Thoughts on Ultra map card / Contour Relief Shading

[Juan Lobo]

My wife bought me the G3 Ultra maps card for my birthday back in November. After having been out and using it a few times, I have to say I'm a little disappointed. IMO it is a very cool and interesting tool, and fun to look at, but in practice.. I'd rather have my regular contour lines. What is strange to me is that the Contour Relief Shading map doesn't have any info or indicators of some of the really nasty stump fields on my lake. As in, they'll have this detailed contour map of the bottom.. but totally ignore the fact that that entire section of the lake is literally impassable due to tree stumps.

Anyone feel differently? Anyone find the relief shading to be a very useful tool? How do you use it?

Thanks a bunch guys!

[jmcelmury]

Juan - the lake you mention, is it a newer Garmin Elite Survey? Are you saying the portion of the lake with stump fields has contour relief shading? I'm still impatiently waiting for a lake Garmin surveyed in 2018 to be updated before pulling the trigger on the Ultra chip so I have similar questions to yours related to usefulness.

[Juan Lobo]

Yes. I'm talking about Jordan in NC. Almost the entire lake has contour relief shading, with the exception of two to three areas that are either so stumpy that no one was possibly getting a boat through it or is <1 ft of water even at full pool.

So its weird. There IS relief shading, but its just like the stumps aren't even there. On Jordan there is an entire 1/2 of one of our sections of "main lake" that you just can't go anywhere near because of how thick the stumps are, but Garmin graphed it with relief shading.. it just doesn't indicate that any of the stumps are out there.