Need help choosing software for my Lowrance Elite 5

I recently bought a new Lowrance Elite 5 and I'm trying to decide what charting software to purchase to go along with the unit. I've looked at the various Navionics products on their site but I honestly don't feel very much more informed before I went there. I'm hoping to get opinions from some first hand users. Of the products I looked at I have yet to see Henderson listed on any of them and Henderson will be my primary lake.

one thing I've considered is if it's even worth buying a card. Will I really gain anything if Henderson Lake isn't even listed? If anyone can give me some advise I would greatly appreciate it!

Kenny

I don't know what they have but you could look at LakeMaster products. I would say a chip without your main lake would be a waste of money:twocents

Thanks Cray. It looks like Lakemaster is exclusively for Hummingbird though. I almost wish I had done this level of research BEFORE I bought my unit. Thanks again for the reply.

Call Brian at BBG Marine. Very knowlagable and will help you any way he can.

Thanks Cray!

Kenny, if the only place you're going to fish is Henderson, don't buy a map card. The base map will be fine in your case. Me, I fish Toledo Bend 6-7 times a year plus travel to a couple out of state as well. I have the Navionics which has 1 foot contours at Toledo Bend as well as the boat lanes, etc.

Thanks Randy. That's actually where I want to get to eventually, fishing other parts of the state, but until then I think I'll take your advice. One question though, which Navionics product did you go with?

I have the Hotmaps premium Southeast. Let me know if you have any questions.

-I have the same card as tracker. and here is some first hand info for ya. I mainly fish cypress and black bayou in Benton, La. they are not "listed" as lakes that they have on their card. but I fished cypress last weekend and with just the lowrance software on my elite 5 up front (I had my navionics card in my graph at my console), the graph did not show the channel. when I popped in my card from my other unit at my console, my elite 5 showed the channel very well. so I would say that even if the lake is not one of their listed lakes, you will still benefit. now it won't show the increments like it will on a featured lake like Toledo, etc, but it will give you much more detail than the base software on the unit. I think im gonna by a platinum card for my unit at my console and just leave the navionics card up front. did this help at all?? I hope I was kinda clear.

doc :)

If you fish Toledo Bend any you probably want a Navionics anyway because LakeMaster doesn't have this lake in HD yet. If you get the premium or Platinum you can update them all year as much as you want on their site. You want the HD Maps for sure so every foot of contour shows up.

At Henderson all you need is a long jig pole And a quarter oz jig about 10 12 ft of line (spiderwire) for exploring.Every day you fish pick a bank and bounce the jig off the bottom from the bank to your boat. Then troll up one side down the other. It will tell you all you need to know

That was actually very helpful Doc. I was actually really hopeful that with the 12 months of updates I might eventually benefit from buying one of the Navionics cards. Who knows. Either way I appreciate your input!

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Originally Posted by The Fisherman

At Henderson all you need is a long jig pole And a quarter oz jig about 10 12 ft of line (spiderwire) for exploring.Every day you fish pick a bank and bounce the jig off the bottom from the bank to your boat. Then troll up one side down the other. It will tell you all you need to know

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That's exactly how my dad did it 20 years ago. I can still remember him using his old Hummingbird fish finder as nothing more than a depth sounder!

I have been watching Navonics the past 3 years. they havn't added any new lakes to the list of Louisiana. Its like they don't think people fish here in this state. I bought a new bird that will take the chip but am waiting a while longer before I buy. If it can be updated for 12 months and they do nothing, what good is the update.

Actually, they do quite a bit on each update. I notice changes on Toledo Bend where they did additional sonar surveys, etc. To add a lake, they have to come out and run sonar surveys on that body of water. Unless there is quite a bit of interest, it's not worth their time. I'm sure if they had a few inquiries about a certain lake, they would certainly look into it.

Look at Lowance's Insite as well. I fish the Big Four in north MS and a good part of what I fish is not mapped on the Navionics cards, very detailed up until they stop and then nothing. Only draw back to the insite is its 3 foot contours instead of 1 foot, will have both in my ride. Insite is 99 bucks.