Anyone having problems with accuracy of the navionics depth contour reading? I was out on Kegs Reef on Lake Waconia drilling holes in what I thought was 21 feet of water but it turned out I was only in 15 feet. I wanted to be off the edge of the reef not on top of it! Is there a more accurate app out there I should try?
It depends on the lake. Some are way off, but I’ve found most are pretty close or right on. There is also a dynamic depth setting you can get if you pay a little extra. This allows you to change the water level if you find it to be off consistently all over the lake. Maybe the lake was low this fall? Maybe it was high when they did the lake survey? Also, were you accounting for the thickness of the ice, because that will make a difference? As far as a more accurate app for your phone, I doubt there is one.
I have found that points to many of the lakes that I fish off by anywhere from 50′ to 100′. The general shape of the piece of structure is generally accurate, but its location seems to be off a bit. It is frustrating, and if I am fishing a new spot, I have learned to build in about an hour of exploration time in order to find the piece of structure that I am looking for. Once I find the break or whatever, I laydown a waypoint so that in the future it is much easier to find what I am looking for.
There could be a number of variables, accuracy of signal and or map accuracy. I tried it on Prior and it was dead on.
I fished Medicine last year and it was way off…but that was my phones GPS. I had a basin all to myself and was wondering why everyone was fishing so shallow. I ended up in about a 2′ water column under the ice.
Sometimes (when the hardware, not software, fails) the communities are your best lake map.
kids today…i can hear my grandpa now – grandson – “the app on my cell phone that tells me exactly how deep the lake is where i am standing and gives me all the breaks is off by a few feet! grrr” grandpa “what the hell is a cell phone!? drill some holes and find the fish”
but yes to your point i do find the nav app to be off on some lakes and spot on for others. For me i am grateful to have a tool that helps as much as it does even if it is off from time to time
I have found that points to many of the lakes that I fish off by anywhere from 50′ to 100′. The general shape of the piece of structure is generally accurate, but its location seems to be off a bit. It is frustrating, and if I am fishing a new spot, I have learned to build in about an hour of exploration time in order to find the piece of structure that I am looking for. Once I find the break or whatever, I laydown a waypoint so that in the future it is much easier to find what I am looking for.
I think you hit the nail on the head with this one! I have the same issues and yes leaving an hour earlier when fishing new spots is definitely a great idea. 50′ to 100′ on some lakes is no exaggeration either. Hopefully in a few years time it will be spot on. Not as accurate as the lakemaster chips, but with a little more work it does the job just fine.
It’s $10 for all of the United states. You get what you pay for. And you didn’t pay for much!!!!!!! But for $10…why not.
Spend the $120+ for lakemaster and you’re going to be more accurate – most the time. Assuming you’ve got a device to run the maps.
SPend another grand or more and you’ve got autochart + A humminbird/side imaging and the most accurate map owned.
How accurate of a map do you want 
I’m $150 away from the autochart capabilities and have recorded tons of water in preparation for buying this mapping software. Laptop showed up last week. Autochart is next.
Hey so I just found this last night. Humminbird website. ChartSelect. You can buy HiDef maps of certain lakes. Saves someone from buying the $130 state card when traveling to a specific lake only…Like me last week in SD. Wish I would have known this last week.
One thing I did notice though was LOTW/RAINY was only $29. I believe that’s a $130 card. All you need is a 2gb flashcard and pay then down load the map. One map per card.
Check it out. Lakemaster compatible devices.
MY Navonics is horse poo for most lakes compared to my Lakemaster. I was on one lake two weeks ago and the Navonics showed a deeper hole by over 15′ and went over and drilled holes and the deeper hole is not even there at all. My Lakemaster which I checked when I got home showed there was no hole to begin with. The next week same thing on another lake. With the Navonics says there is a hole with at least a 10′ differential and nothing. Nerviness good to use to kill some time but not very accurate for the area I fish. IMHO
Don’t all charting companies get the same bathymetry information from the government? They may use boats to chart some of the more popular and bigger lakes, but for the majority aren’t they relying on the same bathymetry data?
I am not making a point, I am just curious.
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