Lake maps using electronics

[YourBassIsGrass]

I picked up a x-4 pro fish finder when I first started getting into fishing with my canoe. I realize now I would really like to be able to putz around a lake while shooting the sonar and have it map the lake and save it for future. My lakes are pretty small and within 5-6 trips I would be able to scan all of it. Is there a system out there that can do this? I keep reading in all the cabela's and bps catalogs that lowrance has this map card thing and humminbird has some neat chip. What is the deal? 

 

If the scanning lake into memory is possible, what do I need to do to make that happen? Obviously need a new fish finder, what kind/brand would be cheapest to accomplish this (I am on a canoe and don't want a $1000 unit taking a dip). Do I need some sort of app or website membership? Do I need to buy a map chip thing?

 

Thanks

[Puggz]

Humminbird has a thing called Auto Chart Live on their Helix and Onix units.  It will record up to 8 hours on an SD card.  They also sell packages called Lakemaster which include charts for most lakes.  You can even overlay your Autochart Data onto the Lakemaster charts.

I'm no expert on this, and features vary from model to model but may be worth you having a look.

[Further North]

HUmminbird/Lakemaster also has AutoChart as a stand-alone product that'll run on a lot of their equipment.

I've had it for several years now, works great...the difference between AutoChart and AutoChart Live is that you have to record, go back home and create the map, then load it your your fish finder.

http://www.humminbird.com/Category/Technology/Autochart/

[YourBassIsGrass]

I would not mind having to take something home and upload onto a pc to have it saved off and then reload to the finder later. 

Do I need to buy some sort of sd card or something for the unit? I know for sure every lake that I fish is not on any of the map things as I have exhaustively searched for lake lists and they are on nothing. Which is why I want to plot my own so I can come home and pour over the data a bit to find better areas.

Do those AutoChart/AutoChartLive things have community maps that are updated? I could have sworn that I saw something at some point that referenced people joining maps together or something. All of this is confusing to me with so many brands and special names for the same stuff.

[WIGuide]

You can do what you're looking to do. Lowrance has insight genesis where you can upload your recordings to their sight and it's merged with other recordings and then download the custom map. I believe you can do the same with Humminbird and their auto chart. Navionics also allows you upload recordings to their database and they add that detail to their maps. It can be hard to keep everything straight, but best info I can give you is to do your research to figure out what works best for you. 

[YourBassIsGrass]

So from what I understand, Insight is for Lowrance and AutoChart is for Humminbird? Navionics is for any of the systems? Does Garmin have some play in this? Such a confusing mess. 

[YourBassIsGrass]

After digging through each companies lake map stuff. I found that Insight Genesis for Lowrance has a free sign in area to view community maps. Best of all I found that almost all of my regular haunts are pretty well mapped!

Thanks guys for the heads up on pointing me to the correct terminology to find some answers. Looks like I may not need to do my own mapping after all.