hummingbird

looking at buying a hummingbird with the preloaded maps mainly to be used on mille lacs has anyone used one of these would i be able to see the break lines and flats or am i better off going with a unit with a chip

Not sure about the preloaded maps for mille lacs, but, the standard maps are very low resolution, like 5-10ft minimum depth contours. Most good maps will give you at least 1ft contours. You can add an aftermarket map chip to any Humminbird unit.

There were earlier models that had the full Navionics bundle pre installed. (NVB models). This was before JO acquired LakeMaster. They were decent. The base map that comes pre loaded, is just that. Very basic. In order to utilize the power of your Helix, you should budget for a LakeMaster chip..

It’s humminbird

And if you can find an old Navionics chips anywhere, the cost for an upgrade chip is very reasonable.

thanks for the info guys that is kind of what i was figuring i will plan on buying a chip with what ever unit i decide to go will

I’ve found the Lakemaster chip to be remarkably accurate out there. I adopted a Tony Roach tip from last year’s IDO Mille Lacs episode where I drive along a breakline, tracing it with my tire tracks, and then drill along that line. I keep the Helix right on the center console when I’m heading to my spot.

Bass Thumb wrote:

I’ve found the Lakemaster chip to be remarkably accurate out there. I adopted a Tony Roach tip from last year’s IDO Mille Lacs episode where I drive along a breakline, tracing it with my tire tracks, and then drill along that line. I keep the Helix right on the center console when I’m heading to my spot.

I do the same thing with my wheeler it’s a nice little trick that saves you some time. I’m running a Navionics chip but think I will pick up a Lakemaster chip for my Helix as well.

And if you have a specific honey hole, just use the Humminbird map creator to draw your own contours to 1′ intervals. I do this around submerged islands.