best map/sChart /st lawrence river

[wildoats]

Getting a  (newer) gps /sounder  [Christmas I hope)...Any experience with the best navionics card  or?    there....( on the river)  thanks!

[Andre wallyandre]

Navionics+

 

But some model are coming in bundle; bundle mean that you can get a Navionics+ much cheaper when you are buying a bundle. Any idea on what brand & model Santa will bring to you?

 

http://www.navionics.com/en/navionics-plus-2

 

Don't know exactly the area you are fishing but you can get a idea of what you are getting by looking at the webapp:

https://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=fr#boating@9&key=mwhmGr_loM

Edited December 22, 2016 by wallyandre

[wildoats]

Wally, ..It's a hds 9, gen 3...($ Towards it )

      I read on this forum someone was having big issues with a navionics up @ the river depth & contour issues, perhaps the unit needed a software upgrade.                                  Kev    Hilton/Clayton ny

Edited December 22, 2016 by wildoats

[Andre wallyandre]

With any map supplyers the rivers are quite often not chart or poorly chart but for the St-Lawrence it is very accurate.Using a Gen-3 you can improve the maps by linking you're Gen-3 to a smartphone using the Navionics App ($15 for the app) and once you update you're app and you're Navionics+ everything will be updated and more accurate.

 

Take a look at the last link in my post; https://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=fr#boating@9&key=mwhmGr_loM

[wildoats]

downloading the app now , thanks !

[justtracytrolling]

Id recommend a unit that allows you to make your own map. You will find features that arent on any map, especially on the st lawrence.

Justin Okrepki

NYSDEC licensed guide #7324

http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/

(607)-349-1750

[justtracytrolling]

The gen 3 will do this and if you want someone with experience with the insight genesis on the st lawrence prof t has used it successfully and he can probably walk you thru it. Its not an easy system but very effective.

Justin Okrepki

NYSDEC licensed guide #7324

http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/

(607)-349-1750

[Andre wallyandre]

Id recommend a unit that allows you to make your own map. You will find features that arent on any map, especially on the st lawrence.

Justin Okrepki

NYSDEC licensed guide #7324

http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/

(607)-349-1750

On the next update from Lowrance you will be able to draw you're map directly on you're Lowrance. It will be possible with the Gn-3, Gen-2 Touch and Gen-2 non-touch.

Edited December 22, 2016 by wallyandre

[wildoats]

Thanks all for the great input, ..I be working on the chart info this spring ,

Thanks again,

all have a great Christmas. "oats" Kev

[Prof T]

Cheers and Merry Christmas to all!

 

A Gen 3 HDS 8 Touch? Wow, I need new elves! You will be in great shape. But if they don't offer a great deal on a bundled chart card I'd hold off till I see what Navionics and Lowrance have come together on for the upcoming year.

 

If you haven't already read this thread on This old boat, check it out: Sonarchart live on you're Lowrance screen

 

​The video shows exactly what I've been talking about with the inaccuracy of the previous Navionics charts. Watch when he reverts to the base map  ( Nav +  I assume) and then to his live recording of what is really down there! I can show you 20 areas within 2 miles here that are the same.

 

Lowrance gave us the ability last season to create that level of detail with Insight Genesis, and they kept it FREE. But it was tedious and time consuming. For me, for the way I fish, it's  worth every minute. Humminbird seems to have gotten it right, right off the bat.

 

Wallyandre's post has gotten me very interested, mostly because it will let me do what I did last year, but in real time. Naturally, it will require a subscription that I didn't need in the past, but it's a pay for convenience service just like the Nice and Easy...

 

The last consideration, and this could start a whole argument here, is whether or not you are willing to share your findings. If everyone shared every scan, the charts would be perfect, and I could stop complaining. But guess what? No way I'm sharing my findings with the world. I work hard to find my spots. I have a few I won't fish in the daylight or if there are other boats around for fear of being seen. Would you post the location of a hot duck swamp, a  brook trout stream, a bay with big post spawn northerns in May, or a woodlot with a good crop of wild mushrooms? NEVER

 

Your new Gen 3 will be Wifi, and you can connect via the cell phone app, to Sonar Chart live (Navionics). Looks like you can then submit your data, they can update their database, and everyone with a subscription can take advantage. (I hope you get to choose whether or not it can be kept private.) This will be a great feature for pleasure boaters and I hope lots of fishermen around me use it      .

[Andre wallyandre]

With the new software coming you can create you're map and the datas are recorded on you're Navionics card; if you decide not to share it's easy you just don't update you're card.

 

You can get a bundle with the HOOk series and the Elite Ti

Edited December 23, 2016 by wallyandre

[justtracytrolling]

I should note the helix system is a live chart created right before your eyes, BUT that only records 8hrs of data. After that you have to lose the first 8 hrs to continue. You can add auto chart pro and then you can record a seemingly endless amount, BUT now you have to use your PC to update your map with new data after each trip. I went with this as I don't have to share with anyone. Once you make your own map you see that the navionics is junk really IMO.

Justin Okrepki

NYSDEC licensed guide #7324

http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/

(607)-349-1750

[Andre wallyandre]

If Navionics were so much of a junk they will not stay on the market!

[justtracytrolling]

Have you made your own map and compared it to the navionics yet? You will be shocked at what the bottom really looks like...I fished literally thousands of hours on Otisco without a custom map and found things I never knew existed this year with the auto chart. Just because navionics is the best on the market doesn't mean their maps are accurate...My son is sponsored by navionics and believe me I know their products and unless they have recently mapped the lake you fish their maps are educated guesses and even if they have mapped your water they haven't mapped it nearly as well as you can. Another cool feature for anyone fishing a body of water where the water level changes several feet throughout the year is the ability to enter a water level offset so if you troll tight structure you can follow it even if the lake is down several feet.

Justin Okrepki

NYSDEC licensed guide #7324

http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/

(607)-349-1750

[Andre wallyandre]

I fish mostly Lake Champlain, lake Ontario in spring for browns and the St-Lawrence river from Montreal and Three Rivers around a 60 miles stetch and the Navionics are very accurate except in certain very shallow area and I always run my Navionics app link by wifi with my Gen-3 so a couple of weeks later it's all done and I don't care sharing my finds. But that is me.

 

I also chart 4 new lakes last summer so the guys that use a Navionics will get a map for those lakes. That's my nature to be generous and this is why I'm sharing a lot over the net but they are things that I keep for myself specially my 10lbs walleyes spots.

Edited December 23, 2016 by wallyandre

[Prof T]

Google tells me that 71% of the earth is covered with water. The fact that Navionics charts know anything at all about our individual little ponds is astounding.

 

I'm in the process of going through a lifetime's accumulation o hunting and fishing stuff and it's amazing I ever caught a fish with the stuff I used when I got started.  If I caught a fish hand lining my lead line on Oneida Lake, I'd throw out my Tide bottle so I could get back onto the spot. On the river it was more about lining the head of the island up with the white cottage while you got the buoy in line with the porch window on the green dock.

 

Thank God I don't have to remember so much stuff anymore. I'm not trying to beat up Navionics, because I also think they are the best out there. I also like having the ability to fine tune the info so it is a good as can be.

 

This thread started because a guy wanted to know what other's experiences were with a product. In my opinion, it's not 100% (yet), but the fact that the company continually works to improve what they are selling us is a testament to them.

[justtracytrolling]

My business is to share and help anglers, but im not giving anything to a company for free so they can sell it. Sharing implies a two way flow of something...We give our data and they sell it....

Boat position is everything in fishing...Anything that helps with this will put fish in the boat. Number one question I get on casting trips is how did you find these exact spots and how do I do that...Minor subtleties in a relatively featureless lake are a big deal. I had spots I never knew WHY they were so good until I had an accurate map. Had I had the map 5 years ago it wouldn't have taken hundreds of hours to find those spots. Then once you find a key spot AND have an accurate map you look for other identical features and bingo...

Its not often I buy anything for fishing and I say wow that's a game changer and autochart regardless of which company you get it from is just that IMO.

Justin Okrepki

NYSDEC licensed guide #7324

http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/

(607)-349-1750