# LakeMaster Questions



## Shaggy (Oct 24, 2008)

I've researched Navionics and LakeMaster as much as I can and don't seem to be able to get a consensus of which one is preferred. LakeMaster is cheaper which makes it attractive but as they always say, "you get what you pay for." I think if I could get two questions answered about the LakeMaster product I could make my decision. If you guys who own LakeMaster could help me out it would be greatly appreciated.

1. I downloaded a trial of LakeMaster and discovered it has a search tool where you select your species, season of the year, time of day, weather conditions, etc. and it highlights areas of the lake that species should be. Does that work? I would think if it did LakeMaster would be the hottest ticket in the fishing world.

2. Does LakeMaster show things like submerged roadbeds, foundations, etc.? Navionics claims that it does.


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## MassillonBuckeye (May 3, 2010)

The "Contour Elite" program is pretty slick. That is in addition to the map chip though.. It doesn't come with it. For the trial lake they give you, I could see IMMENSE possibilities.. I'd love to fish that lake. But for lakes you are familiar with their topography for the most part, its not going to show you much new. You'd be surprised though.. To me, I don't fish enough different lakes to think it'd be worth it and I'd take the conditions/species/weather patterns info with a grain of salt as usual. Its $150 I believe. I'd spring more around the $50 level.

Now the map chip itself, I don't see a problem with Lakemaster. Most water features you would have to add yourself with waypoints etc. The best maps for all the stump beds and spawning beds are the ODNR or other local maps. The Lakemaster or humminbird unit itself does have some basic areas marked sometimes. There is a "walleye spawning ground" designated on my map for a local lake. Not a whole lot else though. The creek channels show up plain as day as countour lines. Those I've found to be Very accurate with the lakemaster. Only navionic map I have is on my iphone. It has something called the "user layer" which folks can edit and add info.. I think that is what Navionics is referring to. So it should be fairly accurate with the data but its user generated so.. I didn't feel it was very accurate for Delaware Lake. It shows some "fish attractors" in impossible places. Navionics maps seem to be adequately detailed. It just seems I have fewer options as far as shading and picking out what depths I want to see or focus. You can always sell the chip if you aren't happy with one or the other.. Or use it in a future/extra unit?


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## Ol'Bassman (Sep 9, 2008)

Has anyone reviewed the LakeMaster Great Lakes chip? It covers 930 lakes in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky & Tennessee. 30 in High Definition. 

I was at BassPro last month and tried out the Ohio Navionics chip and found that it does not show contour lines and depth reading on Humminbird units. They show up fine on Garmin units though. I pointed this out to the salesman and we tried the chip in various units and he couldn't get the contour lines and depth readings to show on any of the Humminbird units. It may be that the Humminbird units have someplace that you set the readouts for contour lines and depth reading but I am not sure about that. Anyway, it stopped me from buying the Navionics chip.


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## gold jc (Apr 16, 2009)

I have a Navionics Platmium chip in my Humminbird. The problem I have is it doesn't mark the depth contour lines within approx 100yds from the shore all the way around the lake. Depth within that range didn't matter so 2 feet or 8 feet inside 100yds didn't matter. The contour lines came up to that point and stopped. I talked to Navionics and they said they are working on it. 

Lakemaster I believe is owned by Humminbird. Their depth readings go right up to shore. And if you have a Humminbird unit you can use their offset feature. If a lake is up a few feet or down a few feet you can make a minor adjustment and the shoreline changes to reflect the water level. All the other contour lines change with your adjustment. 

Lakemaster just came out with Ohio late last year. I will be buying a Lakemaster chip this spring!


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