If you just bought a Humminbird and are looking for the best lake mapping, you can choose between LakeMaster and Navionics charts.
LakeMaster works exclusively with Humminbird units, while Navionics still offers products for other fish finder brands (for now), even after being bought out by Garmin.
LakeMaster VX cards are the best choice for Humminbird owners in most cases, enabling all the capabilities of your unit and the excellent HD contour details. However, Navionics has more coverage – if you fish in certain states in the Midwest, Navionics+, and Platinum+ maps are also great and could be the better choice.
For example, if you fish both Michigan and Wisconsin waters, you would need to buy both the Great Lakes and Wisconsin cards while you only need the US North & Great Lakes product.
The rest of this article dives deep into the capabilities of each brand and breaks down the coverage differences and oddities to help you buy the best maps for your Humminbird fish finder.
Company Facts
LakeMaster works exclusively with Humminbird units, while Navionics still offers products for other fish finder brands (for now), even after being bought out by Garmin. Here is a quick overview of each brand.
LakeMaster
Founded in 1992 by Mike Wood, located in Little Falls, MN. Acquired by Johnson Outdoors in 2011. Made their name in the Midwest and with High-Def paper maps.
Navionics
Founded in 1984 and located in Viareggio, Italy. The company started with European mapping before expansion to North America. Acquired by Garmin in 2017.
Pros & Cons Overview
Here are the main points to consider in this Navionics vs Lakemaster VX comparison. For those who want more details, read on, we dive into all of these points further in the article.
LakeMaster VX Premium
Read: LakeMaster VX Premium Review
PROS