# Why a map card, and which one?



## boss302 (Jun 24, 2005)

So, after two full years of fishing blind, with only the help of an older handheld GPS and a freebie map of the sand bar, my father-in-law finaly got a new sonar with GPS (Lowrance 522c). Is the "base map" from Lowrance any good? Is ther really a need for a better map card? If so, which card is the best bang for the buck (90% Lorain + one week vacation to the islands, and fall perch in CLeveland).


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## Fishers of Men (Jul 29, 2005)

Base map is just that. You will want more.
Maybe one of these Lowrance gurus on here will jump in.
(It's not my cup 'o tea.)

You just cant get any card, your stuck with:
Custom Mapping for your unit.
Optional MapCreate, USA Topo Accessory Pack, FreedomMaps, Fishing Hot Spots PRO, LakeMaster ProMaps, NauticPath, and Navionics.

So do the navionics.


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## Mac (Jul 26, 2006)

I have an LMS-522 iGPS and fish exclusively out of Lorain. When I bought the unit at Cabelas it included a free Fishing Hot Spots - EAST chip. The only differences I saw with the chip in were more soundings and a lot more detail in and around the Black River. Here is a picture of the screen as I was going up the river with the chip installed. If you download the 522 demo off the Lowrance site you can run a demo of the island area with the Navionics card in it.


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## Fishers of Men (Jul 29, 2005)

Check out the plotter thoughts:
http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/showthread.php?t=114348


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## MadMac (May 2, 2005)

I can't speak for Erie but I have Map Create and the difference is night and day. The base map is mostly useless. The Map Create maps, although they aren't perfect in spots, have all the contour lines and humps on the inland lakes. The shore line is way more accurate too. I happen to go out yesterday without my SD card in my graph and while back in a smaller part of the lake it showed me as being on land.


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## cjbrown (May 22, 2007)

For The Sandbar the Lowrance Hotspot will show it. The Navionics won't. If you can afford both do so. If not buy the the Lowrance chip.


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## boss302 (Jun 24, 2005)

cjbrown said:


> For The Sandbar the Lowrance Hotspot will show it. The Navionics won't. If you can afford both do so. If not buy the the Lowrance chip.


Thanks,

I'm assuming you are talking about the current hot spot pro and not the older elite version? Is the navonics card better overall?


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## cjbrown (May 22, 2007)

boss302 said:


> Thanks,
> 
> I'm assuming you are talking about the current hot spot pro and not the older elite version? Is the navonics card better overall?



I prefer the Navionics chip unless I'm fishing the sandbar, that's the only time I use the Lowrance chip. You can get the Nav chip then just manually enter the cords and outline the sandbar that way if you wanted. I do not have the new Pro version, the chip I have is a coupl e years old. Maybe someone with the newer Lowarnce Pro chip can chime in.


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