll see the beautiful Mississippi mud dominates the rest of trip.
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Brian, if you want an explanation as to why the St. Croix ends and the Mississippi keeps on a’ rollin’, just drive down to Prescott and take a gander at where the two converge. You’ll see the beautiful Mississippi mud dominates the rest of trip.
True. True.
Gator Hunter
Ok, last question. In your opinion, you would get a 162. What about a stand alone sonar?
It appears that the “beans” I would be saving by going with a combo unit is less than $100. When you get in this price range, 50 – 100 beans is, well, small potatoes.
My thought was space saving, although I do have enough room for two units. Also, if the performace is the same between the combo and stand alone, why wouldn’t I want to save a buck or two.
I have a hand held gps, but want to up grade due to the summer of 2004 being the year of Night Cat’s. I find it difficult to read the screen on my Garmin Legend while driving. My X-65 sonar, well it’s going to go to the swap forum. Works good, but looking for better.
Again your thoughts are appreciated.
Ps I did complete a search last night for sonars….If you know where to look as with a library, this site has everything! (including a colorful description of the St Croix)
Point well taken Juggs!
Why muddy the name of the St Croix with mud….
First off James…Thanks for your lemon! Hopefully I gave you one in return!!
Personally,I have never ran the Garmin units on my boat. Although they seem very user friendly and speed increments of a tenth of a mph is mighty nice as well. I must admit that I enjoy the functionality of my Lowrance Global Map unit in big waters. The mapping functionality is second to none as far as I am concerned.
I know nothing about the mapping ability on the Garmin’s. Do they have upload/download capabilities for their units?
Steve
Yeah, you can add hotspots maps or others as upgrades to the base map, which I feel is already more than adequate.
Sonar units to look at:
Pin-Point 7420 & 7520
Vexilar Edge (reputed to be an incredible unit)
Top end Lowrance stuff.
I very much prefer having the GPS unit seperate from the sonar so I don’t have to do that “split screen” deal where neither the sonar display OR the GPS display is really large enough to be considered user friendly.
My personal favorite would be the pin-points. I’ve not come across anything that pulls fish off the bottom, out of weeds or out of clouds of bait or debris like those units. Drawbacks? Getting a unit serviced since Motorguide bought them up.
Merry Christmas everyone!
No James your not the only one I had a x-15 and had trouble with it from the day I got it until I sold it. some of the same problem you had;very dissapointed in it
Yeah, it is frustrating to buy a company’s top o’ the line unit and have it turn out to be a complete flop. There’s two camps regarding those units; guys either love them or hate them. I know a bunch of both! Something like that leads me to believe it’s a quality control issue or an intermittent problem with software. Either way, when they don’t work, they don’t work. My biggest gripe was with the service I received after the sale… but that’s me just whining so we wont go there. Other guys like Steve Dezurik, a guy that wouldn’t stand for anything but a solid performing unit, loves his X-15’s and has been very satisfied with the product.
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As I said before…with my 6 year old, second hand Vexilar…..It’s important to have a good product, but more improtant to have good service!
Keep talking James…I’m down to Pin Point or the Edge….
Brian,
On my dash i have a pin-point 7520(i belive) and the 160 garmin gps unit. I lucked out and got two of the best products ever . These have been the best investemt i have ever made. Never had a problem with either one. The garmin is one of the most accurate gps units i have ever seen, and i’ve seen them all in action. I’ll sell you the whole package for $19,000(boat, motor, units, and maybe some rods). What do ya think.
Just a minute…I have to check my powerball numbers………………………….nope, can’t do it this week. Although that is a great price for the sonar/gps…and throwing in something to mount it to.
Are you look’en to trade up this year?
Haven’t heard boo from you, been out on the ice? That schooling keeps getting in the way…priorities buddy…priorities! 
Is it too early to start a thread on where were going to be fishing in May?
Have a Great Christmas with your family and may ’04 be generous (at least in fish) to you!
Mr. James,
I have to ask you one more question about your Lowrance x-15 Lemon.
Did you contact anyone about your problems?
The reason I ask is because, any company can have a lemon, but it’s what they do to fix the problem once they area aware of if. (I’m into service, if you can’t tell).
So, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve ruled out Lowrance products if you’ve made contact with them, and they did nothing. However, if you didn’t let them know…well that’s another story.
Thanks for you time…
Brian
I just picked up a legend hand held half for using on my boat.Brian you said yours is hard to read while running your boat.I mostly need it for marking spots,troll speed,ect.Just got it and everything is real easy but wont have it on the boat for a while.What kind of problems did you have ? just reading the screen or the unit not getting a signal while moving ?
Hey Jrod!
We are going to connect fishing yet. I’m really hoping to get out this weekend. Sitting around stinks and I spend way too much time on this board…reading (bad)jokes 
From the sounds of it, what you want to do with your gps, the legend is going to work out VERY well for you. When I’m talking about hard to read, I’m referring is the size of the screen. Using it toget from say Afton to Hastings (in the dark mostly). Garmin and others make a (dash) mount bracket – but it’s not really an option for my set up. So it sits on my knee until it falls off from the waves.
For trolling speed and marking spots (although naming them is a pain on all gps’s..in the field)it’s going to work great for you. If you don’t have a 12v cig lighter adaptor- I would highly recommend one. You alone will make Duracell’s stock climb a couple points! Wade at JollyAnnMarine should be able to get one for you….Free shipping!
Replacement transducers were sent during the warranty period but that didn’t fix the root of the problem as it continued to cause the ‘ducers to go bad after a short amount of time. After the warranty the solution offered was to send it in (the unit) for repairs at their standard repair fee and the ‘ducers were on me. I neither felt that they blew me off or really offered a comprehensive solution. Overall service grade? A C+ at best.
If stellar service is important to you I would need to point out the problems pin=point owners have found in getting their units serviced since they sold out to motor guide. That being said, Vexilar’s service in well-known for being outstanding so that Edge might be looking like the best choice of the two.
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Mr. James,
I have to ask you one more question about your Lowrance x-15 Lemon.
Did you contact anyone about your problems?
The reason I ask is because, any company can have a lemon, but it’s what they do to fix the problem once they area aware of if. (I’m into service, if you can’t tell).
So, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve ruled out Lowrance products if you’ve made contact with them, and they did nothing. However, if you didn’t let them know…well that’s another story.
Thanks for you time…
Brian
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