Fish Finder Lake Maps

[zippy83]

Hello All,

First off I want to apologize up front if this thread is in the wrong forum, but I didn?t see any other place to open this at.

I got a Lawrence Elite 7 and I was wondering where can I get more detailed maps? Do they sell them by state or region? I have seen something on navionics.com but how can you go about if you fish the Mississippi river that divides the two regions and you only have one memory card slot. Are there any other vendors out there that have those by the states?

Thanks
Zip

 

[mnypitboat]

Re: Fish Finder Lake Maps

I just bought an Elite 5 with basemap. Is that what you have? If so, how bad are the maps? Is it just the fishing part you dont like?

I know they tried to sell me Navionics, Insight and fishing hot spots, or hotspots. I didnt pay a lot of attention because I do not do much fishing.

 

[zippy83]

Re: Fish Finder Lake Maps

The pre-loaded map on the unit is fine but the two lakes I fish on I would like a litle more detail on the GPS unit. For example the pre-loaded map does not show you where the underwater stumps are, but when you buy an advanced map it will show you depths, stumps, shallow points etc... which is very very helpful when you are on a lake that you are not very familar with.

My beef with navionics is that I have to buy maps for two diffrent regions because I live in MO and fish in MO but also fish in IL which falls under a diffrent region (east)... so now they are selling me two dirrent regions for $300.00 that is almost half the cost of the unit...

 

[mnypitboat]

Re: Fish Finder Lake Maps

I do most of my boating on the intercoastal, intracoastal and St Johns river in Florida. We are planning a trip to the Keys. I think the Navionics Gold will work for us in all for all of these places.

I spoke to my buddy yesterday and he said those Hot Spot maps are great. I have no experiance though. He said they have one for all of the US for around $100.

 

[zippy83]

Re: Fish Finder Lake Maps

I do most of my boating on the intercoastal, intracoastal and St Johns river in Florida. We are planning a trip to the Keys. I think the Navionics Gold will work for us in all for all of these places.

I spoke to my buddy yesterday and he said those Hot Spot maps are great. I have no experiance though. He said they have one for all of the US for around $100.

Thanks

I will look into those as well. I really wish you could put your own package together and get the states that you fish in. I will never fish in TX, OK, AL, KS....

 

[zippy83]

Re: Fish Finder Lake Maps

I went with the Navionics East region map. That is the only one that they had at Cabelas or Bass Pro. I will test it out this saturday to see what the diffrance may be.

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: Fish Finder Lake Maps

... how can you go about if you fish the Mississippi river that divides the two regions and you only have one memory card slot.

I have EAST Region Memory Card.
The maps end at CHART Boundaries, not at the State lines.
All the Mississippi Charts cover 5-20 miles into the next states.
Both sides of the Mississippi and the first few miles of the Branch Rivers are on the charts.
The regions have a reasonable overlap.

For example at St Louis Mo.
The Missouri river is covered as far as the 37 Mile Marker in Chesterfield, MO.

 

[zippy83]

Re: Fish Finder Lake Maps

I have EAST Region Memory Card.
The maps end at CHART Boundaries, not at the State lines.
All the Mississippi Charts cover 5-20 miles into the next states.
Both sides of the Mississippi and the first few miles of the Branch Rivers are on the charts.
The regions have a reasonable overlap.

For example at St Louis Mo.
The Missouri river is covered as far as the 37 Mile Marker in Chesterfield, MO.

really? So no need for me to buy the Central River system if I will be fishing Mississippi river near St Louis MO?

 

[sightsrv]

Re: Fish Finder Lake Maps

Hotmaps, Navionics are nice. I'm in NC have no nav, hotmaps for rivers here. Lakes not enough
detail to spend all that money for a sd/micro card or a dvd. Just not worth it. Its a pain in the
butt, but go to the us army corps of engineers site for your area. You can find structures, quad
maps, areial photos very detailed, lat&long in extreme detail. The Mississippi has been maped by them right down to depth
of every inch.Units lowrance, humm, what ever if ya know how to use them data wise you cant
find a better resourse. Its not plug & play will take effort but you will find the best data on any
river or lake of any size in this country. Where ya think c-map, hotmap, navionics gets what
you pay for on some dvd, sd card? Like I said takes some work not plug & play. Its well worth
the effort.

 

[mnypitboat]

Re: Fish Finder Lake Maps

We finally got out to try out the Lowrance. Like I said, we dont fish, but the basemap was extremely accurate with water depths on the St Johns River and the couple rivers we went across.