Does lakevu, which is preloaded on some garmin echomaps, cover smallish inland lakes? I mostly fish Portage Lakes in northeast Ohio, but also some bays off of Lake Erie. Money aside, I’m wondering if I should get the echo map or stick with the striker series. 

My Echomap units have many small lakes in my area, 50 acre lakes. 

It shows which lakes it covers on garmins website.

Just use the Quickdraw Contours feature and map the lake as you fish.  I believe both series has Quickdraw.

I ended up getting the echomap. It keeps notifying me I knees to get a micro sd card on the Active Captain app. Any clue if this is actually necessary? 

29 minutes ago, Cody28 said:

I ended up getting the echomap. It keeps notifying me I knees to get a micro sd card on the Active Captain app. Any clue if this is actually necessary? 

Ya - if you're gonna create your own maps with Quick Draw, or download maps from the community via Active Captain - you need a blank card in the slot.

8 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Ya - if you're gonna create your own maps with Quick Draw, or download maps from the community via Active Captain - you need a blank card in the slot.

Yup I didn’t realize this when I got mine, but they’re cheap enough it really wasn’t a big deal. 

1 minute ago, 12poundbass said:

Yup I didn’t realize this when I got mine, but they’re cheap enough it really wasn’t a big deal. 

My only 'gripe' is that they're still limited to 32gb...and it's a hard limit with them.

 

My cheap ($50) camera says 32gb max...but I run a 128gb card in it no problem.

Is it a hard limit even if you format to Fat32 instead of NTFS?  Most have the format being the limiting type...I think that is what you were implying Ken, but thought I'd clarify.

12 minutes ago, Deephaven said:

Is it a hard limit even if you format to Fat32 instead of NTFS?  Most have the format being the limiting type...I think that is what you were implying Ken, but thought I'd clarify.

From what I understand - the Garmin can't address more than 32gb. My camera formats even the 128gb to FAT32, so it's usable.

 

This is my camera card.

I use Linux to do the same and everything except my Audi has accepted it.  The Audi reads it just fine, but it may have a max number of files it can address.  I don't believe it is the card size, but file structure.  I would try the card from your camera after it was formatted as Fat in the garmin and see.

1 minute ago, Deephaven said:

I would try the card from your camera after it was formatted as Fat in the garmin and see.

Except I have a Striker - not an Echomap. No card slot, Quick Draw is stored internally as the internal memory isn't taken up by pre-loaded maps.

 

(best I could afford at the time)

32 gigs seems like plenty for contour mapping. Does anyone know how much storage a map takes? I have an Echmap too, just curious as I rarely use it.

38 minutes ago, schplurg said:

32 gigs seems like plenty for contour mapping. Does anyone know how much storage a map takes? I have an Echmap too, just curious as I rarely use it.

Per Garmin.

"Complete coverage of a square area is the best case and is roughly 1 MB for every 1000 acres. "

https://support.garmin.com/da-DK/?faq=MUHOR5mlGF9jrcszEhYrq5

 

Since 1gb is 1000mb, 32gb would hold 32 million acres in best case scenario.

5 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Per Garmin.

"Complete coverage of a square area is the best case and is roughly 1 MB for every 1000 acres. "

https://support.garmin.com/da-DK/?faq=MUHOR5mlGF9jrcszEhYrq5

 

Since 1gb is 1000mb, 32gb would hold 32 million acres in best case scenario.

That's a lot of pedaling, thanks! Sounds sufficient.