Lowrance Active Target

[NAGG]

Hey all

Is anyone using this technology & what are your thoughts ?

How did you mount the transducer - On your leccy or stand alone pole ..... or something else ?

Keen to hear your reply

Chris

[bluefin59]

Hey all

Is anyone using this technology & what are your thoughts ?

How did you mount the transducer - On your leccy or stand alone pole ..... or something else ?

Keen to hear your reply

Chris

All of what iv read and seen on US lowrance Facebook pages show it on seperate pole . Matt

[NAGG]

All of what iv read and seen on US lowrance Facebook pages show it on seperate pole . Matt

Hi Matt

You can mount them on the leccy - it sits on top of the actual motor .....

But yeh I'm thinking the pole (Rob Payne Eng) & RAM mount would be the best way to go for how I fish .

Chris

[stevej]

Any of these need to be on a seperate Pole to be of any use for bass cod Barra yellas

If you electric is spot locked you can’t hunt around for fish

[NAGG]

Any of these need to be on a seperate Pole to be of any use for bass cod Barra yellas

If you electric is spot locked you can’t hunt around for fish

That's exactly what I was thinking .

The other thing for me is that I want to be able to use the scout feature when fishing off the stern of the boat ...... like when we anchor in a bay on a barra dam & cast towards weed banks or weed bommies . Ditto for when we spotlock for shallow water snapper fishing.
So I'm thinking the transducer will end up in line with the console - more or less half way along the boat - This should make it easy to use when driving around looking for bait , structure & fish .

Chris

[chocolatemoose]

highly advise it to be on its own pole. so you can control its direction. not move around with the trolling motor. especially on spot lock.
for poles the go to brands are
Aus made - gfab "and the gfab telescopic"
Aus made - Liv4it quick change pole "the rolls royce of poles"
USA made - Beatdown outdoor quick pole. strongest and easiest mount for sure.

[chris69]

With all this new technology we might be better getting towed around beside the boat and see the fish first hand and use a spear gun .or a sub to cruise around in and open the top hatch and make a cast,what are they going to think of next to put there brand ahead of the other competitors i think they have reached the top now,but there will be something better just around the corner.

[NAGG]

With all this new technology we might be better getting towed around beside the boat and see the fish first hand and use a spear gun .or a sub to cruise around in and open the top hatch and make a cast,what are they going to think of next to put there brand ahead of the other competitors i think they have reached the top now,but there will be something better just around the corner.

I'm sure there is more technology to come ...... 3 dimensional livescope will be next I reckon .

A lot of this technology is directed towards the massive US bass market & the brand with the best technology will be king . It really was a two horse race between Lowrance & Humminbird - till Garmin gate crashed the party with their Panoptix Livescope . Garmin went from nowhere to leader of the pack in a blink.

I've done a couple of trips out west to a couple of dams & I was absolutely astounded at how many boats had Garmin sounders at the pointy end .... with a funny looking pole up there . Now I haven't fished fresh water for 6 or 7 years & back then no one was running Garmin sounders .... how times have changed.

The way I see it ..... If the technology helps you maximise your fishing time , helps with the learning curve & catch fish - that's a good thing so why not embrace it if you can.
For me I'm running a couple of Gen 3 HDS 12's on my Barcrusher & wanted to upgrade one to a 16" HDS Live which gives me the ability to add Active Target - This will be good for my upcoming NQ trip & for the cod fishing later in the year........ can only imagine what it will be like when fishing shallow water for snapper.

Chris

[Kev_McC]

I’m not a user yet but soon will be, deciding which of the ‘live’ units to go for. After the transducer, seems screen resolution is really important particularly if you’re going to be searching further out from the boat, eg 20-30m. The HDS 16 has the same resolution as the Garmin 8412 (1920x1080), for about the same price. Oddly, the 8410 has higher resolution again (1920x1200, about the highest you can buy at any manageable size).
Which transducer though? The Garmin seems to have a definite edge over the others at the moment

[NAGG]

I’m not a user yet but soon will be, deciding which of the ‘live’ units to go for. After the transducer, seems screen resolution is really important particularly if you’re going to be searching further out from the boat, eg 20-30m. The HDS 16 has the same resolution as the Garmin 8412 (1920x1080), for about the same price. Oddly, the 8410 has higher resolution again (1920x1200, about the highest you can buy at any manageable size).
Which transducer though? The Garmin seems to have a definite edge over the others at the moment

From what I've seen - Garmin has the best interpretation of "Live" ....... That's undisputable .

As for the units themselves the choice becomes more difficult ...... I'm more familiar with Lowrance & they seem to be more user friendly than Garmin .

I guess If I wanted a stand alone unit to put up at the pointy end of a boat - to drop lures on the heads of fish I'd go with a Garmin

My situation is that I wanted to network with my existing HDS12 (Gen 3) & pinpoint GPS & I would be running it from the Helm ..... so I stayed with Lowranace

Right now there is a compelling case to go with a Lowrance - PRICE ..... I saved around $1500 going for a HDS16 Live when compared to a Garmin 7416 - which virtually paid for the transducer .which was also discounted.

Chris

[Dignity]

I guess the brand you buy will be down to budget and confidence in that you're getting the features you want, I have always found Lowrance to be counter intuitive to use but then I have only used a mates low end models of Hook and Elite, for some reason they both had (maybe L has changed this)their own file extensions which made it awkward transferring from one machine to the other.

As for transducers they are nearly all made by Airmar, so which ever unit you buy look up their site to find the tranny you want.

[Kev_McC]

Sounds like the go Chris. The HDS16 is very good value amongst the units that do 1920x1080. Transducers and software will continue to be upgraded, probably faster than screen resolution will. Makes sense to go with something that networks with your existing suite. Very interested to hear how you find the active target on the water.

in my situation the ability to reliably show fish and/or shadows out to 20-25m on side imaging means I’ll be changing from simrad/Lowrance to either Garmin or Humminbird. Current Simrad evo3 12 is not in the same race as the other two for side imaging.

the Garmin 8412 and HDS16 have more than double the pixels of the Simrad or Humminbird 12s

[NAGG]

I guess the brand you buy will be down to budget and confidence in that you're getting the features you want, I have always found Lowrance to be counter intuitive to use but then I have only used a mates low end models of Hook and Elite, for some reason they both had (maybe L has changed this)their own file extensions which made it awkward transferring from one machine to the other.

As for transducers they are nearly all made by Airmar, so which ever unit you buy look up their site to find the tranny you want.

When we are talking about transducers - we are refereeing to the "Active Target" Lowrance or Garmin "Livescope" .

I'm not sure about the lower end models - but the HDS is pretty easy to move files around via networking the sounders ....... the 12 & 16 live even have a USB port along with micro SD slots - so options are really good for file sharing . . It's a whole nother world

Chris

[NAGG]

Sounds like the go Chris. The HDS16 is very good value amongst the units that do 1920x1080. Transducers and software will continue to be upgraded, probably faster than screen resolution will. Makes sense to go with something that networks with your existing suite. Very interested to hear how you find the active target on the water.

in my situation the ability to reliably show fish and/or shadows out to 20-25m on side imaging means I’ll be changing from simrad/Lowrance to either Garmin or Humminbird. Current sSimrad evo3 12 is not in the same race as the other two for side imaging.

the Garmin 8412 and HDS16 have more than double the pixels of the Simrad or Humminbird 12s

Side Imaging is so old school

Seriously though - being able to scan in real time (Live scope / Active target ) is where it is at ...... be it looking out the side / down / forward ..... you gain so much more than side imaging . ....... That said , there is nothing wrong with Lowrances side imaging .

As for Humminbird ...... whilst ever they still persist with their stupid plugs at the back of their sounders ....... PASS ...... too problematic .

IMHO it's still only a two horse race

Chris

[Ah Me Ting]

Fellas, if ya haven't already, make sure your check our the new "XR" version of Livescope from Garmin before dropping $$$ on any other brand. Serious grunt now, so true offshore applications open up.