What are Lowrance guys supposed to do?

[S.D. Ice Angular]

What map chips/cards are out there now for guys who have several Lowrance units?

Now that Hummingbird has taken over Lakemaster?

[h8go4s]

Lowrance:

http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Products/Mapping/

Navionics:

http://www.navionics.com/en/marine-lakes-charts

[harvey lee]

Depending on the Lowrance unit you have, I have 2 lake master chips I used in my h20. They are SD cards, not the micro style. Selling them both, Mn lake map with H D lakes where available.

[h8go4s]

Or buy Humminbird.

[Kyhl]

Use Navianics or Lowrance mapping.

I don't miss lakemaster and think it was a dumb business decision by HB to limit their customer base.

[Dooley87]

I think from a business standpoint this was a great move for humminbird and lakemaster and I'll even throw in minn kota. Who wouldn't have a use for an ipilot link with a humminbird graph and a lakemaster chip.

My grandpa was always a lowrance guy, he just bought a new boat and is going with humminbird for the link. I don't think he will ever go back to lowrance, the features and picture quality on the hb's are insane

[S.D. Ice Angular]

Harvey,

Is one of them for South and North Dakota?

I have a LMS 337 and HDS5

[JohnMickish]

I don't miss lakemaster and think it was a dumb business decision by HB to limit their customer base.

Johnson Outdoors owns Lakemaster, Humminbird, MinnKota and Cannon. It's a great move on their part. The four companies will integrate and share information making the owners life easier.

It does not make sense to share your information with your competitors. That would be like Ford helping GM build ignition switches, it's just not going to happen.

[h8go4s]

"It does not make sense to share your information with your competitors. That would be like Ford helping GM build ignition switches, it's just not going to happen."

I've seen posts that claim the new Lowrance maps are the same as Lakemaster, implying that Lakemaster sold the data to Lowrance. Don't know if that's true.

[JohnMickish]

Some of the maps come from third-party vendors. Lawrence does not, and does not sound like they will ever have follow the contour features, even Lowrances waypoint navigation does not sound like it will happen this year, despite all the rumors we had in the spring.

[ClownColor]

It was a poor move on lake masters part. Remember when the iPhone was just at&t? Lot of complaints and everyone jumped ship when the contract was over and iPhone exploded.

As for mapping, navionics is top notch and has great features with the updated lowrance software.

[LunkerCity]

Navionics is a great map chip. I also have it on my phone, I use it ice fishing when I'm hiking in and not on my sled. If you are worried about trolling motor and and sonar unit integration, I believe that Lowrance has partnered with Motor Guide. I know kotas dominate the market, but MG trolling motors have been around a while haven't they?

http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/News/Lowrance-Partners-With-MotorGuide-to-Launch-PinpointConnect/

[Dooley87]

It was a poor move on lake masters part. Remember when the iPhone was just at&t? Lot of complaints and everyone jumped ship when the contract was over and iPhone exploded.

As for mapping, navionics is top notch and has great features with the updated lowrance software.

[Kyhl]

It does not make sense to share your information with your competitors. That would be like Ford helping GM build ignition switches, it's just not going to happen.

No, that is like TRW that builds safty systems for all auto manufacturers suddenly limiting their sales potential to just one manufacturer. No shareholder would vote for that.

[JohnMickish]

But if TRW was to purchase General Motors I highly doubt they would sel the same equipment to the other manufacturers.

[FshBloodRiverMud]

I've seen posts that claim the new Lowrance maps are the same as Lakemaster, implying that Lakemaster sold the data to Lowrance. Don't know if that's true.

ROTFL

Or...It's the same lake

[Kyhl]

But if TRW was to purchase General Motors I highly doubt they would sel the same equipment to the other manufacturers.

That is not analogous at all. Did Lakemaster buy Johnson Outdoors?

[UKCM]

Can't say that I like it as I own Lowrance, but if I remember correctly it was not that many years ago when Lakemaster was only available on Lowrance and not on Humminbird. You know what they say about payback.

[delcecchi]

Can't say that I like it as I own Lowrance, but if I remember correctly it was not that many years ago when Lakemaster was only available on Lowrance and not on Humminbird. You know what they say about payback.

Especially when parent of Humminbird bought lakemaster.

[Savage Brewer]

As far as I understand all 3 (Navionics, Insight and Lakemaster) purchase their survey data from 3rd parties.

I ran into a survey boat up north about two years ago and the boat had lakemaster decal wraps, the guys there said that they work for a different company but Lakemaster was doing nothing more than being "a sponsor" like selling billboard advertising space along side the road.

Wish I would have gotten a pic of the boat and tow vehicle, as the name of their company was on the truck.

Essentially they do surveys and anyone who is willing to pay the right price can access that data.

It will get interesting though as more companies turn to the end users uploading chart data to supplement their lake listings.

Back to the original poster, Your LMS might be SOL, but both Navionics + and Insight mapping will work fine with your hds-5.

Navionics + you download what you want onto their supplied 2GB card in North america. With insight you buy a north america card.

Generally I like the insight maps better when HD data is present, but there are some bodies of water where Navionics + shines.

Go to the insight webpage and look at the lake list, if the lakes you fish are avaialble in HD, I would go for the Insight. If not go check out the Navionics webapp on the lakes you fish.

[jentz]

The lake I am on wasn't on lakemaster as hidef.I requested the survey on their site one year later one of the guys in the Littlefalls office sent his father down and he did the lake.That wasnt a third party.I havent any idea about that what I do know is lakemaster themselves did this survey

[Savage Brewer]

With the newer units and navionics pushing forward with "sonar charts" there will probably be alot more lakes being done by individuals.

I know lakemaster has a link on their page to become one of their survey crews.

I would imagine your largest lakes will still be done by professional surveyors, but as we all know that costs money, so with community uploads and charting being used to populate their smaller and less used lakes, we will continue to see the lists on all three keep getting better each year.

The big question that I have is how long will Lowrance and Humminbird continue to support Navionics data?

Personally I like having both Insight Pro and Navionics + cards in the boat at the same time. Best of both worlds and I can have maps of the entire US (and Canada on Navionics).

My biggest gripe with Lakemaster is if I fish Minnesota, Wisconsin, LOW and South Dakota, I have to buy 4 different cards. If lakemaster did it like Navionics + where I can download the area as needed that would be great.

[delcecchi]

For the 377, there must be a lot of SD chips from lakemaster floating around that will work in that unit. I've got one, from my 5xx that ended up full of water last summer. I bet there are a lot of other folks with spares around.

I think there are only a couple sets of modern data at most. So regardless if you have Navionics, LM, insight, garmin umlaut, or whatever the data for a given lake is pretty much the same.

[JohnMickish]

Kyle, Johnson Outdoors owns Lakemaster, Humminbird, MinnKota and Cannon.

[h8go4s]

ROTFL

Or...It's the same lake

I was referring to lakes mapped by Lakemaster in 1-foot contours, not the generic DNR 5-foot contour maps. Everybody has those.