Advantages of Lake Maps

[ToddB]

Kinda new to this high tech electronics. So what are the advantages to using Navionics, Fishin Hotspot or Lake Master. Thanks for the help

[Puck99]

I bought the lakemaster card for my hbird units and love it. For my lake it has the hd map with lots of contour lines. My favorite thing is that if I get on a pattern of depths or want to fish certain drops I can set the depth I want to fish and it will highlight that area making it easier to pinpoint the brush I want to fish and eliminate the points I don't want. It is also really good for navigation because several runs I have made at full throttle have been over water that I didn't know at that time was only 3-4' deep and one little stick up out there could have been a bad deal.

[KAG]

There are about 50 advantages and ZERO disadvantages.

I run lake master but think Navionics has the lead with the lake structure mapped detail

[Tracker123]

There are about 50 advantages and ZERO disadvantages.

x2. I have Navionics which has 1 foot contours on Toledo Bend where I fish a lot. The lake has heavy timber, so I also like the boat lanes clearly marked on the map as well. With the website, I can look at different areas and mark them, then transfer them to the unit itself, etc.

[fished-out]

Lakemaster seems to do a better job with their lakes (IMO), but Navionics covers far more lakes in more areas. Since I fish alot of lakes, I use Navionics. However, I find the contour lines to be guidelines--the breaks shown on my HB997 seldom agree with what I find on the water in exact detail, but they'll point you in the right direction. Don't know if it's the accuracy of the GPS, Navionics, or something else. Doesn't really matter, but if you're going to use it at night to navigate an unknown lake or stream, be careful and give yourself some leeway. According to Navioncs, I do alot of fishing on dry land from my boat.....in narrow streams, etc.

Also, I think Navioncs computer programs generally suck--full of programming errors and they're so worried about protecting the software that the security introduces unnecessary complications. Again, just my opinion. I continue to use them because there's nothing I've found that's better overall, but if I ever see it, I'd switch in a heartbeat.