garmin/hummingbird/lowrance mapping for eastern nc rivers

[white gambler]

Wanted to read some opinions on eastern nc river mapping on units. I had a 7610 Garmin in 2017 and it was ok for mapping. The Lowrance live 9 I have now in dash is fine as well. I'm thinking of trying a Hummingbird helix at the console of my next boat. Curious what others opinions/experiences are with the mapping on the bird.
Thanks in advance for whoever takes the time to post.

[Rip Bass]

I don’t know about different unit base maps but for a map chip,Nauticpath is the way to go.

[rbarrow]

Craig...

Actually no brand is going to any better than the other because no one has actually mapped those areas. All the map cards out there rely on the government topo maps and sometimes some "crowd-sourced" uploaded stuff (questionable accuracy). The main lakes in NC have been scanned by both Lowrance and Humminbird (Buggs, Jordan, Falls, etc) and have EXCELLENT maps but you will likely not ever see the mapping boats on anything smaller than these lakes....just too expensive.

As you have a Live, I would recommend the C-Map Precision HD map for NC as it has many scanned lakes as well as the 1' contours for the non-HD lakes/rivers. Another option is a Navionics card which covers more than NC but is not very accurate compared to the C-Map (on the scanned lakes!).

My best advice is don't mix brands of equipment on a bass boat if you actually plan to use it for offshore waypoint fishing. You need 2 units (console and bow) that will fully communicate.

Also...before you go down that Helix road....just remember this....Nothing HB makes will outperform your HDS Live and nothing Lowrance makes will outperform the HB Solix (notice I said SOLIX not HELIX!) - the top end equipment from either brand is pretty good! Not trying to start a brand war at all...facts is facts.

We run a SONAR training center in Salisbury if you ever have any interest in taking your skills to the next level. Happy to help!

Roy

[white gambler]

Thanks guys

[Riccochet]

The new Garmin G3 mapping now includes all Navionics data. So, a ton of mapping and ultra features added over what you had in 2017. Because, I agree, Garmin's G2 mapping was pretty poop before.