clemsondds

Hey everyone, so I had a garmin 12" and a humminbird installed on my front deck. I have a bay boat that doubles as a family fun boat. I also keep the units off when I am not using the boat since I have to keep it at a storage unit. When I took off the units for the first time yesterday, I realized that the cables won't reach to my anchor well, so they are just laying there on the gunwale. Anyone have any suggestions on caps for these cables or some way to protect them from the weather? Thank you

Ok thanks. I trust my installers but appreciate the feedback. I may have to change it down the road

Well they are a little awkward in size and shape…so a case is just to help transport them. It’s a side benefit that they are protected. So far I’m liking the gun case and the pelican type case. I won’t pick them up for another week or two so I’ll have to see how thick they are with the ram mounts before I make a final decision. Thanks everyone for your help!

For me it comes down to efficiency. I'm right handed so use it to cast and control spool, and left hand to reel...no switching necessary. But hey...the more right handed reeling ppl there are..the more left handed reels there are available

Great idea...I hate to carry something that big around...but I guess I'm going to have to.

Thanks but don’t want to leave them on the boat at all since I won’t be able to keep an eye on it.

Yeh I saw that. But seems a little steep ($119) for a glorified cooler ha. But yeh looks like it would work. Do you have a link or anything? That’s what I’m thinking I’ll have to do. Just hate to have to carry two separate cases around.

Getting ready to put two 12” humminbird/garmin graphs on the boat. But I keep my boat in a storage unit and don’t want to leave them on the boat since they are held on by just ram mounts. So how would you store two 12” units when not in use? What’s the best way to transport them? Thanks

Looking at getting a 12" humminbird. Any thoughts on helix vs solix? I would prefer the solix since this will be my main side imaging/nav unit and would be nice to just press on a spot for a waypoint. But the solix are only g3n right now...only the helix are g4n. Which from the sounds of it, isn't a big deal but not real sure. I think g4n might just have better integration with future live imaging but not sure. otherwise I think they are pretty much the same. Thanks for your thoughts

Great thanks! Do you have the spot lock option? Have any of you who have spot lock, had any issues with the cable getting wrapped around the tm and causing issues?

I'm really more curious about mega360...I think it would fit more into still fishing but better idea of where they are. Or is it great information but doesn't actually translate to fish in the boat. I just wonder if you end up fishing to a lot more cover that you didn't know was there...but not converting to more fish per cast. thoughts?

How do you use them to catch fish? With livescope, is it mostly fishing for suspended fish? It sounds like as for strictly numbers, sounds like livescope is the way to go. But from what I can tell, you go around looking for baitfish, then search for the bass around and go after those bass. Do you just not use the other techniques much anymore...ie squarebill (crankbaits in general other than deep diving) , spinnerbait, bottom contact (jig, TR...) ? I know it's a different style and i'm not bashing it...just trying to figure out how it works. I want to pick up a livescope...but I just don't know if I want to give up all the techniques of fishing and just chasing bass on my graph. Then for 360, have you found that you have definitely been putting more fish in the boat after you got the 360? Do you fish mainly the same way as you always have but now are more accurate/efficient due to knowing exactly where the laydowns/stumps are? Do you feel this has led to more bass in the boat? If you have both...I know I know...that's the best option...lol but not sinking that much money in it just yet. Thank you all for your thoughts and advice!

Gotcha. So when you say that fish aren’t roaming as much and are on structure…is the livescope not able to differentiate bass from structure? Does it all just blend in? So if you have a tapering point with large rocks at the end…can ls differentiate or is it mainly for when bass are suspended/roaming? And by system, I just meant, when you leave the boat ramp how do you typically go about finding fish? Obviously it probably depends on the time of year since it sounds like you depend more on one system over the other depending on the season. It say you were looking for a prespawn bass, how are you go about finding them and using your LS?

Wow such great feedback! So prespawn and fall is livescope…and max360 for post spawn and summer? so why do you not like to use livescope in the postspawn and summer? Hard to find them? finally, would you mind sharing your system for how you go out and find fish? Thanks again

Thanks! I guess I’m just looking for someone to explain differences of the garmin units. Is the echomap ultra a good system? Any better unit? Yeh I’ll prob either get 10 or 12”.

So if I'm going with the livescope, what's the best garmin graph to get? I'm new to garmin...i've always been a bird man. Doesn't look like there are many available. Is the echomap ultra 126sv good? Just hard justifying $2700 for a graph that I think has been out for 2-3 years. Thoughts? Trying to compare with the solix.

Awesome thanks! Every time I lean one direction, I get swayed back to the other side lol

Here’s another question: if I just want to find any fish, which (ffs or 360) would be better? Take my kids out sometimes and they just want to catch a fish…which would help more in that scenario?

Mind sharing how? Do you think you will get forward facing sonar?

It's a really tough decision. Maybe not as much for those tournament guys...but I don't fish tournaments. So it comes down to whether I want to go down the bank (or fish off shore) the way I have been for the past few years, or switch to looking at the screen more. I absolutely love the art of casting, but I also enjoy catching fish. I, as I'm sure a lot of you, hate getting skunked...so maybe this tech would give me a better shot at that. I also have three small kids who love to fish...and I hate for them not to catch anything as well...so I thought it might help finding a school of small perch or something that would make it fun for them. I know that you still have to know where to find fish and that the ffs isn't magic. But I have yet to hear someone say they got livescope and it didn't help them find fish. I guess I'm just worried I won't want to just go down the bank and just fish anymore, knowing that I'm not 100% sure there's fish there. Looks like it's going to be about $4500 to get livescope and 9" 93sv garmin (probably would get bigger but that's all the dealer has right now) installed. That's a big chunk of change

Thanks for that info! A few questions: -when you go out, do you fish shallow much or do you pretty strictly stick to offshore fishing? -Do you initially go down the bank at a certain depth with SI at your helm and look for structure, and then once you find structure, drop trollling motor and 360 and pinpoint where the structure is to cast to it? -Do you ever go to main lake points or troughs and turn on 360 or do you only use it once you have located using SI or down imaging? Finally, will you use mega live similar to 360, but the difference will be that you can see if fish are on a particular log before you even cast to it? sorry for all the questions

Thanks! I fish once a month or so...so when I go, I like to know that I'm hitting areas with fish. I fish a few lakes in the area so I don't know any of them all that well. I can graph over them with DI and SI and I know that it looks like there's fish there...so I think it would be nice to then go with ffs and see where exactly they are. Is that how ppl use it? I just wonder if people get frustrated trying to find the fish...and something like 360 would be more useful. Thanks

So wanting to hear from those that have ffs. Since getting it, has it changed the way you find fish? Do you use it pretty much the entire time or what? I'm thinking about getting one and just trying to see how it will play out. I know no one wants to admit to staring at a screen all day to fish, but I really would like to hear honest opinions and feedback if possible. I love the idea of it, but I also love the art of bass fishing. Thank you all!

I have watched a ton. But livescope and 360 are different animals. So that's why I was trying to see if anyone has both that's on this forum and could share their thoughts. Or if anyone has tried both. I have seen a few coment who had both and I've seen ppl do away with the ff sonar and just go with 360 and i've seen the reverse (eg Jig Man above). Unfortunately I don't have any friends that bass fish, so I cant see it live in person. So I appreciate all your thoughts and advice. I like the idea of 360 but in real world application, I'm wondering if those with forward facing sonar, just don't find a need much for 360 or vice versa.

From the research I did, I just feel like humminbird just still isn't quite there yet with the ff sonar. So if I had to choose ffs, then it would be livescope. But that's why I thought about just getting 360 right now, and then re-evaluating in 6 months to see if humminbird has improved the mega live. That's why I was hoping to find someone who has both livescope and 360 and see which they would prefer. Make sense?