Navionics or Lake Master?

I am a newbie to GPS charts, would like to know if anyone has any opinion on which chip is better. I mainly fish in Iowa, but with my parents moving to Duluth I anticipate fishing in Minnesota more. I used my frineds Navionics chip from 2009 and I like it but it didn’t have any fishing hot spots loaded. Do the newer chips have this feature, and if they do does it help?

the biggest thing I’ve seen is you need to look at which lakes each company has on thier chips they don’t have the same lakes all the time, I would say that the surveyed maps that lakemaster has are more acurrate than the navionic chip. Stan

Lakemaster hands down

Navionics has the worst customer service I have ever encountered.

Navionics never again.

IMHO

I fish MN, not sure about IA chips. I will say this though…

When I first got my GPS in 07′ I got Nav because I was short on $$$ and they offered more lakes.

Shortly after I did buy the LM solely on the fact they they have WAY bettermaps for the lakes they did offer. And have since added many more lakes to their line-up.

Since my first O8′ LM chip I have added the LM LOW/Rainy and LM 2010-MN. And have maybe used the NAV chip a few times for the rare occasion LM does not have the maps I need.

So basically it boils down to if LM offers your lake list. If so I would deffinatley go that route. -Mark

I have used the Nav Prem North chip for many years….

With the limited knowledge I had with mapping it was a great improvement over having nothing at all… I still use it for my Mississippi River fishing in SW Wisconsin (until LM updates my pools) but with the LM chip for LOTW and Rainy Lake they really have some impressive looking maps.

Now going thru my Nav ship…some of the lakes in my area show several cribs and “Hot Spots” but many more don’t. I’m guessing that’s because they did not have the info for Nav to put into their chips…

I fished with a buddy last year who was running Navionics and I was not impressed. I had a tough time seeing the contour lines. They are much darker and smooth on the Lakemaster. I also like how on the lakes I fish there are a lot more names on the map with Lakemaster. Its somewhat personal preference, Navi has some spots marked better then Lakemaster and vice versa but I overall I pick Lakemaster.

I have both chips and the lake master on some lakes have better detail.

I mainly fish on pools 10 and 11 and to my knowledge neither of the chips have a whole lot of detail for those pools. Sounds like most people are pretty happy with Lake Master. I will proably give that one a try.

Remember since you fish Iowa and MN you will need a chip for both states. I prefer the Navionics for Iowa and the waters I fish in MN, I have a Lakemaster chip, used it a total of 3 hours and wasnt impressed in my HDS unit. PM me will save you a few bucks on a 2010 LM MN chip, if I can find it.