Navionics vs. Humminbird

I have been using Navionics for years but was told recently that Humminbird has a better app for Iphones. I was unable to find it in the app store. What app do you feel is best for ice fishing use?

Navionics is cheaper but less accurate. I use a Helix for my ice sonar so I don’t need a phone app. Best move I’ve made. Navionics maps tend to be off fairly frequently.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Navionics is cheaper but less accurate. I use a Helix for my ice sonar so I don’t need a phone app. Best move I’ve made. Navionics maps tend to be off fairly frequently.

That’s been my experience too. I’ve compared Navionics maps and Lakemaster maps side by side on the lakes I fish and Lakemaster maps show features that don’t even show up on Navionics maps.

It’s called the FishSmart app.. Have to buy each individual lake however.

The Lowrance App has better mapping than Navionics, but I don’t think you can put down waypoints. It seems to be for point-to-point navigation. It’s what I went to because Navionics jacked their prices up so much for renewal this year when they added Canada, which is worthless to me.

FishSmart from Humminbird has been discontinued. If you have it already, it still works. They are replacing it with a new One Boat Network app. Website says coming soon. FishSmart was nice for getting HD maps you didn’t happen to have on a chip. You could purchase individual lakes and had no subscription fee.

It was really disappointing when they discontinued the FishSmart app. Wonder how much they are going to jab everyone for the new app. If it works on your phone I hope they make it compatible with Apple CarPlay. Nice to be able to navigate in the winter time on frozen lakes with the car screen instead of looking at your phone. I heard OnX now works with CarPlay. Would be nice!

Yeah I hope they get it right. Having bluetooth units, the sky’s the limit on what they could do with it. Never thought of the CarPlay option. That would be slick. FishSmart is a little clunky when it comes to handling the individual lake maps and getting them on your head unit. And I was also bummed when they disabled the ability to update your unit via bluetooth directly from the app vs downloading onto an SD card.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Navionics is cheaper but less accurate. I use a Helix for my ice sonar so I don’t need a phone app. Best move I’ve made. Navionics maps tend to be off fairly frequently.

The lake I have been fishing the last few days has been way off frequently. Yesterday we had a spot that was 27′ off from what navionics showed. The spot we are sitting in now shows 26′ and we are actually 49′.

Navionics has some surveyed lakes but most of their MN Maps are just the 1950s DNR maps digitized and 10′ contours interpolated to 1′ contours. The map data was made with 70 year old technology. Compare that with Lakemaster who actually surveyed just about every MN lake with a public access.

Does Lakemaster have an iphone app or is a separate hardware/handheld unit needed to utilize this program?

mark Mason wrote:

Does Lakemaster have an iphone app or is a separate hardware/handheld unit needed to utilize this program?

That is what we were talking about with the Humminbird (Lakemaster) FishSmart app that has been discontinued. Sounds like they are coming out with a new one. Not sure when it will be available. Otherwise it’s bringing a battery and your Helix with your map chip along.