Any advice on which cards are best?

Depends on your Manufacturer.
Navionics is good for Lowrance or Hummingbird but so is Lakemaster for Hummingbirds.

Thanks it's a Hummingbird 1197C. I know nothing about it. I just bought an 06 Ranger and it came with it. I keep telling myself I will just go to the lake and try to learn it but I have always been to excited to fish. Thanks for your help though!!

The Navionics is Good and the Lakemaster is good. The only problem I have with the Lakemaster is that there is sooooo much contour detail (5' intervals I think) and it has a very slow refresh rate when you are traveling down the lake. It stops then it catches up. BUT it does have LOTS of detail!!! I have both and depending on which kind of fishing I am doing then I will swap out. Deep fishing I will use the Lakemaster. Regular traveling lots then I use the Navionics. This is for Sam Rayburn. Your local lakes MIGHT not have as much detail with the Lakemaster or might not EVEN be on that list. And then if you fish Fork, Rayburn, or ESPECIALLY TOLEDO BEND you really need to get the Lance Vick Boat Lanes Chip as an overlay. Most Factory chips do NOT have the boat lanes.

Awesome! Thank you very much for your time and knowledge.

+1
I also have LakeMaster & Navionics+ on my 1197cSI. LakeMaster is VERY slow refresh rates, up to 15-20 seconds sometimes.



+1. Boatlanes comes in individual lakes or combo lakes.

The refresh rate for Lakemaster is faster if you are zoomed in closer. The farther out you are zoomed the more information the system has to load so the slower it runs. When I'm running down the lake I usually keep the zoom less that .25 miles that way the refresh is much faster, usually without noticable delay.
The Lakemaster has features such as lake level offset, shallow water highlight and depth highlight that I feel make it the best choice. I have both but only use Lakemaster, I keep my Navionics in case I fish outside the Texas/Oklahoma area.

Lakemaster on a friends 1198 is good. On my 1197 it's too slow & I'm zoomed in 1000ft and less.

I have the lakemaster texas oklahoma version 1.0 and it does not have the river channel on it or contures for ivie, it has squaw creek which just reopened in 2010 after a 10 year lay out, bwhich card do I need for my 998 hummingbird?

I use both. Depends on lake. I have 2 898s