# GPS inshore LA



## Snoball

Simrad or Lowrance give the most options of maps you can choose. In La I think land moves a bunch so most of the maps I’ve seen have not been accurate. I use the La marine track and it’s a decent map but there are many tracks around Houma and Venice that literally run into dry land.


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## ifsteve

IMO

7" is too small, 9" is way way better
Simrad NSS series with the rotary dial is the best for LA


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## Smackdaddy53

I used my Lowrance HDS9 Touch there and it was great.


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## redchaser

A good, much less expensive option for a map chip for Louisiana is Standard Mappings Louisiana One Card satellite imagery. You can get it for Simrad/Lowrance and for Garmin.


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## TidewateR

Standard mapping is decent, but I'm not a fan. I dont' like their cartoony blue background, the resolution isn't great, and the imagery is 5 years old. It is still better than any base map that will come standard with your GPS, and its good enough to get you around most of LA safely...esp SW LA. There's not much to it over there and changes to the marsh aren't as drastic as other areas like Venice. When SM first came out it was groundbreaking for LA fisherman...now, its a bit of old dinosaur.

Please stay away from Strikelines mapping. I bought their chip when it was on sale for Black friday.

Here's my cons list for Strikelines 4k SELA:

No landmark names (bayous, bays etc)
Extremely outdated imagery (10+ years old)
Cuts off some barrier islands
Imagery cuts off close to shore (missing sandbars and other features in bays and off the coast)
Imagery was taken during high / dirty water period so can't see underwater features in most places.

Really curious how Isla Mapping looks, but don't want to pay the price tag to find out.


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## ifsteve

What Tide said!! Mirrors my experience with SM and Stirkelines.

As for Isla Mapping, I gave up on them. They were supposed to have an updated LA card out last fall. Then by the end of the year. Well that ships come and gone 4 months ago. Yet they continue to put out updates in FL. I get that FL is their bread and butter, as it should be. But its also clear that any LA work is an afterthought.


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## Ryan in LA

Stick with Simrad or Lowrance so you can use StandardMapping chips. If I read all the other comments correctly there wasn’t another glowing recommendation. SM is plenty good and necessary for LA. The resolution and goofy blue background is a compromise for contrast in the bright sun. Other chips I’ve seen may have better details in certain spots but may be too dark in areas you need better contrast (Navionics sux) and water and land are all green/brown. SM contrast just works. 

I do not rely on my GPS map for discovering locations to fish, you need to do that on Google Earth ahead of a trip and on a large home computer monitor and upload points to the GPS. If I need to discover a new spot, SM will work in a pinch, but the marsh is constantly changing, so expect differences with any satellite overlay.

I use an older NSS9” Simrad and love the combo of a zoom rolling dial and touch screen. I bought mine off EBay for $600 in new box.


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## ISLA Mapping

ifsteve said:


> What Tide said!! Mirrors my experience with SM and Stirkelines.
> 
> As for Isla Mapping, I gave up on them. They were supposed to have an updated LA card out last fall. Then by the end of the year. Well that ships come and gone 4 months ago. Yet they continue to put out updates in FL. I get that FL is their bread and butter, as it should be. But its also clear that any LA work is an afterthought.


LA is no afterthought at ISLA. It is a ridiculous statement to make and you should retract it as it was made out of ignorance. If you have given up on ISLA and are unhappy with your product or the speed with which new images are provided are we are happy to refund all of your purchase cost and remove you from our data base if you return your chips. Just send us an email letting us know and we will get it done.

You really have no idea what goes on at ISLA, how the work gets done, or what is really involved in creating the files for the charts and particularly image files. Updates for map vector features are totally different from updates to images. The two are mutually exclusive and are produced and created separately. Map lines and points and features can be changed and ready to go in a day or less and those updates go on every week all over the place. We are changing and releasing map vector features weekly. We will be updating the St. Marks area with further details on Monday and Tuesday for instance. The maps that are sold one week are routinely slightly different from the maps sold the next week because of these vector updates. It could be a moved set of markers, some stakes, a new bar highlighted, a new Poll and Troll area, a broken or moved daymarker or moved buoy etc. As another current example, we just got word of a new large sandbar that has formed in the St. Johns river that could be a navigation issue. We are looking into that now and if it is true, it will be reflected on the charts that are sold within a few days of us confirming it and we will likely send out an email about it as well if it is substantive. 

There have been no imagery updates in FL since last fall and LA imagery has been in the works since then. Fixing images so they appear correctly and are bright and clear and seamless is extremely time consuming. LA is particularly challenging. ISLA is updating the entire database of images for LA. Every photo is from an airplane and adjusted by hand and many of the images are very hi resolution at 3 and 6 inches and are proprietary. Fixing the problems such as sun glare, brightness, contrast, color etc., that are always inherent in aerial images encompassing hundreds of square miles is a major undertaking and can take a very long time. Many of the images are more challenging to work with in LA and the number of different data sets is larger as well. There is no short cut to producing what we do. It's all done by hand and on the water.

We don't skimp on quality and work to put out the best imagery. We would like to be able to get it all out immediately, but there is no shortcut to it and trying to create one would result in something similar to what people complain about every day on other charts. There is a good reason the others get so many complaints about their image quality and accuracy and have the reputation they rightfully earned. It is very hard to do what we do here and because of economics and scaling efficiency, they will likely never produce any images that are close to our standard; it is not an efficient business model given the current technology. But here, the economics and efficiency is not what drives us. It's not about money here and it never was right from the beginning. It was about fixing the problems. ISLA was born out of frustration with the other charts that fail so miserably but it was never originally conceived to be a product for sale. It just grew into that by word of mouth after the first charts were created that fixed the problems years ago. ISLA has grown to the business it is and has the reputation it has because we do things very differently from the other guys.

We have come a long way on this image update project for LA and hope it will be released this summer. We apologize for your frustration. If it was possible without cutting quality, it would have been out early this year but the datasets of images have proven to be more challenging to process than originally anticipated and we don't want to cut quality on appearance or resolution.


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## ifsteve

I don't have any Isla Marine products. I am not frustrated with your products. I am quite frustrated with your sales pitch. Its understandable it takes time to process all the data and to do a quality job. But dont put out information saying you hope to have it out by the end of the year. Then when its not done and I enquire I get "we are working it." Then two days ago I asked again. And I get a one sentence reply saying "we are working it" Too busy to even say sorry for the delay and we hope to have it out this summer. Instead of you then having to reply with an entire page. A simple update on facebook or here or your website shouldn't be too much to ask. The issue is guys that would like to consider your product need a realistic projection on when it would be available so they can decide to wait or buy a different product. Which is what I ended up doing.


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## Smackdaddy53

ifsteve said:


> I don't have any Isla Marine products. I am not frustrated with your products. I am quite frustrated with your sales pitch. Its understandable it takes time to process all the data and to do a quality job. But dont put out information saying you hope to have it out by the end of the year. Then when its not done and I enquire I get "we are working it." Then two days ago I asked again. And I get a one sentence reply saying "we are working it" Too busy to even say sorry for the delay and we hope to have it out this summer. Instead of you then having to reply with an entire page. A simple update on facebook or here or your website shouldn't be too much to ask. The issue is guys that would like to consider your product need a realistic projection on when it would be available so they can decide to wait or buy a different product. Which is what I ended up doing.


They don’t have to answer to you Steve.


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## ISLA Mapping

ifsteve said:


> I don't have any Isla Marine products. I am not frustrated with your products. I am quite frustrated with your sales pitch. Its understandable it takes time to process all the data and to do a quality job. But dont put out information saying you hope to have it out by the end of the year. Then when its not done and I enquire I get "we are working it." Then two days ago I asked again. And I get a one sentence reply saying "we are working it" Too busy to even say sorry for the delay and we hope to have it out this summer. Instead of you then having to reply with an entire page. A simple update on facebook or here or your website shouldn't be too much to ask. The issue is guys that would like to consider your product need a realistic projection on when it would be available so they can decide to wait or buy a different product. Which is what I ended up doing.


We never made a sales pitch to you Steve. We just answered your email question and advised very clearly it was still in process and that is the truth. There was not much more to elaborate on and we did not go into written details on timing or projections on purpose as they may be copied and sent out to the world and you likely would have done just that. When it's done an announcement will be made. Making projections on exact release dates is not something we like to do given the number of variables in producing the files for the machines. A PC could crash or we could run into a number of issues. There are all kinds of technical issues that can arise in creating new image files for these charts. As you noted, we made a projection last year and it got sidelined due to some technical issues encountered which is not atypical. As a result of that and not getting the specific response you wanted, you felt the need to express your own specious opinion in a public forum that you developed yourself that infers it is not opinion "its also clear that any LA work is an afterthought". Well, nothing could be further from the truth. We spent tens of thousands of dollars late last year on recently flown proprietary very high quality imagery in LA and we are working it all up now along with tens of thousands of square miles of other imagery.

If you want fast and perfect timing it is easy to produce that. But it also no accident the result of producing that is the images go fuzzy right when you wish they would get better and they all look like a blue grey map rather than an actual photo and/or they are too dark to be very useful. You already have that kind of quality and attention to detail and if that works fine for you and you like it that is great for you. However, it does not work at all for us. If it did work for us, the ISLA LA product would have been out last year.

You seem to be monitoring what we do and making written inquiry with us perhaps hoping for something better. So maybe what you have doesn't work as well as you would like and that would explain the frustration on not getting what you want. If so, I can certainly appreciate that as it was that very line of thinking that was the Genesis of ISLA in the first place. Whatever the case is, the goal here is to always release something that is superior to the others. We are working as fast as we can to get it out so we can move on to other projects. New images are now available for AL and MS and much of the FL coast we want to get moving on that. TX and GA and the Carolinas are also areas we want to cover. Consequently, we want the new LA images done and released asap and it is our current top priority.


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## eightwt

ISLA Mapping said:


> We will be updating the St. Marks area with further details on Monday and Tuesday for instance. The maps that are sold one week are routinely slightly different from the maps sold the next week because of these vector updates. It could be a moved set of markers, some stakes, a new bar highlighted, a new Poll and Troll area, a broken or moved daymarker or moved buoy etc.


Do you announce changes when completed? Will be buying soon, and St Marks is area we fish every week. Just looking to make sure get latest update. Thanks


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## ISLA Mapping

eightwt said:


> Do you announce changes when completed? Will be buying soon, and St Marks is area we fish every week. Just looking to make sure get latest update. Thanks


We typically announce update trips on the ISLA Facebook page and post photos taken of things we find during our scouting/run. The last was done about a week ago in upper Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay had a number of marker number changes and a few signs but nothing in the way of navigation changes. St. Marks was updated a couple of months ago with a number of vector features including some obstacles and minor track changes due to growing bars. We will be back at St. Marks tonight and will run there tomorrow and Tuesday running south to Apalachicola marking more bars and obstacles and the Rock Garden. Orders made for NFL between now and Wed for customers focused on that area will be held pending the release of those updates on Wednesday. The updates for this obstacle, marker, and track scouting trip at the St. Marks area will begin to mail on Thursday of this week.


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## eightwt

ISLA Mapping said:


> We typically announce update trips on the ISLA Facebook page and post photos taken of things we find during our scouting/run. The last was done about a week ago in upper Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay had a number of marker number changes and a few signs but nothing in the way of navigation changes. St. Marks was updated a couple of months ago with a number of vector features including some obstacles and minor track changes due to growing bars. We will be back at St. Marks tonight and will run there tomorrow and Tuesday running south to Apalachicola marking more bars and obstacles and the Rock Garden. Orders made for NFL between now and Wed for customers focused on that area will be held pending the release of those updates on Wednesday. The updates for this obstacle, marker, and track scouting trip at the St. Marks area will begin to mail on Thursday of this week.


Thanks for reply. Will see ya midweek


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## eightwt

This is why you need good imagery/map for Big Bend of Fl. Luckily this one, Grey Mare, is very visable. Many others aren't.


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## Finn Maccumhail

@ISLA Mapping - any chance you're planning on a Texas chip or two?


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## ISLA Mapping

Finn Maccumhail said:


> @ISLA Mapping - any chance you're planning on a Texas chip or two?


Yes, it is on the radar but not for this year.


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## Finn Maccumhail

ISLA Mapping said:


> Yes, it is on the radar but not for this year.


Good deal. Just make sure it works well on the Simrad Go9 I just ordered for my new skiff build.


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## ISLA Mapping

Finn Maccumhail said:


> Good deal. Just make sure it works well on the Simrad Go9 I just ordered for my new skiff build.


We never recommend any GO units for any inshore use.


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## Dawhoo

Anyone use lowrance elite 9 TI2 ?


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## Capt.Ron

y'all need a GPS in La? ........ must not be from La...


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## KimmerIII

Capt.Ron said:


> y'all need a GPS in La? ........ must not be from La...


haha.....i laughed out loud at that.........old boudreaux and thibodeaux know it like the back of their hand. I once heard an old cajun say "I dont need no goddam computer on my boat to tell me where to go." (for the record I use GPS, your post just made me think of that guy).


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## redchaser

Capt.Ron said:


> y'all need a GPS in La? ........ must not be from La...


They need it to run the sd card with all of your spots that I’m selling.


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## junkin35

Capt.Ron said:


> y'all need a GPS in La? ........ must not be from La...












Where are you from then Capt?


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## Capt.Ron

junkin35 said:


> View attachment 178736
> 
> 
> Where are you from then Capt?


you mean the BT I was selling for someone? sorry bud my rig is way nicer than that one. I also run Simrad also have it linked to my engine.


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## Capt.Ron

p.s. how you going to use my own photo to call me out and scratch out my name lol p.s. there must be some great flats in shreveport 🤣 yankee


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## Capt.Ron

at least share a photo of my actual skiff


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## Capt.Ron

junkin35 said:


> View attachment 178736
> 
> 
> Where are you from then Capt?


dammit Mike.......... I hope you and Redchaser had a good lunch lol


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## junkin35

We did! 🤣🤣
I was wondering how long it would take for you to figure out we were together and jerking your chain.


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## Capt.Ron

junkin35 said:


> We did! 🤣🤣
> I was wondering how long it would take for you to figure out we were together and jerking your chain.


since he didn't call me back till 5 and I didn't realize it was you lol


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## DBStoots

Glen, for those of us who no longer (or never) use FaceBook, any chance you could develop an customer email list for notifying customers about updates?


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