Garmin Upper Midwest Fishing Guide

[OnAFly]

I just ordered these maps from Garmin. Has anyone else tried them out yet? Looking at the lake map numbers and the 'trial view' on the HSOforum, it looks like the best bang for your buck out there.

~4000 MN Lakes + LOW + Rainy + WI, SD/ND, MI for a total of ~9500 total maps. I'll post a little review after I've gotten some time under my belt with it, but from the looks, it should be a great mapset.

[MN Mike]

I was on Lake of the Woods this past weekend with my Garmin GPSMap60CSx, I also had my Lakemaster Woods / Rainy chip installed.

We navigated to 2 new spots via the contours shown on the Lakemaster chip and I marked these 2 new spots as new waypoints.

Today I received my Upper Midwest Fishing Guide MicroSD Card. I installed that chip tonight in my GPSMap60CSx and pulled up the new waypoints I created this weekend.

The contours with my waypoints were right on the money, exactly the same as my Woods / Rainy chip, it was if I still had the Woods / Rainy chip still installed in my Garmin........ interesting, these were some pretty unique contours and they were identical between the 2 cards.

I'll be back on Lake of the Woods again this weekend with the Upper Midwest Fishing Guide installed.

Mike

[schweady]

MN Mike: Based on what I've seen -- both in screen shots and paper listings -- I can confidently say that it is exactly the same data. The data that was on those 7 separate chips in the Garmin LakeMaster series is now all on this one Garmin Upper Midwest Fishing Guide chip.

Makes one wonder how can this be, when LakeMaster quit on Garmin (and Lowrance), eh?? There always was something about the Garmin/LakeMaster relationship -- who compiled the data, who owned the data -- that was negotiated "differently" when compared to the Lowrance/LakeMaster relationship. (Maybe someone can dredge up the posts on this site from a few years back with some of that old discussion.) This is apparently how Garmin could continue to use the data from the old state-by-state chip series in the UMFG chip.

Suddenly, Garmin is (way) back on top, in my estimation.

[OnAFly]

It could be that LM and Garmin are both using the same third party to get their data from. IF this is the case, it seems like LM is either charging wayy too much, or Garmin is trying to price them out. Either way, I'm happy

[MN Mike]

I emailed Garmins customer support last week asking them point blank if ANY Lakemaster data was on this new UMFG and they said NO, there is no Lakemaster data on it.

After seeing the same data on both products ( as far as Lake of the Woods goes for me ) I think FLY is on the right track, actually I think you both are on the right track and Garmin had their you know what covered incase something did happen to Lakemaster.

Begs to ask, what exactly did Humminbird buy ?!?!?

I haven't had a chance to put the MN lakes from both companies up against each other since I did not install or unlock my Lakemaster MN CD, has anyone looked at a list of the " HD " lakes in MN and see any difference from one anohter? I would imagine we might see slight differences there..... maybe.

Either way, as schweady said, this is THEE mapping chip to have.

Mike

[schweady]

I emailed Garmins customer support last week asking them point blank if ANY Lakemaster data was on this new UMFG and they said NO, there is no Lakemaster data on it.

After seeing the same data on both products ( as far as Lake of the Woods goes for me ) I think FLY is on the right track, actually I think you both are on the right track and Garmin had their you know what covered incase something did happen to Lakemaster.

Begs to ask, what exactly did Humminbird buy ?!?!?

I haven't had a chance to put the MN lakes from both companies up against each other since I did not install or unlock my Lakemaster MN CD, has anyone looked at a list of the " HD " lakes in MN and see any difference from one anohter? I would imagine we might see slight differences there..... maybe.

Either way, as schweady said, this is THEE mapping chip to have.

Mike

Mike

The 3-year limit on searching old threads on this site is blocking me from absolute verification, but I'm slowly remembering pieces of the whole Lowrance v Garmin chip comparison discussion from a few years back: As I recall, it was Garmin's data that was on the old Garmin LakeMaster chips. They purchased the data from LakeMaster because they didn't want to share their technology with LM. The Garmin LM chips always had WAY more lakes mapped than the Lowrance version, but I was okay with the shorter lake list on my Lowrance unit because the Garmin LM chips were always more expensive, too.

I can say with certainty that the MN lakes seen on the Garmin UMFG chip and the lakes on the old Garmin LM MN chip -- including the lake set mapped in "HD" -- are 100% identical. See for yourself:

Here is the list of lakes on the old Garmin LakeMaster Minnesota chip (2010).

Here is the list of Minnesota lakes on the Garmin Upper Midwest Fishing Guide chip (2011).

It was Johnson Outdoors (who also owns Humminbird) who bought LakeMaster.

I agree, Garmin appears to be getting the last laugh.

[schweady]

...and UPS just arrived with my new UMFG chip! Labeled: 'Sept 2011, 010-C1072-00'

For comparison, my Garmin LM MN chip purchased June 2011 is labeled: 'Mar 10, 010-C0512-00'

[OnAFly]

hmmm...it seems they just packaged a bunch of chips together and sold them as one for the same price. I'm thinking more and more this is a tactic to increase their handheld and on-the-water products. As long as they aren't lsing money hand over fist on the maps, it's probably a good tactic.

[schweady]

I have completed a comparison of my Garmin LakeMaster MN chip and my Garmin Upper Midwest Fishing Guide chip for differences in detail along the MN-Canada border from Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods. In addition to the obvious LOW/Rainy area added, the UMFG chip also offers a slight improvement in many stretches along the entire border. Even though it is sometimes only a difference of a couple hundred yards or so, it makes a world of difference to see the shoreline detail of the Canadian side of those border lakes, especially when canoeing. Perhaps these additions are because those areas were also part of the old LakeMaster LOW/Rainy chip for Garmin, I don't know.

Here are details of the differences I found. The UWFG chip adds:

* Canadian shoreline of Pigeon River

* all of North and South Fowl Lakes, Moose Lake, Watap Lake, Rose Lake, Rat Lake

* more - but not all - of North Lake

* all of Little North Lake

* Canadian ATV track north of Gunflint Lake

* Canadian shoreline of Pine River around Magnetic and Kerfoot Lakes

* all of Clove Lake

* more - but not quite all - of Gneiss and Maraboeuf Lakes

* all of Granite River

* more - but not quite all - of Saganaga Lake, cut closely on far east side and 1/2 mile or so into Canada

* all of Swamp Lake and portage between Swamp and Ottertrack Lakes

* more of Ottertrack Lake although both chips show large area of of Canadian waters

* more Canadian land northeast of Melon Lake

* more Canadian shoreline around Crooked Lake

* trails and Canadian portage from Basswood to Crooked Lake

* Wheelbarrow Portage and Lower Basswood Falls portages

* large Canadian section north of Bottle Lake up to Brewer Lake

* Bottle Portage and many small lakes east of Lac La Croix

* then, of course, the whole Rainy/Lake of the Woods block which -- alas -- stops 20 miles short of showing my favorite spots on Lac Seul...

[Deet]

So does this map out some of the bigger NW Ontario lakes just north of us here? E.g. Lower Manitou, Pipestone/Clear chain, Eagle, Wabigoon...

[schweady]

Sorry, no. When mentioning Lac Seul, I may have overstated the data that Garmin provides here. The outlines of many lakes are shown within the large rectangles with which Garmin surrounds Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods. No depth lines, however. I was simply wishing that these rectangular areas would have been large enough to indicate at least the OUTLINE of Lac Seul. There is no depth mapping of any entirely Canadian lakes on this chip. Just the MN-Canada border lakes, including all of the MN and Canadian waters of Rainy and Lake of the Woods. If anyone knows of a chip for Garmin that includes Lac Seul's depths, I'd love to hear about it.

I apologize for the misleading statement at the end of my list.

[MN Mike]

Thanks for the research Schweady!

Mike

[OnAFly]

Schweady - Looks like they have an Ontario lake maps chip available. $116 though.

[schweady]

Schweady - Looks like they have an Ontario lake maps chip available. $116 though.

Great... you do know I'm retired and on a fixed income, right?!? Like dangling bait in front of a dumb fish...

[Redline]

I just purchased this map pack with the intent on using it on the Canada side of Lake of the Woods. Well the map cuts out just north of Cliff Island where we fish. Is everyone else have this problem? Why would they advertise it as including LOW, ON if it cuts out? I'm furious.