Panoptix Livescope and Garmin Echomap 93 SV ON SALE

[Knot Sure]

Last year's marketing plans may have been blown out of the water due to covid.  If so, will we see more frequent releases of innovations this year, so Garmin can get it's "roll out" back on schedule?

[bobby b.]

5 hours ago, Ham said:

With Spotlock and the transducer on a separate Mount, I’m not seeing the boat control being an issue.

Boat Control is an issue even with a turret mounded transducer.  Obviously, a wide angle would help to see fish without moving the turret and my experience is that the fish will react to the bait from a distance if suspended in the water column so you don't have to drop the lure on their head.  Regarding power, the existing Live Scope is more than powerful for 60 ft depth and 60 ft forward. 

I would liken the Live Scope thing to a smartphone.  I resisted spending $1200 on a smartphone because I'm frugale - wife says cheap.  I've had the smartphone now for allot years and have apps you would not believe yet probably will not upgrade until the existing phone craps out.  Yet I have friends that upgrade phones often and use the phone just to take/make calls and watch the weather and that's it.  

My advice - buy the best forward-facing sonar you can afford and keep it until it breaks if you are sure you are going to use it.  It takes awhile to understand.   Of course if you have more money than you know what to do with, buy the best and upgrade yearly OR if you are a Pro OR Jacob Wheeler and you do need to drop the lure on top of the fish.  But if you are a Pro, somebody else is paying for it anyway.

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

8 hours ago, Travis Swift said:

If you go on Garmins page and look at the specs the LVS34 (New) and the LVS32(Old) both only have the 20 degree beam.  I wish it was the 40 like was posted originally up above but it's only the 20 degree still.  Which really shows you where to cast but it honestly takes some serious practice in boat control and casting ability.  Some guys make it look EASY......trust me it's not.  But it's a ton of fun when it works out no doubt but if you haven't tried it and think it's cheating etc you haven't used it especially in current or windy situations because boat control is the #1 challenge with it.  I have had it for over a year and love it but admittedly I'm not good with it......yet, but it's a work in progress and alot of fun to use and play with.   

Travis, i agree its not near as easy as it looks. I use mine more for lining up on a brush pile, i dont really target individual fish. Back a few years ago, my buddy had the LVS12.  Yep 12 degrees, it was almost impossible to use

[Champ188]

On 3/10/2022 at 4:28 PM, Dutch said:

No matter what you do it will change every few months to a year.  That is what we do…planned obsolescence.  

That's just about as candid and truthful as it can be put.

I just put two new units on my boat but not livescope. They are Lowrance Elite FS 9's with top-notch built-in mapping, sidescan, downscan, and thank heavens, Lowrance's industry-best, old-fashioned 2D sonar. Been trying to embrace Humminbird sonar for 8 years and I'm done. Ready to look down at Lowrance units again. Not saying there's a thing wrong with Humminbird, just never suited my eyes like I thought they would when I bought em. 

[Quillback]

33 minutes ago, Champ188 said:

That's just about as candid and truthful as it can be put.

I just put two new units on my boat but not livescope. They are Lowrance Elite FS 9's with top-notch built-in mapping, sidescan, downscan, and thank heavens, Lowrance's industry-best, old-fashioned 2D sonar. Been trying to embrace Humminbird sonar for 8 years and I'm done. Ready to look down at Lowrance units again. Not saying there's a thing wrong with Humminbird, just never suited my eyes like I thought they would when I bought em. 

If you get a chance, let us know what you think of them once you get some on the water time with them.  I'm really curious about the side-scan.  I have side scan on my 10 year old Birds, but not that impressed with it.  Shows structure really well and shad balls, but fish are hard to pick out.  Good side scan to me is just about as good as Livescope for locating fish.  

[Seth]

3 hours ago, Quillback said:

If you get a chance, let us know what you think of them once you get some on the water time with them.  I'm really curious about the side-scan.  I have side scan on my 10 year old Birds, but not that impressed with it.  Shows structure really well and shad balls, but fish are hard to pick out.  Good side scan to me is just about as good as Livescope for locating fish.  

I upgraded from a 998 to a G2N 9 with mega. While I could find what I needed with the 998, I will give the nod to the mega at actually seeing fish. Some of the images I had of paddlefish a few days ago were impressive. Last December I used it to target a school of whites on the Osage that were hanging out in the channel towards the head of a hole. I'm not sure I could have picked those fish up on the 998. It's not a game changer by any means though. The 12 year old 998 was more than capable and it still helped me find what I needed most of the time.

Believe it or not, it's still possible to catch crappie without Livescope these days. 😁 These came from the Niangua arm of LoZ a few days ago. I drove around running side scan until I found the motherload stacked under a dock and we pulled three limits of solid fish (only a few under 10") from it.

[Quillback]

Nice bunch of slabs Seth!

[fshndoug]

nice crappie Seth

 

[Champ188]

On 3/18/2022 at 6:50 AM, Quillback said:

If you get a chance, let us know what you think of them once you get some on the water time with them.  I'm really curious about the side-scan.  I have side scan on my 10 year old Birds, but not that impressed with it.  Shows structure really well and shad balls, but fish are hard to pick out.  Good side scan to me is just about as good as Livescope for locating fish.  

Will do, my friend. I haven't had sidescan on the bow previously, only on the console, so looking forward to seeing what it will show me in terms of brush and fish on points and around docks.