Navionics Marine Charts vs. Hotmaps

[lew]

I've been using the Navionics Gold chart this year and am very happy with it. Nice coloring, plenty of detail and it's easy to troll the drop-offs with the contour lines. I also like the way the humps stand out in a different color.

 

Trouble is, it doesn't cover Nippissing, so yesterday I went out and bought that map for an upcoming trip but it only comes in the Hotmap.

 

The Gold was about $235 and the Hotmap was $180

 

Question is, what's the difference between the 2 different formats ?? I fished Nippissing with Irishfield in June and he had the Hotmap, and it looked basically the same to me.

 

And why is there $55 difference in the price.

 

hmmmmm

[Roy]

Lew, I would hazard a guess that people using the gold maps are often people who keep their boat in the water and no matter where you live in Canada, the section you buy covers one heck of a lot of water. The hotmaps could be seen as being less usful in that for example, if you live in Alberta, there are only 4 AB lakes on the chip...not too cost effective for an Albertan. So it has to be sold a little cheaper to make people buy them. This is the number of lakes on the Canada hotmaps by Province:

AB=4

BC=203

MB=1

NB=4

NS=3

ON=80

QC=125

SK=4

and there is also, on that same chip, one lake in Vermont and 2 New York lakes.

 

Does that make sense?

 

So, for the folks of BC, ON and QC the maps are a little more worthwhile.

[Guest lundboy]

One big difference is that the gold maps cover the navigable waters... The Gold for southern Ontario covers Lake O, and Trent Severn, the HM doesn't cover Lake O. I have both too because Hotmaps 2007 covers a lot of the smaller lakes that aren't navigable such as Poudash in Bancroft.

 

I have compared both on Simcoe side by side, both have full coverage, but the gold has "fuller" coverage. More depth lines, and detail. That is comparing them side by side for Simcoe. Not sure about other lakes. On Simcoe the detail just isn't the same with Hotmaps 2007 as it is with Gold.

Edited August 9, 2007 by lundboy