Satellite Imagery Options on a Helix Unit

[Todd 450r]

I have an HDS Live on a Caymas bay boat and was able to put satellite imagery from Google Maps on a card and display. Perfect for navigating the Keys.

On the bass boat, I have a gen2 and gen3 Helix 12 at the console. I'm heading to Okeechobee after Christmas, I feel that satellite imagery would be great for navigating the boat lanes (correct me if I'm wrong here). Are there any map cards that work with gen 2 or gen 3 Helix 12 units with satellite imagery?

[SLYDoggie]

The new Lakemaster VX Premium cards have satellite imagery and shaded relief. The issue you have is that the VX card is only supported on Helix Gen 3 and 4 units. It will run on your Gen 3 but not your Gen 2.

[Wayne P.]

Legacy Lakemaster Plus will work on both of your units.

[LittleGazoo]

High resolution aerial imagery can be done on Lowrance, probably not with Humminbird. With Lowrance you can see roots on a stump & do an entire lake.
Sorry HB & GARMIN

[bobcoy]

What mapping are you referring to?

[Todd 450r]

Thank ya'll for the help!

[LittleGazoo]

What mapping are you referring to?

Lowrance AT5 mapping:

Stumps would normally be 6-7ft deep in normal Lake Fork water levels.
HOME PC GOOGLE EARTH SCREENSHOT:
FORK-STUMPS_GOOGLEEARTH.JPG

LOWRANCE HDS SCREENSHOT:
FORK-STUMPS_LOWRANCE.png


RUNNING LAKE O THE PINES AT 45mph+ DOWN THE BOAT LANE when the eyes only saw open blue water.:
shot18_zpsd7670604.PNG

[Mike2718]

Todd,
One thing to think about with the Legacy Lakemaster Plus, you are stuck with only the satellite images that Humminbird provides on the card. I don’t have the VX card but I assume it is the same. There is no way of seeing what dates the images were taken until you purchase the card so the images may really be “useless.” I downloaded the satellite images using Humminbird’s Chart Select for a small lake I fish. Unfortunately, the images didn’t do me any good. The images that Humminbird provided were taken when the lake was basically at full pool so you can’t what’s really down there. Luckily, the download didn’t cost too much for this particular lake.

If you notice in LittleGazoo’s photos, those images are from when the lake was at a low level. This is really nice because you can see what you are actually “running over”. This is a huge benefit when trying to run different lakes.

You could call Humminbird and see if they can give you the dates of the satellite images their cards use on a particular lake before wasting any money on images that won’t provide what you’re looking for. There are multiple dates for each lake and they are different for each lake so you will have to ask about the dates AND whichever lakes you are needing. If they can give you the different dates, you can compare those dates to Google Earth and see if the images on the card will provide what you need.

[bobcoy]

VX gives you a choice of google or hummingbird. Google looks the same as the posted view, it looks spectacular on Apex but probably not on helix.
I could no get to the boat to look at that image, used OBN, but the full HD on the Apex.looks the same

[Mike2718]

VX gives you a choice of google or hummingbird. Google looks the same as the posted view, it looks spectacular on Apex but probably not on helix.

Does VX give you ALL the dates that Google gives you? In my case Humminbird gave me multiple image dates but none of the dates had low water images like Google has.

[bobcoy]

I don’t think so. I believe it is the current listing (2023) Not sure if it will adjust with each new one that is current. May have to use google earth to get the year you want to use to place waypoints and input as always. Bob

[SLYDoggie]

I would say that the VX supplied satellite imagery isn't as high quality as Google Earth either... Especially when you zoom in.

[bobcoy]

I would think that might be a bit much memory in a stand alone fish finder to have all the earth photos/years in memory. I usually fish in the boat and plan with online facilities at home. Then export any interesting areas to the finder. Live/FF sonar is more effective now anyway. Bob

[LittleGazoo]

Low-water aerial mapping advantage is to shallow fishing just as mapping contours are to deep-water fishing. AT5 mapping is SD-card based just as Navionics & Lakemaster are, so unit memory usage is same as those. Which is good as AT5 map size can vary from 4GB to over 50GB on the SD-card.

I'd like to place 1 waypoint on an area, then let aerial map help quickly locate the 24 stumps just as contours help out deep. Also helps out deeper to follow a tree-line for FFSing.

[bobcoy]

Good points! I don’t think HB can use larger cards than 32 Gig(advantage Lowrance?). My fishing probably different enough it is not the same need. I fish 90% in a deep clear place(Bull Shoals) with wandering prey( Threadfin) the trees top out at 40’ under most of the time. Shallow areas very small except in the very backs(sometimes miles back). No weeds and about the
only cover are ACOE brushpiles (which are all listed with waypoints already). Walleyes, spots and smallmouth are all caught in the same places (around shad, mostly suspended over 100’ depths. Largemouth are generally relating to rock structures. VX mapping is a couple steps up from the “Legacy Lakemaster”. I am sure Lowrance Is a good system as well as Garmin /Navionics. I moved back to HB/MK many years ago. Getting too old to start anew. Thanks as always for your expertise. Bob