Lowrance GPS Maps

[timk]

Hello .. I just received a Lowrance GPS Model H2O .. ( 30 year Aniversary gift from work .. yes .. my mind was on fishing when I chose it ! ) . Any comments on what type of Mapping Card I should buy ? I am new to this .. so I don't know much about the unit(s) . I read a thread that the Flowage was mapped this year for GPS usage ( Mapping Specialists ?? ) .. would this card work in my unit ( when published ) ? Any suggestions would be appreciated .. Thank you .. Tim

[Mark Benson]

Tim:

I don't think that Mapping Specialists does maps on cards, but they do make great maps on paper.

IMHO either Lakemaster or Navionics are the two chips to look into. This summer while at Mille Lacs, I bought the Navionics for my LMS480 and a friend brought his unit (H2O) loaded with a borrowed chip from Lakemaster. I bought the Navionics ($145) figuring for the extra $$$ I could get maps for the entire Midwest. Lakemaster ($100) is based by lake or state. Using them side by side was fantastic.

The good and bad of both that I could tell. The Navionics chip has great detail, but takes some time reload when you zoom in or out. On my smaller screen (though I don't know this) it is difficult to read, though once you get close to structure, you can see that the topo lines are closer together and a shadow becomes evident where structure is. Maybe I can change the color of the topo lines and make that easier to see (just thought of that). The Lakemaster moves faster and you can get in closer to the spot. I can see why people have both, but use the Lakemaster more often. The Lakemaster we ran at Mille Lacs was on an H2O and worked great. Good luck!!!

Mark

[BlueRanger]

The information I got from LakeMaster this summer was that the TFF will be available as a paper map, a LakeArt frameable wall hanging and on the next update of their Wisconsin card for Lowrance and Garmin units. I sent them an email this morning, and they said they're just starting to process the survey data and don't have a firm release date yet.

Given the amount of time they put into the survey effort, this should be much more accurate than anything currently available and worth waiting for.

[wally1]

Blue,
Any idea if their new card with latest mapping survey will be available before 09 fishing season? Is there a decent card right now between Lakemaster and Navionics, on the TFF?

[BlueRanger]

I have to believe they'd want to have it ready soon - spring is the biggest sales period in the fishing industry and I don't think they'd want to miss out on it with their new products. But times are tough and I don't know anything about the company's financial situation, so we'll have to wait and see.

[BlueRanger]

The answer to the other question is no. If the TFF is important to you, I wouldn't buy a card until this one is available. If they did a good job on the survey, and it looked to me like they were being very thorough, this should be significantly better than anything previously available.

[jjeyes19]

I spoke with someone from Lakemaster last week and was told that the card for the flowage will be available this spring, depending on whe nlowrance wants to release it. The paper maps will be available sometime after that.

[timk]

Thank you to all for replying ..

[BlueRanger]

Received a response today that they are finishing cleanup of the data and the Lake Art wall posters (apparently individually printed to order) will be available very soon. The GPS chips are made by Garmin and Lowrance and will be released on their schedules, probably sometime this spring. They haven't scheduled a print run of the paper maps yet.

[wally1]

Great news, thx for the update. Let us know when you see the new chip out.

[Fish Whisperer]

The information I got from LakeMaster this summer was that the TFF will be available as a paper map, a LakeArt frameable wall hanging and on the next update of their Wisconsin card for Lowrance and Garmin units. I sent them an email this morning, and they said they're just starting to process the survey data and don't have a firm release date yet.

Given the amount of time they put into the survey effort, this should be much more accurate than anything currently available and worth waiting for.

I have a very old fish finder, and no personal experience with the newer units that utilize the SD mapping cards. I'm considering purchasing a Hummingbird unit with Side Imaging. Blue Ranger had mentioned that the LakeMaster data should be available on the next update of the Wisconsin Card for Lowrance and Garmin units. Would this same card be compatible with the Hummingbird units? Thanks for any input.

Fish Whisperer

[BlueRanger]

Just Lowrance and Garmin. Humminbirds only take Navionics cards. But honestly, as much as I wish I could use the new cards, I wouldn't give up the sideimaging for it. Being able to view accurate depth contours on the GPS would be nice, but it won't tell you where and how close to the surface the stumps are, show you changes in bottom composition, or let you locate and mark a dozen cribs in 2 minutes. I'll buy the paper map and use it as a starting point when exploring new areas, then idle through them with the sideimaging and plot my own waypoints to mark the safe travel routes and obstacles to avoid.

And who knows, Fishing Hot Spots may decide to survey the lake too so I can buy a Navionics card for the 'bird. If not, maybe I'll add a Lowrance or Garmin portable.

[Fish Whisperer]

Thanks for the info, Blue Ranger. I really like the idea of the side imaging also, so I'll probably do the same thing you're doing with the SI and a Lake Master paper map. Thanks again!

Fish Whisperer

[BlueRanger]

I just want to add a couple other observations to give a more balanced perspective on the sideimaging units.

1. On most installations, it's only useful at low speeds - idling or using the trolling motor. The SI transducers are large and cost about $250 to replace, so most people mount them above the hull bottom where they're protected from underwater obstacles and are completely out of the water when the boat is on plane. Like most fiberglass bass and walleye boat owners, I mounted the transducer for my 997c over the transom step, and it's about 6 inches above the hull bottom. It works up to about 4-5 mph, then I have to switch to a 2D view with a through-hull transducer for high speed operation. Best detail with SI is obtained at speeds in the 1-3 mph range, and traveling in a straight line.

2. Unlike many units, you really will get results right out of the box on the automatic settings that are as good as and often better than the photos they show in the ads. It will show you every detail of the lake bottom and teach you things in one pass that you wouldn't figure out in a lifetime of fishing without it. But it's only useful for navigation if you have the time to explore an area at slow speed and use it in concert with the GPS to mark the items of interest. So if you're looking for a way to get around a large unfamiliar lake without running into the bottom and find general structural features like points, bars and inside turns on contours, a GPS with a good digital map card is probably more valuable.

Now that I have a garage, I'm really looking forward to bringing my boat home to the Twin Cities occasionally and trying the SI on some other lakes and rivers, especially ones that have clean sand bottoms and deeper weed edges. In many areas of the TFF, it's hard to tell whether that elongated object you're seeing on the screen is a fish or a sunken log. I'm really eager to see whether I can use it to locate schools of white bass, walleyes or big catfish on the St. Croix and Mississippi, or big schools of prespawn crappies on some of the lakes I fish in early spring.

Unrelated - added a few TFF wildlife photos to the online album today

[George]

Nice pictures Blue. Flowage road is just gorgeous in the fall. I usually see it from my snowmobile after a stop to see Ken & Keith at the Birches.

[chicken]

Blue-
Have you had any trouble with the location of the 'ducer for your side imaging? Either noise from the motor, location, hitting things in the flowage etc?
I'm getting ready to mount mine to the boat, but i want to do it right the first time. 15" from the prop, 1/2" below the boat, etc.

Thanks!

[BlueRanger]

Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sideimaging/ and you'll find a very active discussion board that's monitored regularly by a couple guys from Humminbird. If any questions or problems arise, that's the place to find an answer. If you look in the photos section, there's a whole album called "Installation: Transducer Photo" where you can see how other people did theirs on various types of boats. Mine is mounted directly to the hull a couple inches to the right of the jackplate and above the transom notch so it's about 4 inches above the actual hull bottom and not likely to get hit if I happen to slide over a stump or something.

Mine worked great right off the bat, I just followed the installation instructions and all I had to do was tweak the transducer angle once I got it in the water. I did have pretty severe interference when my TM was running at less than full speed, and also when I trimmed the big motor. Humminbird sent me a free RF choke that plugs in between the unit and the power cable - the TM interference went away. I still get some interference from the power trim, but I don't change the trim much when I'm idling, so that really doesn't bother me.

[chicken]

Blue, thanks a bunch for the input. It took me a while to figure out the Yahoo site and finally get registered, but they do have quite the following for side imaging info.
I mounted the ducer last night, a little shy of the recommended 15" but I think it was my best option. Hopefully I do not pick up any interference. I cant wait to go try it out, and hopefully I will still have time to fish and not start at the screen all day!
I looked at the images you have posted and it appears you have a bunch from the big side of the lake and near the dam. Have you used the SI much up by the quiet zone, narrows, Blair, etc? I'm really curious to see some of those holes up there...

[BlueRanger]

I added a couple for you that were taken in that area. I also mapped most of the screen shots so you can see roughly where they were taken - it's easiest if you use the satellite view. I'm not sure what you mean by holes - there really aren't any other than spots on the channel bends that are scoured a little deeper than the rest of the channel. It's just that the river channel meanders so much that if you drive straight up the middle of that area you'll actually be crossing perpendicular to the channel in several places, which does look like a hole if you're using a 2D sonar. It will be very obvious with the sideimaging that you're actually crossing a channel. When the LakeMaster map comes out, everybody will be able to see what I'm talking about. Ski and I were discussing this last year - look at the river above Murray's Landing on Google Earth and you can see how much the channel meanders - it doesn't suddenly straighten out when it hits the Flowage.

[George]

Awesome pictures Blue! Thanks for posting them. :)