Anyone have experience with Navionics Explorer Hot Maps?

[jignpig]

Hey there WCer's!
Just looking for info from any of you that have used explorer hot maps. Kind of thinking if it is a good rewource I would use it to curb cabin fever while we are waiting for some hard water round here.

So it looks like you use it to look at Hot maps Premium on your PC...is that right?
Thanks in advance!
Todd

[blueicecpa]

I do have it, love it on the computer. Get 1 HD.

Fugawi will have a GPS soon too. So the Laptop will a Mouse GPS = a:raisin: GPS.

[Sunshine]

My life would be completely different without Navionics Explorer Hot Maps.

I do a great deal of prefishing before going to a tournament using this valuable software. I can download my waypoints and see patterns emerging by looking at the detailed map. I can zoom in and print out detailed maps of areas that I want to concentrate on.

[jignpig]

Thanks for the comments Sunshne and Blueicecpa...

So am I reading the details on Navionics right that you use the Premium Hot maps for the base map?

Then from that can I record waypoints that I can then plug into my finder/gps?

Thanks again!

[jignpig]

Sorry guys I was looking at the Nav Planer and got confused there... You guys out there used Nav planer at all???
Thanks,
Todd

[Jim Carroll]

I use both Navionics products, HotMaps Explorer and NavPlanner.

Navionics HotMaps Explorer is a DVD with 10,000+ lakes (standard surveys) on it that you can view on your home computer. Included, you get 1 free High Definition (HD is 1-3' contours) survey map that you download off the Internet. Additional HD surveys can also be purchased online. You can create data using the maps and print the maps to paper, but you can't transfer the maps themselves. You can create waypoints and routes and transfer them to your chart plotter.

I think this product is a tremendous value for $20.

If you want to look at your Navionics electronic charts (mapping chips) on your home PC, then you will need Navionics NavPlanner. I really like this software and use it all the time to "prefish", identifying all the key structure I want to check out before I get to the lake. You can easily load, edit, save, and transfer waypoints and routes from the PC to the GPS unit and back again. Another neat feature is that you can import/transfer/translate/save GPS data from several different manufacturer's units, so if your buddy is using something other than Lowrance, you can take his waypoints and save them in Lowrance's format and transfer the waypoints to your unit or vice versa without having to punch in the individual coordinates.

Good software that's easy to use.

Jim Carroll NPAA #13

[jignpig]

Jim,
How do you think the maps on the HM explorer stack up for detail and accuracy? Can I pick out a point where two creek channels come together and make a waypoint and plug it into my finder for example? Or make a line of points to follow a contour?

Thanks,
Todd

[Jim Carroll]

Much of the mapping data on HotMaps Explorer is the same data as Navionics uses for their electronic charts. Their own HD surveys being the most accurate.

Can you create waypoints off HotMaps Explorer? Sure, that's what the software is designed to do. The accuracy of those waypoints will always depend on how good the base map is or isn't, and that will vary by individual lakes. Realize that Navionics (or LakeMaster etc.) hasn't surveyed every lake in the country, they are relying in many cases on Government surveys and other data. Unless you are fishing lots of different lakes with HD surveys, I think HotMaps Explorer is a great value.

And for the guys still using old chartplotters and fishing without mapping chips (remember those dark days...LOL), they can at least look at a contour map on their home computer and place a waypoint on a piece of underwater structure, then punch those coordinates into their unit as a starting point. Great value for $20...

Jim Carroll NPAA #13