Lakemaster Card

[smallmouth99]

Does anyone know were I can purchase one without ordering on line? I will be headed up mid May via Milwaukee. I know that there is a Cabelas on the way out of town. Does anyone know if they stock them? I tried to call the store direct and waited on hold over 15 mins each time and no-one ever picked up in the fish finder area.

[BlueRanger]

I can't believe they wouldn't, but you'll also be passing several Gander Mountain stores, and Rollie & Helen's probably has them too...

[Tom502]

Follow this link for a list of LakeMaster dealers in Wisconsin:


http://www.lakemap.com/wisconsindealers.aspx

[George]

I just bought one at Cabela's this last weekend.

[smallmouth99]

Thanks George
On the way to TFF I have to stop in milwaukee for the inspect some equipment for work. Fri on the way out of town I plan on stopping at Cabela's to get a Lakemaster card for my new Bird 597ci hd di that i upgraded too. Last year I was on the lake using the Navionics card and was not real impressed. Did not show all of the humps and stumps on the lake. Can anyone tell me if the Lakemaster card is any better? I heard that TFF was actually maped using a boat for Lakemaster. Also, how is the chipawa flowage on this card. I have some buddies that are going there later in June and was going to let him use the card when I get back.
Thanks
Dan

[Hot Runr Guy]

Dan, check your PM's

HRG

[George]

I don't know how any of this is going to work as I just bought a 587ciHD this past weekend along with the Lakemaster map. One thing I noticed is that Lakemaster doesn't have anything for Canada, but Navionics does. Bad news...I'm basically paying $150 for a map of one lake. Not really, since they include all their lakes in Canada, but since we only fish this one that's the effect. However, the good news is that LDML is one of their new HD maps. So looks I have the makings for a good comparison as to quality.

[BlueSprint07]

Hey guys, I have the Lakemaster WI chip in my 798 and I think it works great. River channel is well defined, contours are very accurate and I believe what you are looking for you will find with this. Definitely cheaper to find it online but Cabelas carries it otherwise. See you in May.

[BlueRanger]

To smallmouth99, I'll just second what BS (:rolleyes:@Jordan) said - if you search back in the forum, we've already discussed the Lakemaster map extensively over the past 2 seasons. Also, if the unusually warm weather continues, you might want to consider moving that trip up a couple weeks. Most years that's exactly the week I'd recommend, but I'm seriously concerned that the smallies could already be in the postspawn doldrums by opening day - I'm starting to go nuts trying to figure out when (or whether) to schedule Smalliepalooza 2012, contemplating whether to take off opening week or just forget it and do the first week of musky season instead this year. Of course, it could turn cold again and end up with normal timing, but so far it doesn't seem likely.

Not sure I see the basis for comparison, George. When it comes to Canada, you're just buying a digital version of the Canadian Hydrographic Service charts. Navionics has chosen to pay the copyright fees to license their data, Lakemaster has not. Good or bad - and CHS charts are usually very reliable - the quality of the data is no reflection on Navionics or Lakemaster.

It wasn't widely reported, but Lakemaster was purchased by the Johnson Outdoors Marine Electronics Group last summer and I'm guessing it was in the talking stages at the time they released Humminbird-compatible products the year before. That's why Lakemaster Humminbird cards offer exclusive features like lake level adjustment that aren't available in the Garmin and Lowrance versions, and Garmin and Lowrance versions are no longer mentioned or sold on the Lakemaster website although you can still buy them through retailers. I also don't see any mention of Lakemaster on the Lowrance website any more...

I don't know if anybody else noticed this, but browsing the spring catalogs the coolest new "killer app" I've seen is the "StructureMap" feature on the new Lowrance HDS Gen2 units. If you have the sidescan module, you can overlay the sidescan images onto your GPS map, using either the last few minutes of real-time data or recordings you've saved to SD cards or the internal memory. This would make things like crib location ridiculously easy - no need to even save any waypoints. Check out the documentation - it's very cool! (http://www.lowrance.com/upload/Lowrance/Documents/Manuals/HDS_STRUCTUREMAP_ADD_988-10175-001_w.pdf) On a small lake, you could very easily create a sidescan map of the entire lake by making a series of parallel passes, or you could do a circuit of the shoreline and map all the weed edges. Then you could go back and study it off the water, looking for all the inside and outside turns in the weedline, for example. I sure hope Humminbird will come out with a similar feature and put it in a software update, because I can see a lot of uses for this but a new $2000 fishfinder is really not in the cards right now...

I take that back - I was just looking at the Humminbird website and their new 360 degree accessory (http://www.humminbird.com/360Imaging/). Another very cool development! It's a shame that you always have to wait several years before you can get all the cool ideas wrapped up in a single product... Funny thing is, I had an idea for doing exactly this a couple years ago after seeing similar technology available for commercial surveying from a company called Kongsberg. In that application, a rotating narrow-beam transducer was dropped down to the bottom on a tripod to scan a circular area of the bottom. My idea was to do it from the surface, and I had in mind to use it for ice fishing - imagine being able to punch one hole in the ice, drop a transducer in and look around 360 degrees in a couple hundred foot radius to see where the fish are, then go drill your fishing holes right on top of them. I actually contacted Humminbird to inquire about how to pitch an idea to them, without saying what it was except that it was an accessory idea for sideimaging - obviously I thought I was on to a great idea and would have wanted non-disclosure agreements, etc. before revealing it - but never received a response. Chances are they were already working on the idea anyway... The sonar display pictures on the website are exactly what I had envisioned. The way they've implemented it is interesting - I think it would be great to make it available in a trolling-motor mount or for ice fishing, but I'm not sure I like the idea of a separate, somewhat obtrusive piece of hardware that mounts on the back of the boat. Sadly, this new accessory won't work with my 997c SI - it's only for the newer (end in 8) models with ethernet capability. And according to Cabela's website, it will begin shipping in August and they're taking pre-orders at $1999 for the accessory alone - add another $1000 for the cheapest compatible fishfinder. Think I'll pass for now!

[George]

It wasn't my intent to make any comparison, just an observation that Lakemaster doesn't have a Canadian map package and Navionics does. As far as the CHS goes, I have the paper map they produced for LDML. In fact, 2 years before the map came out we were fishing LDML and talked to the guys who were doing the hydrograhic survey. It was interesting to watch them do their pattern on the lake. And particularly fun when they neared a big rock or rockbar that I knew was there and watch them quickly pull the power off and raise the motor. They were good, I never saw them hit anything over the 6 days we were there. And you are right Blue, the map is excellent.

[BlueSprint07]

Already getting "lippy" Blue...? I was going to bring you a new smallmouth killer lure this year too. Catches them when they're not on beds which I know is really tough for you. :-) Hey I'm headed down to Bago right now to fish with a guy that has the the lowrance and we're going to experiment some with the sidescan thing. I was also reading the 360 technology and I'm pretty sure if I wait another couple years I can get a new boat that will come with an actual "fish-finder" and just send out a radar that comes back with a reading like a submarine in a movie showing the fish like an approaching enemy vessel... I mean, at some point this becomes cheating right? I suppose though for what i already have invested in chasing these little critters I'll cheat anyway I can.

I was at Ski's house last night we grilled steaks with the wives. Talked about the early year and how messed up this is going to be. I'm thinking along your lines of aiming for musky opener, might still get up my usual Wed-Sunday to camp and catch whatever else is biting, but pretty sure the bass will be postpawn. In fact the entire food chain might be. I don't see it cooling down enough to stop them. By the next few moon phases they will incubate and spawn out. I'll just keep an eye on the site and let the guys who are on the water tell us what's going on.

Good Luck Boys, nice to get my sea legs back in March though,

[smallmouth99]

Blue
Unfortunatly for me I am stuck with that week. Lets hope for some cold weather for the next month