flatseas

which one do you guys think would give you a truer reading, garmin 182c or raymarine 500x fish finder (i have both) p.s. i know the transducer is aok

bg

The Garmin by far. It's coming from GPS speeds, etc. The Raymarine is using a paddle wheel so it's going to be effected by currents, etc.

Actually, let me rephrase that. The Garmin will give you an accurate distance traveled over ground whereas the Raymarine is going to give you an accurate distance traveled over water. Sort of like the difference between the ground speed and air speed in a plane.

tprice

GPS by far!!!!

I set my speedo on my FF according to GPS and my understanding is the GPS is the most accurate. In fact when we freeline live bait we use the GPS to determine actual speed since most of the FF will not read as accurate below 1-2mph and we are looking for .05-.08mph for this.

Thom

T. Price, think about this for a moment. How fast would your paddle wheel read if you were drifting in a7 knot current? What would your GPS read, and what is the relationship between the GPS, the boat, the bottom and the bait you are drifting behind the boat?

Think about it.

The GPS is not inherently much more accurate than the paddlewheel. Its just that they are not measuring the same thing.

Thom

flatseas

thanks for the input guys i appretiate it

tprice

Thom, good point and I have never paid it any attention but to me when you are drifting the paddle wheel probably is not turning either, at least I do not see how it would.

bj

I took a hand held gps and and just for fun used it while riding on the interstate. The gps said exactly what my speedometer said. As I slowed down it had to have time to re-calculate but it only took a few seconds at most. Like the others said it will be speed over ground which is what you really need to know.

Thom

Well, you see, that's where we disagree. I think that speed through the water is the most important thing, at least when I'm fishing, and so I believe the paddle wheel.

And that is really the point. When I have the hand held in its truck place, which is held up against the windshield column by two velcro tabs and running off a power cord I snaked up behind the door seal, I care about speed over ground. Its a very accurate speedometer and like all Garmin's it updates itself once every second. But when I'm in the boat trolling for fish I could not care less what my speed over the bottom is. What I want to know is how fast are those baits being dragged through the water. For that, dear friends, we have the paddle wheel.

Thom

tprice

I can see THOM has made a good argument and I am curious to see how many looks/posts this one gets?????????