Best contour card for Lowrance units

[Sub_Elect]

I am getting ready to buy all the graphs for my next boat. I am going to run a 12 touch gen 3 and an HDS 8 on the dash and a 9 touch gen 3 on the bow. I have and like my Navionics card for Sakakawea, but is there anything new out there. I would like a second card but if there isn't anything else that is better then I will just keep running this one. This will be the first time I have everything networked together so maybe a second card isn't needed. New adventure for me with the networking thing.

 

[Bri-guy]

I purchased navionics for my Lowrance last year. I really like it because I don't need a separate chip for each state. Other than a few sloughs, it's had every lake I want on it.

 

[TVolkZV]

so far i really like insight with the planner you can go map come home and upload it to your network and plan your next trip in your living room.

 

[Still_Learnin']

I think that the Navionics card is going to be your best bet for a Lowrance unit. If you are willing to buy a new card, make sure you get the Navionics + card. With that card, you can just download the lakes that you actually go to anywhere in the country instead of having a card full of lakes when you only go to maybe 2% of those lakes.

I also like the concept of the Insight Planner although I haven't used it. I like the idea of being able to graph an area (especially a lake that isn't on a mapping card) and then upload that information which will then be converted into a map that you can use on the water. While this obviously isn't feasible if you wanted to do an entire lake as big as Sak, it would be great for specific/smaller bays.

 

[Sub_Elect]

Thanks guys. Just didn't know if I was missing something out there.

 

[huffranger]

You can borrow my Doc Sonar chips and I bet you a case of beer you will buy your own when I want mine back.

I own one Nav chip and its OK

 

[5575]

Why not Humminbirds?

I was a Lowrance guy for the last 20 years, that was until my partner bought a new boat with two big Onix graphs on it. Talk about a different world as far as the mapping goes.

 

[Sub_Elect]

The guy I am buying my boat from ran an Onix 10 and an Onix 8 and, sorry, but I wasn't impressed. I will stick to my lowrance. I will put a Garmin on the boat when the HDS 8 goes down.

 

[KirtH]

If you fish strictly the Midwest get the Navionics Hotmaps Platinum or if you go outside the midwest such as Canada get Navionics+ Preloaded which covers all of US and Canada. Nav+ comes preloaded with Nautical charts and you download the High Def SonarChart Layer of the areas you fish, Platinum comes preloaded with SoanrChart layer. The key is the SonarChart layer this is where Navionics adds more detail and when they do any map updates it happens in the SonarChart layer which you can update for a year as much as you want included with the purchase of the map cards its called Freshest Data. You can preview Navionics Mapping online on the Web App at Navionics.com be sure to click on the Sonar icon on the lower left corner.

I see you are running a Gen 3 with Wi Fi you can get mobile app for a phone or iPad and do live mapping on your mobile device and this data will be uploaded to Navionics and they improve the Sonar Chart layer you then do Freshest Data update to card and the new contours will be on your map card.

 

[Ponyroper]

Thinking of picking up a small second fishfinder mainly to let me know depth and structure while I'm traveling across the lake. Lowrance has a special with a $50 rebate on their Elite-4 HDI CHIRP units and that would fit my needs. I have an Elite-7 HDI up front on the trolling motor and I would mount the smaller unit by the steering counsel. I've found two deals that look interesting and I'm looking for comments or opinions on them. One deal is the fishfinder/chart plotter with a sun cover and Lake Insight Pro card bundled together for $288. The other deal is the fishfinder/chart plotter with Navionics+ preloaded but no sun cover for $268. A sun cover would cost about $15 so the deals are pretty similar except for the different maps. The E-4 has Downscan capabilities and both units come with the Downscan transducer. I'm leaning toward the Lake Insight deal because I could use the map chip in my E-7 while the navionics map would have to stay in the E-4-I think. I don't know if the E-4 has networking capabilities but if it did and the Navionics maps are better I could go that route. Any thoughts/opinions/alternative suggestions? I'm already over budget at about $235 after rebate so if you have alternatives please keep that in mind. Thanks.

 

[huffranger]

Welcome to NDA Mr Hedquist, it's great to have a Lowrance ninja in our community.

 

[Still_Learnin']

Thinking of picking up a small second fishfinder mainly to let me know depth and structure while I'm traveling across the lake. Lowrance has a special with a $50 rebate on their Elite-4 HDI CHIRP units and that would fit my needs. I have an Elite-7 HDI up front on the trolling motor and I would mount the smaller unit by the steering counsel. I've found two deals that look interesting and I'm looking for comments or opinions on them. One deal is the fishfinder/chart plotter with a sun cover and Lake Insight Pro card bundled together for $288. The other deal is the fishfinder/chart plotter with Navionics+ preloaded but no sun cover for $268. A sun cover would cost about $15 so the deals are pretty similar except for the different maps. The E-4 has Downscan capabilities and both units come with the Downscan transducer. I'm leaning toward the Lake Insight deal because I could use the map chip in my E-7 while the navionics map would have to stay in the E-4-I think. I don't know if the E-4 has networking capabilities but if it did and the Navionics maps are better I could go that route. Any thoughts/opinions/alternative suggestions? I'm already over budget at about $235 after rebate so if you have alternatives please keep that in mind. Thanks.

It is my understanding that non of the Elite series units have the capability to network. I could be wrong on that as I only have HDS Touch units. Also, I'm sure the Elite 4 is a good unit but I hesitate to get the small screens. If that is all you can afford, then by all means go for it. However, the small screens make it difficult to see enough detail to make any of the information useful. If it was just for ice fish, that would be one thing. But to mount it in a boat that will be moving while trying to decipher what all it's trying to tell you, it might just be too small of a screen.

Again, it might be just fine and you'll be happy with it. This is just my experience with anything smaller than a 5" screen.

 

[Ponyroper]

I guess one question I should have asked is if the Navionics+ comes preloaded on the E-4 can I download it to an SD card and move it to another chartplotter like my E-7 or is it only usable on the unit it was preloaded on?

 

[MuskyManiac]

Where I do most of my fishing in Minnesota (Detroit Lakes, Pelican, Lida area), the Navionics maps are pure junk...not even close to accurate. The Lowrance Lake Insight HD maps are the exact same as the old Lakemaster maps that used to be available for Lowarnce. These were on-the-water surveys of the lakes and are way more accurate.

 

[Still_Learnin']

I guess one question I should have asked is if the Navionics+ comes preloaded on the E-4 can I download it to an SD card and move it to another chartplotter like my E-7 or is it only usable on the unit it was preloaded on?

It should be the same on each Elite unit but I'm not 100% positive.

 

[Vollmer]

I believe Elite's will only network to other Elite's. And by network, I mean share waypoints. Nothing else.

 

[KirtH]

I guess one question I should have asked is if the Navionics+ comes preloaded on the E-4 can I download it to an SD card and move it to another chartplotter like my E-7 or is it only usable on the unit it was preloaded on?

It is not preloaded on the sonar it is preloaded on the card, unfortunately it can’t be used in another sonar.

- - - Updated - - -

I believe Elite's will only network to other Elite's. And by network, I mean share waypoints. Nothing else.

Only the Elite series with NMEA 2000 can be networked and it limited to sharing waypoints if both units are powered on.

 

[Vollmer]

Aren't the Elite 7's NMEA 2000? I could be wrong.

 

[Tim Sandstrom]

Depends where you fish. But I too was a Lowrance guy until seeing a Hummingbird.

Even if the built in Lowrance mapping or a Bavionics card is better Bird is still better with how they allow custom manipulation of how you want to see contours.

It really stinks for Sak where the freshest data has a long way to catch up to Lakemaster from 1825 ish to high water and Lakemaster has a long way to go to catch up to Navionics from 1825 ish on down.

But bird allows you and third party chip whereas Lowrance does not. I will have birds in my boat moving forward.