Sonar Map recommendations please

[moog5050]

I believe that we have been wasting some time by fishing unproductive waters since we really haven't focused on bottom structure, drop-offs, points, etc.  So, I would like to refocus our efforts and hopefully build a decent list of specific sites to target when fishing. 

 

Our FF is a lowrance  7 HDI.  I would be happy to find a good program that can work with it, but am not opposed to using a separate device for the most detailed maps.  Been playing with the Navionics I-phone app and like it, but would love to try the hotmaps premium.  From my review of the navionics site, it appears that they may not have HD maps for the I-Bay area and, in any event, its not compatible with the 7 HDI. 

 

Any recommendations are much appreciated.

[TyeeTanic]

Do you still have the manual?

Do you know if the SD card slot can read more tha 2 GB?

I know some older units had a limit on the size of the SD card and a 2 GB limit

won't get you the maps with the detailed contours.

 

If it will handle the High Capacity SD cards (+2 GB), then check

whether your area is on the Lake Insight mapset. Lake Insight has

detailed contours covering a range of Lakes including the great lakes.

[moog5050]

Thanks Tyee.  Pretty sure it is compatible but will check.  I haven't looked at Lake insight yet.  Appreciate the suggestion.

[tlr426]

I have the navionics card with the fish and chips option and get 1 ' contours on the lake. There maybe better options out there but the detail is very good and is fairly acurate when compared to the actual sonar numbers

[moog5050]

Thanks TLR.  I have been playing with navionics on my iphone and it seems decent.  Gonna give it a run on the boat before buying a card.

[Andre wallyandre]

Thanks TLR.  I have been playing with navionics on my iphone and it seems decent.  Gonna give it a run on the boat before buying a card.

To get all the details (1ft. contour) on youre IPhone you need to activate the sonarcharts

[Andre wallyandre]

I believe that we have been wasting some time by fishing unproductive waters since we really haven't focused on bottom structure, drop-offs, points, etc.  So, I would like to refocus our efforts and hopefully build a decent list of specific sites to target when fishing. 

 

Our FF is a lowrance  7 HDI.  I would be happy to find a good program that can work with it, but am not opposed to using a separate device for the most detailed maps.  Been playing with the Navionics I-phone app and like it, but would love to try the hotmaps premium.  From my review of the navionics site, it appears that they may not have HD maps for the I-Bay area and, in any event, its not compatible with the 7 HDI. 

 

Any recommendations are much appreciated.

To get a very high details map you need 2 things:1st: update youre Elite so you will be getting all the capabilities of the Navionics card and get a Navionics+ so you will benefit of the soanrchart: 1ft contour

If you want to see how it looks, get on that page and zoom in until the blue button on the left bottom corner is active and cllck on it.

http://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=en#@6&key=erqgGjmfrM

[moog5050]

Thanks Wally.  I have that on my phone.  I assume that's as good as it will get even if I update and buy the card?  Probably still worth it to have it on my FF rather than using the phone.

 

I looked at lake insight as suggested but they don't provide a real example of the detail for the Ibay area (or any part of lake Ontario) so its hard to tell if its any better than Nav +. 

[Andre wallyandre]

With the 1ft. contour Navionics+ is hard to beat

[Sk8man]

Whatever you do DON'T get the Lake Insight Pro V 14 or 15. The software is absolutely worthless....garbage No actual lake contours or shoreline info etc. just tells you there is a lake there and that's about it. Go with the Navionics stuff.

[moog5050]

Thanks Sk8man.  That what I was worried about with insight since they don't demonstrate the maps in my area.

[Consigliere]

Navionics is good, but the 1ft contours are really just interpolation in a lot of areas so the true details are not there.  It is probably the best off the shelf product though.

 

To get perfect maps you will need to generate your own with a Vexilar Sonar Phone type app.  Its actually quite amazing how much difference there is in some areas.

[Andre wallyandre]

Lake Ontario has been chart with some high tech equipment and sonarcharts are right on the button 99% of the time.

[bayofquintecharters]

Navionics is good, but the 1ft contours are really just interpolation in a lot of areas so the true details are not there. It is probably the best off the shelf product though.

To get perfect maps you will need to generate your own with a Vexilar Sonar Phone type app. Its actually quite amazing how much difference there is in some areas.

In some areas your right the 1 ft contours seem extrapolated, however, the vast majority of Lake Ontario is amazing.

Plus if you aren't happy with the detail it's so incredibly easy to grid the area and upload your logs or use SonarCharts live. I live on a little lake that has had inaccurate charts for as long as I can remember. Last year I finally uploaded some logs from out there and the difference is miraculous. The cool thing is with crowd sourcing anyone who updates their card on the Navionics website has all the detail from my recordings. I know some guys (like tournament anglers) don't like the crowd sourcing but I love that I can get safer more accurate charts so easily.

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