I had been contemplating forward facing sonar for a while. Since the boat was networked with Ulterra and Helix units, I was pretty limited. Not wild about MEGA Live 1, and did not really want to ditch the Helix units and upgrade to Xplore in order to get MEGA Live 2. Adding Garmin to the boat meant lots of wiring decisions, likely an additional battery. So I waited....

Did get MEGA 360 this spring and really liked the view and features. And it integrated in to my network seamlessly. I like it very much.

Figured I would just wait and see on FFS.

Then my brother picked up the Garmin 12" LifeScope bundle, and the HD innovations shuttle, and created his own portable unit. We fished a new-to-us lake and were able to find fish quickly, and put them in the boat.

I visited my local Scheels to have a look...couldn't decide between the 10" and 12" screens...then the sales rep made my decision easy...knocked a few hundred off the 12" bundle. SOLD. Went with Brew City pole system, and 52ah AMPED lithium battery in HD innovations shuttle. I like being able to move around the boat, or take to my sister's lake and fish off the dock. Doesn't take up much room.

Fished for about 2 hours on Sunday...very cool, even with factory settings. Pretty eye opening to see what the fish are doing, where and how they are hanging out, moving around, etc. I have a LOT to learn about this technology.

Build was pretty straight forward. Shuttle came with no directions, but there are a bunch of youtube videos out there. Pic below it's just sitting on front of boat.

Now it's time to learn, experiment, fish, learn some more, and continue to fish...

Very nice.

My dad is contemplating a similar standalone since his lowrance units don’t network.