I purchased a Lowrance iFinder H2O last week and the BPS sales guy tried to sell me a Navionics chip. The 2006 chip was $99.00 and the "new and improved" 2007 chip is considerably more. I opted not to buy one and have since used my GPS on L Lewisville and Ray Bob. Marked spots just fine, using my Humminbird fishfinder to find spots. Caught fish too.

My question is: Do the Navionics chips really make all that much of a difference?? Can you find the humps, channels any easier than using the lake maps that I already have?? I'm not a rich guy and frankly didn't think the GPS was something I really needed either till I was with a guy who had one and we found his spots with much greater ease.

Any advice or additional info would be greatly appreciated.

Also, the BPS guy said that you lose the background map with the chip in use.

Later, and good luck

I bought the 2007 chip this year. (I've never previously owned one).It is one of the best investments I ever made for fishing Lake Lewisville. I've yet to travel to another lake and use it.

On LL I've found three new honey holes that are not marked on any map I've ever seen. It is the 1 foot contour lines that make the difference.

Depends...if the lake you have is on the 2007 chip it will have either 1 or 2 foot countour lines.

If you want to locate creek channels faster, drop offs, humps etc...it's a pretty good deal. It also has boat lanes, ramps, and a lot of other stuff like standing timber etc...

If you just want to mark spots where you find fish like sunken trees etc...any gps will do.

If you fish one lake all the time not sure I would upgrade if you know the lake fairly well. When it shines is on a new lake to have the boat lanes, down to 1ft. countour level and even marks coves with hydrilla or whatever.

Check the lowrance website or navionics website to make sure you can use whatever chip you want with the finder you have. It changes for every year.

Do the Navionics chips really make all that much of a difference??

With out a doubt, I have had the 06 chip for about a year now and it is night and day. It shows everthing sumerged ponds, old airstrips, old home foundations, road beds, it is awsome. Check first if it is compatable with your gps unit and make sure your lake is on the chip.

Marc

Glad to hear that. I just bought one on Wednesday and looking to try it out this weekend. I've heard the 2007 chip is much improved.

Do the 1 ft contour lines automatically pop up? I know it's 1 ft on Hd lakes, right? For some reason, mine doesn't shoe 1 ft. Maybe I have it on the wrong setting? LCX-25C and 332C.

It depends on the lake too. 1 ft. won't show up till you zoom in pretty good as well. Some lakes are 2ft. contour.

yea, it'll show creek beds, old roads, all the humps and danger spots. it even has the names of parks, points and things of that sort. I dont have one, but if I had GPS I'd get it since I went on a friends boat with a 332c and its great. I didn't even get lost and thats definatly a plus

no. It is not any better than any other chip on the market save for the quantity of lakes it has compaired to the other chips.

I have both, NAV07 and FHS and they both have limitation. I like the FHS better for navigation, but will use the nav07 when on a lake that my FHS chip does not have.

Well I guess you guys talked me into it. Going to order mine now.

I have the 06 chip in a Lowrance 332c. The only problem I have is that it makes the unit operate very slow . When zooming in and out it can take 30 to 40 seconds. It also causes a lag when moving . For navigation, I use the free maps that can be downloaded on the Lowrance web site. Lowrance told me that the Navionics map has to translated to the Lowrance format and it requires a lot of processing resulting in slowing the operation of the unit.

rdjudy---Before you invest in the Navionics, you might want to try the free Lowrance lake maps on the Lowrance web site. They aren't HD with 1 ft contours, but they do have contours. From that you might be able to tell if the higher definition with 1 ft contours would be worth it.

I really like mine.

Wow, gentlemen; this is all great info and I greatly appreciate it. Now, I've got to decide between the OK '06 and Super '07. Thanks for all the input and I've got to say this is the most informative website that I think I've ever found.

See you on the water.

Later

Do I need any special software to then transfer to the iFinder??

Thanks

PS Didn't see your comment till after I had said going to "invest" in a chip. LOL. Seems like I sometimes get ahead of myself.

Later