New Lowrance HDS 5

[Chops]

Hi all...Got it with the Lake Insight option built in. Bass Pro rep told me the Chip Flowage map has been updated to HD quality. Think I should get a Navonics SD card? Not sure what to expect w/ the Lake Insight. thx. See yous Aug 28-Labor Day on the Flowage !!
greg

[Dave Hardy]

Let me preface this by saying I have not confirmed anything the Bass Pro guy told me, but...

The Bass Pro employee working the marine electronics area told me that the Lake Insights maps have nowhere near the detail that used to be pre-loaded on the higher-end Lowrance units. I never owned any of the LCX series units from Lowrance, however, this guy told me that they used to come pre-loaded with the high detail maps. He then went on to tell me that Lowrance changed that with the HDS series so that now if you want the best detail, you would need to buy a chip.

On this day, I was not in the market and told him all I needed was an idea of how to safely clean spots off of my sonar unit screen. I mentioned that we loved our Lowrance 527CiDF unit we bought two years back. This is when we got on the subject of maps and what is pre-loaded vs. add-on chip. The pre-loaded map on our unit was pretty weak (5' increments I think) and did not do much when fishing the flowage. However, we bought the LakeMaster chip and the difference was incredible.

So, I would try to determine what map is pre-loaded and whether it gives you the 1' - 2' increments for the waters you fish most. If it does not have this detail, then I would look into a map chip. However, you might also want to make sure the map chip has the definition you expect on the waters you fish most. I believe The Flowage has great maps on all the major chip brands.

Let us know what you decide. By the way, vinegar! Vinegar is the secret ingredient to safely clean the spots/residue off your sonar unit screens. In a spray bottle, significantly dilute the vinegar with water, spray a little on the screen and then wipe down with a microfiber towel or lens cleaning cloth. Repeat until she shines.

[Mark Benson]

Dave:

Vinegar is what we used to wash windows with all the time in my youth!!! Now its Windex...

Mark

[Dave Hardy]

Mark, it is really funny you say that--about using vinegar years ago to wash windows. That is what the Bass Pro guy said to me. Something like, "my grandmother and mother would never start spring cleaning until they had a brand new bottle of vinegar. They still don't make anything that washes windows better."

So, it makes some sense to use for sonar screens. The BP guy said to not use any of the commercial glass cleaners, as most of them have chemicals that can damage the screen.

By the way, thanks for the recognition of the Permit in my avatar. I fished for a few years to finally be able to say I caught one. I might change it to another pic--probably one where I am underneath a muskie.

Dave

[AJP]

Chops, Just got back from fishing the Flowage for the past week. I'm running an HDS-8 in the bow and an HDS-10 in the console...both with Navionics Platinum cards...a little spendy but I'd say they're worth it. They give quite a bit more detail than the pre-loaded maps especially when it comes to contours and depths. I did find that there was some 'drift' in some of the structure indicated on the maps...for instance, I was fishing a weed bar in open water and while maintaining my depth around the structure I found that my boat position as indicated on the Lowrance (track) didn't line up with the conture of the map...it was shifted out of position a bit. I don't know if that's as much a map issue as it may be a sattelite issue...either way not a real big problem.

I didn't find any major inconsistancies in the Navionics map.

[Chops]

Thanks...I'm gonna get a Nav Platnium and will compare the two, and report back !

[Chops]

Lake Insight that is embedded in the HD-5 was very functional, but not as specific as the Navionics Platinum. It did give 3-D simulated view of the area but only at a big zoom out. Once you zoom in, the map looks like a Fishing Hot Spots Map.
I'm glad I got the Nav Plat. I immediatley copied and saved the new card to my laptop...then I saw the Do Not Copy in the box. I'm a dumbass. Thankfully it worked just fine.

[Ty Sennett]

Thanks for helping Chops out. I didn't have time to get on the computer the last few days. Great info.