Inaccurate Northwest Angle of LOW mapping with Lakemaster & Helix

My current boat has Lowrance HDS’s with Insight Pro mapping which maps the Northwest Angle area of Lake of the Woods pretty accurately. My son-in-law just bought a used boat with a Helix and Lakemaster Woods/Rainy chip and just got back from there and told me that a certain bay that we fish was not accurately mapped at all. It showed the boat up on land alot and did not show certain rocks that we know that are there that could be a big problem if not known locations. It was his first time in that area with his own boat and was very nervous fishing in this area. He has a brand new Woods/Rainy chip.

I have a new 620 coming with a Helix 10 flush mounted in dash and a 12 on bow. My current boat I am trying to sell, but I have a extra HDS-9 Gen 3 that I was going to try to sell seperately, but know I am thinking I might mount that above my dash mounted 10 on a Ram type mount. Just will run power to it for the GPS mapping. Just for the more accurate mapping of the area we fish quite often.

Main question is, does anyone know how “old” the Lakemaster Woods/Rainy chip is and if they are planning to soon map the NW Angle of Lake of the Woods more accurately? Thanks.

He could always buy a zero lines card and make his own mapping of an area

I was just up to L.O.W on the Canadian side and my helix 10gn2 showed way more than my garmin did. Maybe there is a update that he needs to do that might help.

snelson223 wrote:

I was just up to L.O.W on the Canadian side and my helix 10gn2 showed way more than my garmin did. Maybe there is a update that he needs to do that might help.

He has the newest Lakemaster chip. It is definitely not as accurate as my Insight Pro on my Lowrances

We stayed at the Angle Inn Lodge on Oak Island a couple of years ago, we took snowmobiles across from Wheelers Point. The owner was nice enough to show us some spots to try. I had a Lake Master Chip on my gps and Navionics app on my phone. He said the Navionics was way more accurate and used that to show me some spots. He said there was 2 boats from Navionics up there all summer updating the mapping. Maybe an option would be to get a Navionics chip.

arcticm1000 wrote:

We stayed at the Angle Inn Lodge on Oak Island a couple of years ago, we took snowmobiles across from Wheelers Point. The owner was nice enough to show us some spots to try. I had a Lake Master Chip on my gps and Navionics app on my phone. He said the Navionics was way more accurate and used that to show me some spots. He said there was 2 boats from Navionics up there all summer updating the mapping. Maybe an option would be to get a Navionics chip.

Thanks for the info!

David Blais wrote:

He could always buy a zero lines card and make his own mapping of an area

Yup. That.

Probably a stupid question, if you are doing the live mapping, how does it map from your boat when there are real shallow spots(rocks) that you cannot go over with your boat? Maybe once I get the new boat and the Helix’s, the owner’s manual will explain….remember, old dog here, and these are alot of new tricks to learn.

The better accuracy varies between Navionics and Lakemaster depending upon where you’re at. For the southern end of Lake of the Woods, I find Lakemaster to be more accurate than Navionics.

If you want to pm me I can go on my helix and see what it looks like and take a picture and send it to you.

In Sabaskong Bay, just to the east, I have found the Lake Insight chips to be more accurate than the Navionics chips. Navionics can be pretty far off in quite a few areas. That said, so can the Insight chips, just not as frequently.

blizzard79 wrote:

Probably a stupid question, if you are doing the live mapping, how does it map from your boat when there are real shallow spots(rocks) that you cannot go over with your boat? Maybe once I get the new boat and the Helix’s, the owner’s manual will explain….remember, old dog here, and these are alot of new tricks to learn.

It’ll only map what you go over. So they’re will be no contours in areas you don’t travel. It uses your 2d sonar to map, of course a 2d sonar is simply a cone. You’ll notice your 2d sonars pick 1 depth reading despite the cone sitting on various depths, so accuracy is only as good as the technology making the depth number.

On the zero lines, you can set it to show shoreline references and you can also turn that off. One way blends your reading with the shallow water it anticipates your next to, the other simply shows what you’ve actually recorded. I prefer shoreline references are on, but in your case that “rock” will show better with this setting off.

Are these rock piles marked? If not, would you be so kind to let us know where they are! Especially if you can live map over it

David Blais wrote:

Are these rock piles marked? If not, would you be so kind to let us know where they are! Especially if you can live map over it

They are rocks that are marked correctly on the Insight Pro. I do find some problems with Insight Pro in Sabaskong and NW Angle, nothing is perfect, but never have had Insight showing me on land when I am in the boat in the water on LOW.