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Hi yall i have a question about mapping / chart sd cards.
I recently bought a humminbird 859ci hd di and was wondering who has used mapping / chart sd cards?
I bought the navionics hotmaps and plugged it in and it dint do anything but put roads on the land. It added nothing to the contours of the lake.
I just want to know your experience with the different mapping cards.
Thanks
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That's good to know they told me Navonics was the best of the maps but they said it didn't have many of the Utah lakes with contours. I think Bear Lake and Flamming Gorge might have the contours so you ought to check them out. I guess I'll save my money and try to find out how to get that self graphing contour creating software. Does anyone know if it will run on a Humminbird with GPS? It should have all the data it needs if you have the software to blend the contours. Later J
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Which lake?
Did you set/check the option under mapping for which card slot is being used?
Hotmaps Platinum or Premium?
Navionics + is the better way to go IMO. You get Sonar charts and on some lakes that makes the difference. Platinum also has Sonar Charts but you are limited to the geo area where Navionics + you can select the lakes you want anywhere in the US.
If you have Platinum be sure to select left fish and chips in the chart menu (have the Navionics chip in the left slot) on your system to get/activate Sonar Charts (at least what I have to do on Navionics +/betting the same with Platinum).
Check out Navionics web site and use the Webapp to look for the lake you are interested in. If is shows there something isn't right with your set-up. When in the Webapp be sure to click on the little symbol on the lower left part of the map to activate Sonar Charts so you can see what that does for you.
For example... Not much to Sand Hollow near St George in the normal view/Navionics Premium view. Click on Sonar Charts and a HUGE difference in the contour detail.
Tom
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For our lakes, you will find that most of the electronic map/charts are not that good, mainly due to the fact that none of the companies that map, never come out here. I would suggest that you get Fishn Map Co. maps of our lakes. Curtis Sportbert, the founder of Fish n Maps is a cartographer by trade, worked in the oil patch. Fish n maps was a side line. He took original topo maps of areas before they were flooded and made the maps you purchase. Don't know if he has converted any of his maps to electronic formats as of yet, but the maps he puts out are the best you can find for most of the western lakes, including Deer Creek, Jordanelle, Pineview, Starvation, Yuba, etc.
Natural lakes like Bear Lake and Utah Lake to my knowledge have been mapped on a very cursory level, so the maps are not very detailed. Most of the newer sonars have a mapping feature that allows you to use your sonar readings to create your own map. Check your users manual to access the feature.
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before you buy a map you need to go to the websit and see what lakes it covers. They don't cover a lot of lakes and on some lakes they don't have a lot of the contours like Deer Creek.
I have both Lakemasters and Navionics and I like them.
I use the lakemaster for running the minn kota trolling motor.
with your humminbird you can buy a auto chart card for $99 and make your own maps.
Check your settings and read about your 859
also watch this
[url "https://www.youtube.com/user/imonbass?feature=mhee"]https://www.youtube.com/user/imonbass?feature=mhee[/url]
I love the maps I think I catch more fish useing them
I would also buy the paper fishing map.
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Forgot to mention but with Navionics + (unsure about Platinum) if I go to a lake that hasn't been mapped all I do is hit record as I am fishing. At the end of the day I take my right 32BG (I am pretty sure that is the max size chip a Humminbird can take) chip out and upload the file log for the day to Navionics. In a week or two one gets an email back from Navionics saying your data has been prepped, etc and the next time you do a update to your card that data will now be on it. It is shared data. So if you and other people all did the same thing on a lake that has never been mapped before you all, including the rest of the world, will be able to use that data.
I have no personal experience with all of that. Just what I have read and understand how this is suppose to work. I have yet to be on a lake that isn't mapped down here. (99% of my fishing is on Lake Mead). With that said I did record one day on Lake Mead and uploaded it to Navionics just to see how this is all suppose to work incase someday I hit a lake that isn't mapped I know what to do to get it mapped. I got an email back from Navionics within two weeks saying my data was good to go and available to everyone. I doubt it was anything new since Mead is already mapped.
Tom
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in my lowrance units they come pre loaded with the navionics maps and they are pretty decent maps of most lake in utah.
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