Wanaflatsfish Posted July 22, 2017 Report Share Posted July 22, 2017 Just read to post in what char plotter to buy... Checked out Florida Marine Tracks...wow, seems like a real game changer. I have a Garmin 741XS and to tell you the truth, I was very very disappointed by their maps....when Don H had the older 740, it was significantly better. Considering changing to SimRad which appears to allow you to use FMT... Comments, etc. dc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunstone Posted July 22, 2017 Report Share Posted July 22, 2017 Wouldn't run the back country without it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headhunter Posted July 23, 2017 Report Share Posted July 23, 2017 An FYI. Garmin has a high res satellite chip out that's not bad. You have to dig for it on their website and you have to be careful that it's compatable with the GPS. I borrowed one form the Garmin rep and it's pretty nice. It is $250 but it has clear satellite imagery of the areas I fish here in Ormond, Daytona and Palm Coast. That with their depth charting works for me with out changing everything out. You do need two card slots one for the chart and one for the mapping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinny Running Posted July 23, 2017 Report Share Posted July 23, 2017 1 hour ago, Headhunter said: An FYI. Garmin has a high res satellite chip out that's not bad. At the Garmin booth at ICAST they had what they called a brand new Hi Res Everglades Chip. I took a look at it on one of their new units. It looks to be the exact same photos as the G2Vision chip somehow processed a little clearer. Just the same bad dark photos a little clearer than G2. Much worse than the latest Navionics overall and compared to FMT not even remotely comparable. "not bad" as you call it is being very generous in my opinion. Also, they just released this new Garmin map for the everglades and it does not even have any of the new Park navigation rules noted on there. Much of the park in FL bay is now poll and troll and none of it is noted on the Garmin map and 100s of park markers are missing. Garmin clearly remains the worst map on the market for anyone running shallow. You could never successfully navigate the Park with it with any confidence or poor vis if you were not experienced there. We just just got the FMT map and remarkably, I could not find one missing marker or sign. They seem to show all of the hundreds of markers in the park including those that went up this just a few months ago as well as all of the new idle and troll areas and the photos down there are pretty unbelievable. I have no idea how they do it but I ran around choko and Flamingo with it and every one of those directional markers and signs is like spot on to the foot. Even the brand new replaced Green day marker at the entrance to Flamingo's channel was moved and shown at its new exact position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FirstPriority Posted July 23, 2017 Report Share Posted July 23, 2017 Lowrance HDS-9 Gen3. love FMT. cant imagine a plotter without it. used a few other options prior and no comparison. getting ready to buy the north florida chip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Limitless Posted July 23, 2017 Report Share Posted July 23, 2017 Dino: I finally gave up on Garmin! Half the time my newest unit has me running on dry land. They "update" all the time; anything older than about 3 - 4 years is out of date and good luck finding parts; and, they monopolize their software operating system so you can only use their chips and maps. I'm done. I have Simrad on my new offshore boat and love it. The mapping with Navionics is excellent and the bottom read with 3D highdef sidescan is amazing. You wont be sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanaflatsfish Posted July 23, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2017 12 minutes ago, Limitless said: Dino: I finally gave up on Garmin! Half the time my newest unit has me running on dry land. They "update" all the time; anything older than about 3 - 4 years is out of date and good luck finding parts; and, they monopolize their software operating system so you can only use their chips and maps. I'm done. I have Simrad on my new offshore boat and love it. The mapping with Navionics is excellent and the bottom read with 3D highdef sidescan is amazing. You wont be sorry. I hear ya.....I probably "don't" need it to run Chokoloskee as I've been running it for 15 years now, but, to explore the Florida bay and other locations like ENP Flamingo..it would be a nice to have. dc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWilson Posted July 24, 2017 Report Share Posted July 24, 2017 We have been running FMT on a Simrad Evo2 for the last few months. All I can say is wow! The charts are simply amazing and the tracks are dead on. You can get a 4 yr old to navigate from Islamorada to Flamingo. The chip and the customer service is second to none. Garmin, Navionics, etc. have nothing close to this kind of detail. Even the soundings 20 miles off shore are accurate. Simply an awesome product. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harbday Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 On 7/22/2017 at 11:04 PM, FirstPriority said: Lowrance HDS-9 Gen3. love FMT. cant imagine a plotter without it. used a few other options prior and no comparison. getting ready to buy the north florida chip. same exact setup. love FMT. great customer service. the owner always calls me back and is willing to spend time explaining things. not cheap, but he has put in thousands of hours making something that competes with garmin. pretty impressive if you think about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh B Posted September 18, 2017 Report Share Posted September 18, 2017 I'd love to try FMT, but I live right on the line where they split the state for North & South. Looking at $500+ for a card to cover the entire state hurts a little. Another option that i'm looking into now. Will require some time & effort but the price is right! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linesider 159 Posted September 19, 2017 Report Share Posted September 19, 2017 17 hours ago, Josh B said: I'd love to try FMT, but I live right on the line where they split the state for North & South. Looking at $500+ for a card to cover the entire state hurts a little. Another option that i'm looking into now. Will require some time & effort but the price is right! Navionics 632p+ covers the whole west coast of florida with satellite imagery. That's what I use and prefer. Around here I don't have a use for the tracks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonehenge Posted September 20, 2017 Report Share Posted September 20, 2017 How does a large storm like Irma moving through the keys and south Florida affect these charts? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMT Charting Group Posted November 7, 2017 Report Share Posted November 7, 2017 On 9/20/2017 at 11:32 AM, Stonehenge said: How does a large storm like Irma moving through the keys and south Florida affect these charts? FMT has been in they Keys for several weeks post Irma looking into it as we have our SFL home base at Ground Zero. Surprisingly, virtually all of the pre storm markers survived although many were leaning a bit. The larger markers with big signs took the most damage. All of the small posts and PVC stakes we ran all survived which when you think about make sense as there is virtually no resistance to wind with them. We saw a number of smaller buoys had been blown around and out thier regular place in a few areas but nothing substantive. We found Most of the new 4x4 posts in ENP survived and I found no changes from Jewfish Creek up into lower Biscayne Bay at Midnight Pass where we added some new tracks last week. A few 4x4 posts in ENP were missing and a few were leaning but it appeared more than 95% were there and most had no damage. We are still looking mbut so far it appears the runs through smaller cuts and short cuts etc. are all unchanged. We have found no adjustments needed so far to any previously drawn tracks. The shoreline is trashed in a lots of areas and all the green will take a while to return and there is plenty of floating debris and trash around but that is the lions share of the landscape change. In previous storms we found the changes at the inlets and passes along the coasts where there are sandbars and continuously moving sand. That is likely also the case again but these areas are all caveated on FMT Charts for caution due to the continuously moving sand. We have not looked at all of these bars yet to see what changes occurred if any and if track changes are required but I expect a few adjustments will be made in and around these passes. I expect little to no changes in the Keys in keeping with our recent findings and past storm experience. We will be running hard in the lower keys backcountry over the next two days during these negative tides to do a final check. If we find the cuts in and around Contents and Big Pine are unchanged, it is highly unlikely any other areas in the Keys back country would require adjustments either. If we find any substantive track changes are needed we send out emails to customers advising of the specifics. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeepinItSimple Posted November 10, 2017 Report Share Posted November 10, 2017 How are FMT for the Nature Coast area? Hudson to Yankeetown? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brick9650 Posted November 30, 2019 Report Share Posted November 30, 2019 Will FMT ever be available on Humminbird units? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplec Posted December 3, 2019 Report Share Posted December 3, 2019 On 11/29/2019 at 10:05 PM, Brick9650 said: Will FMT ever be available on Humminbird units? I think I read or heard it is not likely. You should ask Glenn the owner. He usually answers the phone himself Phone: 407-463-7216 info@ISLAmapping.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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