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Posts: 294
Location: Suspended | Anybody have any experience with the Navionics Fishing Hot Spots HotMaps MMC's and using them on their GPS, can you see your existing trails over the map when you load it?
Are they accurate and helpful or a waste of money at $130 per region?
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Posts: 13
| I have been using these maps since they first came out. Yes your trails and icons show on these. They are a valuable tool but on many of the lakes they are way off. I have found them to be off by 500 feet and more. When you switch back to the lorance backround map it will be almost dead on where the navionics map is way off. I think the problem is that the hotspots maps these are based on are not accuratly located as far as longitude and latitude.
bob |
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Posts: 331
Location: Stevens Point, Wisconsin | I purchased a Garmin 188 map plotter/sonar last spring. I picked up the Wisconsin region and Minnesota region. I have good things to say and bad things to say about the Navonics Hot spots software. The hot spots are at times very accurate (within feet) and other times not so accurate. On LOTW’s my plotter would show me driving across land in some cases, even though I was 500 feet from shore. It would also show some hazards that were simply not there. I also found some islands that were not even on the software that are good size islands. However, the mapping can be very accurate as I said, and will show most importantly things like reefs out in the middle of the lake. Running LOTW’s at night watching my plotter gave me more of a sense of relief, as long as I stay wide of hazardous areas. I would say that the software is about 90% accurate, but it will cause your heart to skip a beat at times. I know that Navonics makes updated maps of specific lakes (not hot spots) that are more accurate then the hot spots. These cards will run $130 vs. $100 for a region hot spots card. But I am told that these maps are updated and more accurate. I do not know the name of these other Navonics maps and would like to hear what others have to say about them. Are they more accurate? When were they last updated? I think that the cost is well worth the feeling of comfort on dangerous bodies of water. My 2 cents, Ed Spoerl |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | They are a good referance if you do not know the lake. They will show you the structure but I would not use them for navagation if you can't see where you are going. I have fished areas where they are way off.
They are a good tool but for $130 a chip vs $10 for a map, I think I will stick with the maps until they get more accurate. Now if you fish 20 or more of the lakes on a MMC card then they are great. You will not need to buy 20 Hot Spots maps.
I think in time they will be very accurate and worth the money, for now, I will wait to see the next upgrade. |
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Posts: 1936
Location: Eau Claire, WI | In Canada this year I saw Shep use his chip loaded in his X15 and I was quite impressed with the accuracy.
I am not trying to pimp another board but if you go to www.walleyecentral.com and do a search on hot spots vs Garmin's blue charts there was a very informative and quite spirited discussion back from around late August or September.
I personally do not own either yet... |
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Posts: 331
Location: Stevens Point, Wisconsin | Go to Frank Walsh's web site and look for the post on this very topic. I think that post will be very helpfull too you! Page 2 titled "Navonics software updates"
Edited by MuskyTime 10/31/2003 1:45 PM
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Posts: 294
Location: Suspended | Thanks guys, I took a look over there and didn't really gain anything more than the fact that the fishing hot spots versions aren't as accurate as the XL's. Unfortunately they're the only ones that have Lake Hopatcong on them and that's what I'm looking to get better detail on.
Does anyone own region 1 in this series that can share more info? |
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