Lakemaster

[Walleyez]

I'm outfitting a new boat with a Humminbird GPS/Sonar unit and LakeMaster map chip. Does anyone know if the recent LakeMaster map for the TFF marks the original river beds ? In my old boat I had a Fishing Hot Spots map that had a red line marking the original river bed. I thought that was very helpful navagating the flowage.

[byronbears84]

Sorry i cant help you with what your asking, but did you do much fishing on the river channels? if so, any success? Thanks

Travis

[rocko]

Walleyez,
The Lakemaster Wisconsin chip I use on my Humminbird 898 has been awesome. It has 1 foot contours of the flowage and has been very accurate, showing me an awful lot of structure that I didn't realize was there, after 20 years of driving around. You can highlight the shallow areas, raise and lower the lake levels shown for the contours based on the conditions, and clearly see the river channel while boating around. You still need to be very careful...but it has been a good investment. Not all of the shallow rock bars are necessarily there, or perfect, but so far so good. You will probably take the Hot Spots map and put in a drawer somewhere and never look at it again. Just double check that the chip you buy has the TFF in HD.

Rocko

[Walleyez]

Rocko,
Thanks for the detailed reply! It looks like I am making the right choice. You say you can: "clearly see the river channel". Is that because you can interpret were it is by the contour lines or is there a specific type of line marking the path ? Thanks again for your help. And yea, the new map has the TFF in HD.

Travis,
I have fished the river channel with only limited success. I should probably be doing more of it. The main reason I like a map with the channel marked is for safe(er) navagation.

[rocko]

Walleyez,
There is no specific river channel "line" to follow, but the contours make it clear. Caution again, though, as often there are stump fields very close to the river channel is some areas, notably near Fisherman's Landing and the west side of Long Island.

Enjoy your new toy!

[BlueRanger]

Rocko mentions the ability to adjust the lake level offset, which is unique to the Humminbird version of the Lakemaster card. Another thing you can do is set both a shallow highlight region (for example, anything 5' or shallower) and a second highlight zone where you set both the minimum and maximum depths. Each of those zones will then display in a different color. The shallow zone won't protect you from every obstacle, but at least it will alert you to the really shallow areas. You might use the second zone for fishing: say the walleyes are all biting between 17-19' - you could highlight that depth zone. But you can also set it to start at a depth that's only likely to be found within the channel in the area you're in - let's say the edges of the channel are at 12' and the deepest part varies from 16-20'. Set it to highlight depths from 14'-25' and it will do a pretty good job of highlighting the deepest part of the channel. You can do the same thing with basin outlines, and the better you learn the lake, the more creative you can be in customizing the highlight zone to the region you're in and what you're trying to accomplish.

[Hot Runr Guy]

Walleyez,
Last year was my first with a H'bird/LakeMaster combination, and it's an eye-opening experience. Like many, I've got 30+ years on the TFF, but the chip shows the nuances in the river channel and the bottom that are difficult to detect otherwise. During low-water conditions, add some more skull & crossbone waypoints for those hazards that are normally just under the surface, and enjoy the TFF even more.
HRG