lakemaster program accuracy

[arctic_scrap1]

I just bought a garmin etrex vista gps and I'd like to get a lake program for it. How accurate is the lakemaster program as far as putting you on a piece of structure out on a lake? Are there better/more accurate programs?

[Deitz Dittrich]

It really depends on the lake your talking about. Both the LakeMaster and Navionics chips can be VERY accurate, but only on the lakes that are HighDeffintion and or ReelBottom lakes. The other lakes are just DNR downloaded lakes, and can be way off. It also has a lot to do with the weather too on how accurate your GPS is that day.. can change from hour to hour..

[McGurk]

The DNR maps are a good start, but you need real world coords for found structure or a familiarity with the specific lake to really find it again. There is also the location of available satellites up above, how close you are to the southern edge of the lake and if the southern shoreline is wooded or has a high ridge. If you have 5 satellite locked, but they are all almost on top of you your error window won't be as small as if they were spread out over the sky. I would never guarantee better than +/- 50' and it can be less, but that is a small piece of water comparitively to the overall lake. Get out and play with it, and enjoy getting to know it, don't get frustrated. The more you use it and understand it, the more you will be able to trust it and use it as a tool.

[Orlip]

Unless you bought the vista cx you are real limited as the info you can put in it. To my knowledge just the US recreational lakes by garmin is all that is available if you have the Vista.

If you truly want a choice in the matter I would suggest taking the vista back and getting an Ifinder as garmin does not support Navionics.

If you get a garmin that has the removable chip then you can get the lakemaster chip for it but that is it.

I have the 60csx and love it but with the new Navionics chip available I think the H2O c is in the works and possibly a sale on some used gear.

[arctic_scrap1]

I have the Vista CX. The reason I bought it is I get a pretty steep discount on garmin products through work.

[Orlip]

That's a nice unit but it depends on how much coverage you want. Why Garmin quit supporting Navionics is beyond me.

If you are going to use it a lot for fishing then I would seriously check out the Navionics chip. I don't see how you can go wrong with all that coverage on one chip. I have the lakemaster chip for garmin and like it but it just does not cover some of the lakes I go to where navionics does.