I have a hummingbird 788c at the dash

and a 788ci at the bow. I'm looking into buying maps for them. What would be the Best Buy I live in Des Moines, Iowa. 

Also how benifital are these maps? What exactly do they do. Sorry these are really basics questions but I'm just a little confused on it all. 

More detail, and lakes that might not be on the preloaded maps.

In your opinion do you think it's worth the price tag? Also what do you think is better the navionics or lakemaster. 

I buy my graphs bundled with a Navionics chip, when available. I wouldn't be without it.

3 hours ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

In your opinion do you think it's worth the price tag? Also what do you think is better the navionics or lakemaster. 

 

Go on the Navionics website and see if they actually have maps of the lakes you fish most often.  This was a deal breaker for me, Lakemaster didn't have 'em.  I rely on my Navionics heavily.

Good call, I forgot about the web app: https://webapp.navionics.com/

I'm thinking of buying a new hummingbird electronic later this year. Hoping during the bassmaster classic there is a sell or something.  Would you just wait till then if your trying to save money? And get a bundle of some sort?

The classic has already been fished this year. Check them out on black Friday and after leading up to Christmas.

20 hours ago, 2tall79 said:

 

Go on the Navionics website and see if they actually have maps of the lakes you fish most often.  This was a deal breaker for me, Lakemaster didn't have 'em.  I rely on my Navionics heavily.

so are you telling me if the lake isn't on navionics web app then it wont be on the chip?

4 hours ago, Scarborough817 said:

so are you telling me if the lake isn't on navionics web app then it wont be on the chip?

That is correct.

Just now, 2tall79 said:

That is correct.

well thank you for saving me $200

In my opinion the maps are essential I'm sure there's lakes that aren't covered in both Navionics and Humminbird lakemaster but I don't see the point of having a unit and not having the maps the maps that are pre-loaded on Humminbird units have no contour lines. And for me the Contours are key in Saving Time on the water in pinpointing Prime locations to fish in Prime locations to graph

If you want to put in the time.....it is possible to make your own HD map of any lake.

 

https://www.bassmaster.com/blog/making-lake-maps

Or if you don't have an expensive depthfinder, you can do it on the cheap this way:

https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/mapping-a-lake.html

Thanks everyone if I did buy the lakemaster and used it on my humminbird 788c and then I upgraded units would the lake master I used in the past work on the new one?

4 hours ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

Thanks everyone if I did buy the lakemaster and used it on my humminbird 788c and then I upgraded units would the lake master I used in the past work on the new one?

Yes probably better. You may need to update your 788c before your mapping will work so pick up a spare sd card just in case

Ok good how do I check if they need updated sorry this is just new to me. Do I call humminbird?

If you register your unit on the hummingbird website under "my hummingbird" link on the right it'll tell you the last update date. This should give you a good idea....Also once you pop your SD card in the unit it'll tell you if its a new update or not. (as im sure you've heard before make sure you restore defaults before updating).