Hey guys. I’ve always been a humminbird guy so have all the lakemaster stuff. Well, bought a new boat and put in Garmin everything. I don’t have my boat yet (getting rigged up now) but want to start learning. I’m pretty sure my graphs (8612 and 8616) have navionics on them already.  Is that what you all use for mapping? I assume you use the navionics app as well? Any other system you use? Tips? Thanks! 

I run Navionics on my Tablet and Phone since my Striker doesn't have built-in maps. If I ever upgrade, it'd be Garmin and Navionics...note that Garmin owns Navionics, so it's a given that Navionics is what they use.

Garmins active captian app is quite usefull and will be needed to update your unit.

Ok, got my boat and units yesterday. A few questions. I have navionics plus on the units as they come.  I could see where you could shade certain depths different colors, but it wasn’t appearing on the map. It looks like they were selected correctly (green box) but still weren’t changing the map at all. Was I doing something wrong? 
second, I’ve got three Garmin gpsmap series units all connected. Do I need an active captain card installed in each or just one?  
Finally, I want to upgrade to vision plus. I’ve heard some say do it through active captain and some say do it through garmin express. Not sure what that is. My boat is at a storage unit so looking to do it the quickest way possible since I don’t want to be there for hours. 
thank you all! 

Anyone?

I have echomap ultras not as familiar with the gpsmap units but they should all link and share the data off one card.  As for the depth shading  I don't know have you connected to wifi and updated them. Seems silly on new units but you would be surprised. 

The navionics that came “built in” on my echomap units only supported color shadings select lakes. I think there was a way to tell on the unit or a list on the web for the support lakes. I purchased a navionics subscription and download via the active captain app which supports color shading on all lakes. 
 
My echomaps are networked together and only require an sd card in the master unit. 

I don't have any gpsmap graphs but I have a couple echomaps and one ultra. IIRC the depth shading only shows up on the fishing chart, not the navigation chart.