Overwhelmed with lake chip options (for humminbird)

[Ratherbfishing]

I'm planning a trip to Wisconsin in September.  I have a Humminbird HELIX 7 SI and I am investigating buying a "map chip" for said product and for said purpose.  Quite frankly, I'm a little overwhelmed. Some chips, apparently, are only available for certain states and/or regions and some chips, apparently, offer more features than others.  I have read disclaimers that the chips cannot be returned once opened and since the chips are rather pricey, I'd rather avoid that costly fiasco.  Are there any "walk-through's" on youtube or otherwise that will help me pick the right chip for my needs?  Or any other pointers?

[Wayne P.]

Humminbird products read Navionics and Lakemaster digital map products.

Wisconsin has good coverage by Lakemaster and Navionics.

The regional Navionics Hotmaps Premium cards have been discontinued. The choice you have for your unit is the Navionics+ card. It has ALL the Navionics Nautical Charts for the US and Canada on it and can have your choice/s of Navionics Sonar Charts added. You can view the current maps on the Navionics website's Web App.

For Lakemaster's coverage check the Humminbird Lakemaster site and download the list of waters for the region/s you want/need.

Current map cards for both products are on a microSD card that fits the Helix 7 card reader.

 

[slonezp]

I've got both Navionics and Lakemaster for Wisconsin from 3 years ago. The extra features and details Lakemaster has with Humminbird are really nice. Only reason I bought the Navionics chip is because it has better coverage of the Wisconsin River. My advice to you is if the coverage for your waters is on Lakemaster, get it instead of Navionics. If you happen to be fishing Sturgeon Bay, Lakemaster covers it on 3 different chips. The Great Plaines chip which is the same chip that has IL coverage, it's also on the Wisconsin and Great Lakes Chips. 

Navionics has an App that can be downloaded to a phone or tablet for ten bucks or so

[Allen Der]

make sure the lakes you're fishing is on the chips before you buy them.  I have lakemaster and it's great when they have the HD maps with 1ft contours.  not so great when its just a basic map or no map at all

[Ratherbfishing]

I'm being lazy here but since you guys seem to know your business, what's the PRIMARY difference between Lakemaster and Lakemaster Plus?  I don't need my gps to communicate with my trolling motor, if that is a big part of it.

[Allen Der]

as far as I know there is only one version of Lakemaster available new.  you may be looking at an older version or something.  V3 should be the most current version

[Wayne P.]

On ‎6‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 8:13 PM, Allen Der said:

9 hours ago, Ratherbfishing said:

9 hours ago, Ratherbfishing said:

I'm being lazy here but since you guys seem to know your business, what's the PRIMARY difference between Lakemaster and Lakemaster Plus?  I don't need my gps to communicate with my trolling motor, if that is a big part of it.

I'm being lazy here but since you guys seem to know your business, what's the PRIMARY difference between Lakemaster and Lakemaster Plus?  I don't need my gps to communicate with my trolling motor, if that is a big part of it.

Lake=make sure the lakes you're fishing is on the chips before you buy them.  I have lakemaster and it's great when they have the HD maps with 1ft contours.  not so great when its just a basic map or no map at all

Lakemaster has three levels of maps.

The best ones are listed as Lakemaster High Definition Survey. Those are created from surveys done by Lakemaster.

Then there is High Definition Survey that can be any level of accurate with 1' contours. The Chart Select map I have is one of those and it has fake data that is impossible to exist.

Then there are the others with less detail and less accurate.

 

Edited:

Lakemaster has just lakes, Lakemaster Plus has satellite overlay for HD waters like Navionics Platinum has.

Both versions are current.

Some Lakemaster regions are version 6 this year, Wisconsin is one of them.

It is all explained on the Humminbird Lakemaster website. Check the coverage lists for each.

 

 

[Further North]

On 6/30/2016 at 10:16 AM, Ratherbfishing said:

I'm being lazy here but since you guys seem to know your business, what's the PRIMARY difference between Lakemaster and Lakemaster Plus?  I don't need my gps to communicate with my trolling motor, if that is a big part of it.

The primary difference is the satellite images of the shoreline areas.

I run Lakemaster Plus at the console (it's nice to see the images as you run up the lake) and regular Lakemaster at the bow.

If you'd like an opinion, I'd go with Lakemaster in a Humminbird unit every time - since Johnson Outdoors aquired Lakemaster, they have been tailored to work the best in HB units.

Depending on what lakes you're fishing, there's not much out there that can compete with the HD lakes on a Lakemaster Chip in a Humminbird fish finder.

If you had a Lowrance or other fish finder, I might make a different recommendation.