Gps/fish finder combo advice

I need to get advice from experienced local boat fisherman. On what gps/fish finder combos you use and why? Especially what charts do you use and why? Navionics platinum, g2 vision, insight, etc. Have you purchased additional chart cards? I am looking to buy a gps/fish finder combo for my newly acquired boat. But i am debating on what model to buy. The fish finder features are important to me but even more important are the gps features. There is a ton of choices regarding charts ranging from navionics platinum, g2 hd, g2 vision, c-map etc. I want to acquire a unit thats compatible to the most capable, detailed cartography and navigation charts. I'd appreciate all the input I could get.

I have an old Humminbird 997c and don't use charts, just GPS points (it has a rough built in chart), but I would say that the one feature I would be most interested in is the GPS refresh rate. On my unit, the more points I have loaded in and the more track data, the slower the refresh rate gets, which is a problem if I am trying to stay over or line up drifts for a small reef. Refresh rate determines how frequently it gives you a new track point.

As a consequence I have to limit the number of points loaded for a trip and erase the track once in a while. I'm not sure how you can find out about this before buying, I only learned after I had bought my unit and called tech support to complain after it slowed down.

I am looking at refresh rates in the units I've reviewed so far. But I really need to narrow down whether I would prefer using garmin g2 hd vision charts, navionics platinum or higher end cmap chart card(s) so I can determine compatible devices. Like to narrow it down to one or two brands.

I have lowrance HDS Next gen. 2 which works great with navionics card and picks up bottom and fish structure ANDis Dead on with the public reef cards you can get at Blue water. My buddy has a Garmin though and it seems much less complicated for some advanced feature uses. I think the garmin will be my next investment when this one gives up.

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Originally Posted by livewildforlife

But I really need to narrow down whether I would prefer using garmin g2 hd vision charts, navionics platinum

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I have used both and can't really say I prefer one or the other for the areas I frequent. I've had at least a little experience with modern products from Garmin, Raymarine, and Lowrance. None have struck me as a bad unit. My favorite is probably Garmin just for the interface layout and some little things -- for instance I think the scroll speed on Garmin charts feels better than on Raymarine. Overall you will find there is not a wrong choice.