Navionics 2006 North list of lakes on chip

[ice-man/vexilar-king]

Navionics North 2006 list of lakes

[BIG DIESEL]

So Red Lake is not on there?

[PerchJerker]

Navionics has a ton of maps but not very many of them are the super-accurate High Definition maps. The majority of their maps are basically DNR lake maps with a gps grid laid over the top - so accurate shorelines but not accurate depth contours. Up to you if you think that's helpful to you or not.

I believe a high-definiton map of Upper Red will be on the new verion of the LEI LakeMaster chip that is supposed to be available in the next month or two.

[picksbigwagon]

Ice man, after reading around this topic today. I noticed you are really pushing the Nav cards, and also selling them. Have you used the Lakemaster cards? I am waiting for their new card to come out before I commit to buy one, but if both of them use the the 20+ year old DNR maps for most of their lakes, what about the maps of other states? Like Iowa or ND? Same old DNR maps?????

I am not trying to discredit you or anything, but I just ordered a H2O with mapcreate, so I am now making the decision on which chip to buy. Other people have used the Navionics and love them for the lakes up north, I am just looking for someone who has used both....

[PierBridge]

I have used them both.

I prefer LakeMaster overwhelmingly, I was one of the Lucky one's who got the LakeMaster Minnesota Chip for $69 the Premium North Navonics that I tried was $200, I fish Minnesota mainly I don't need other states or Lake Superior, I also use my GPS for Hunting and Traveling so the detailed LakeMaster Road mapping and POI "find anything basicly" that Navonics does not have made my decision easy, I also hated having to switch regions on the Nav chip.

Both Chips are great and use a lot of the same Lake maps, you'll have to base your decision on your needs.

Good Luck.

[High Velocity]

As of last year if you fished much north of say Brainerd Lake Master had little available, definately catered to the Twin Cities fisherman - I think I'll go Navionics. And one person speaks up for Navionics and they get called to task

[BIG DIESEL]

In my shoes of living in Southern MN and 75% of my fishing is in southern MN and 25% is on Lake of the Woods/Red Lake....what would you recommend? I plan on very rarely fishing outside of MN but do plan on using my GPS for traveling outside of MN. What are my best options?

I have the H2Oc and no software/chip at this point. Any help for those who have used both?

[PerchJerker]

I have used both LakeMaster and Navionics.

LM puts you in a tough spot with LOTW. You would need to buy two map chips, one for LOTW and one for the rest of MN. And you'd need to wait for the updated version to get Upper Red.

I am not as familiar with the Nav. chip. I don't know if their map for LOTW is high-definition, and I don't know if they have any plans to add Upper Red.

Regarding traveling outside of MN, neither map chip is going to do anything for you in that regard. That's where MapCreate would come into play.

Personally, I prefer LM over Nav. One thing is the ability to zoom in closer. But the biggest factor was I looked at the lakes I'd be fishing the most, and looked to see which chip had the best maps (ie. the most high-def maps) for the lakes I fished the most, and looked at the price. Go to each website, get the list of lakes, and start going through it to see which lakes interest you --- and pay attention to if they're high def maps or just DNR maps.

[picksbigwagon]

I don't think I called him to task, and if you want to think I did, that's your right I suppose. I am looking for comparisons....if both companies use 20+ year old maps for the majority of their maps, and after looking at the lists of high resolution maps, they don't have many high res. maps, I wanted to know if he could compare the both of them and if not, someone who has compared them can reply too.....I ordered the H2O plus with the mapcreate because of travel with my family, and I do fish outside of minnesota on occasion. I liked the idea of having public hunting lands with Mapcreate, so that is why I went that route instead just getting a h2o and a chip.

I am wondering if it is worth my hard earned money to plunk it down on a navionic chip or a lakemaster chip.

[vikingmeatwad]

I like to see the posts from everyone on these chips. It is really quite a commitment to spend like $300 on gps and chips and I like this info to help me pick the one I need.

I will see how the new lm chip is and pick what I need.

Thanks!

[Northlander]

I live up north and fish Lake Superior and the St.Louis River about 70% of my time so the new Navionics Premium North Chip was what I had to go with. $130 at Marine General on their boat show sale. I have seen the Lakemaster chip a few times this year. If I didnt fish up North or want LOW I would get the Lakemaster Chip. Very detailed and you can zoom in tighter. I think the big lakes are about equal on both. Many more lakes on the Navionics chip but more expensive. By summer I will have the Lakemaster Chip as well. Run the Navionics on the dash and the Lakemaster on the bow. That should do the trick.

[picksbigwagon]

Northlander, for the lakes up north around you, do you find that the maps on navionics up around two harbors and the like are pretty close to accurate or are they more like the maps you see in the book you can buy for the arrowhead region. Does that make sense? I fish at least once or twice a year up there and would like to have access to those maps as well

[Northlander]

It all depends on the lake. Some of the more popular lakes are good, not great but good and others are not much if any better than the paper maps. paper maps suck when driving or walking to your spot so the Navionics was a great buy for me. At $130 it made the decision a lot easier. Plus I could have got $75 back from Navionics for my old chip but held onto it for my X-15. The new Navionics chips wont work in the X-15's.

[katoguy]

Big Diesel, I have been playing with my Nav Premium chip on both my Matrix 97 and i-Finder H20. The i-Finder has such a small screen. You have to zoom in so close then you lose the bigger picture. The Matrix's larger screen makes a huge difference. Of course, this is nothing more that a simulation mode from sitting in my easy chair. On-the-lake use will be the proof.

Someone mentioned a $200 Premium Nav chip. I think they may have been referring to last year's premium gold chip. This year's premium chip as a ton more lakes (especially in my area). I got my chip from Cabela's for $130 (after $20 coupon in the mail if you spent over $100). If you fish southern lakes around Mankato, I think this is really your only choice. I don't know much about the LM, but they don't have much for southern MN lakes, and I can't use it in my Matrix. I would have welcomed the option to purchase one of LM chips.

I also have a Hotspots elite chip (present that came with my i-Finder). It has very few Mankato area lakes mapped.

I would venture to say that all of the Mankato area lake maps are pretty much the same as of now. Not too much structure in the lakes down here (a few exceptions such as Tetonka).

It would be nice if all the state lakes where re-mapped down to the foot! The state won't be shelling out that kind of cash, so it will be up to private companies to do so.

[BIG DIESEL]

Thanks for the info and re-assurance katoguy. My plan is to get the Nav Prem North chip and maybe at a later date get MapCreate.

One questions I had is how detailed are the roads on the Nav Prem North Chip (new version)? I assume fairly detailed? or is it just mainly a lake chip?

[PierBridge]

No road map on the Nav chip.

LakeMaster's Chip has very detailed Road Maps "mapcreate" with exact addreses and POI.

[Northlander]

Navionics gives you major roads/highways etc. thats it. No side streets or adresses to the dollar store if ya get my drift. Lakemaster is much better in that area.

[BIG DIESEL]

Does it show the public accesses and roads to get there? Maybe I need to go out and play with the chip to see how detailed it is...

Also - my BIG questions is....What are the differences if any between the lakemaster LOW chip and the Nav Prem chip when viewing LOW. I understand they are both 1' contours, is there anything majorly different between the two? I also understand that there are roads/etc getting you to LOW but as for the actual lake data - what are the differences and which one is better.

[katoguy]

The guys are right about the roads. Not much info on the Nav chip. The value is basically only for lakes.

My Matrix has all the major roads and POI preloaded! How will this help me while in the boat??? I guess if I get lost on the way to the lake I can pull my rig over and run back to the boat to check out the matrix map!

[Paul Waldowski]

BD,

Same map, only difference is the LM chip gives you the a much better zoom capability than the Nav chip.

[BIG DIESEL]

Paul

What does more zoom capability mean? More detail when you zoom in closer?

[Paul Waldowski]

Navionics will only zoom into a 1/10 of a mile whereas LM zooms into .03 of a mile. Great for going right to the spot on the spot.

[Big Julie]

In a practical application, it means when you are fully 'zoomed in' you will see maybe a quarter to a half inch of movement on your GPS unit after traveling 20 yards.

Very nice!

It definitely allows more precision staying on fish.

[BIG DIESEL]

So, would most people say that for bang for your buck for a southern MN fisherman (who also fishes LOW) to get the Navionics chip then since they are a considerable amount of lakes more so on the Nav chip than Lakemaster?

[ice-man/vexilar-king]

Sorry for the late post, but this needed to be bumped. This is great info for the guys getting ready for this years open water season.