Note: All the "aiming devices" discussed in this article have been upgraded, modified or changed. And they'll all be further refined as this technology evolves. And yes, we've been impressed with the new 2022 model Garmin lvs34 "long distance" transducer. It's the real deal!

The new scanning and forward-looking live-view sonar systems just may be the most significant change to your future fishing. If you haven’t already purchased one of these whiz-bang new units then you are almost certainly researching the topic. And if you aren’t an owner or researcher of scanning sonar, welcome back to North America from your trip to Antarctica or Timbuktu or whatever place you’ve been that has no phones, no internet, no television and no fishing!

I’ll start by admitting to being a curmudgeon on most topics regarding the hot, new, cool, fancy, best ever gear we are “pitched” about on a daily basis. I just don’t buy the hype very easily. I happen to live bordering a national forest with no cell service, crappy satellite internet, no broadcast TV stations…and I spend more hours per week in my boat than on my phone. So, I am buffered from the bulk of the hype.

But that said, I’m also a freak for anything that will produce more fish for me, and I work at a fishing boat dealership. Productive fishing technology is important to my daily existence! Here at High Country Boats we have been on a high-level sonar test for a couple years now.

Here's Our Test Fleet:

Ranger Demo Boat that runs big Lowrance HDS Live touchscreens (16” and 12”) with a Humminbird Solix touchscreen on the dash for comparison. In the bow is an additional 16" Lowrance HDS unit enhanced with Active Target live-scanning sonar on a rail-mounted adjustable transducer bracket. The ‘bird on the dash has the plug-in Humminbird 360 for circular side-imaging on the Humminbird transducer bracket.

Modern Dash--Three Monster Touchscreens Including the Two Sonar Units Plus the Ranger Boats RIDE Screen. In the Bow this Boat has a 12" Lowrance HDS Live for Traditional Views and Another 16" HDS Live Plugged in to the Active Target Live-Action Transducer

Crestliner Demo Boat running a pair of 12” Humminbird Helix’s (old-school push button, no touchscreen) with the plug-in 360 system and the Mercury Vessel View 903 touchscreen digital dash (You probably haven’t heard about the Vessel View 903—search it online, it’s amazing). Humminbird’s scanning sonar is not yet generally available at the time of this writing, and our demo boat was assembled last spring, so no forward-looking tests with ‘birds yet.

My Personal Crestliner Tiller Boat with a pair of Lowrance HDS units plus a touchscreen Garmin 8610 with the highest screen resolution available in the industry plugged into the Panoptix Livescope system. I run two Garmin transducers, one traditional 2D/down/side imaging chirp ‘ducer plus the Panoptix Livescope scanning transducer on an adjustable transom mount.

Ranger National Pro Staff Boat run by walleye pro, Matt Fischer, who lives near our dealership. Matt’s new Ranger runs a pair of Garmin’s highest level sonars—8612 and 8610 (WAY better resolution and features than "normal" fish finders). Matt runs his plug-in Panoptix Livescope system connected to a 16" Garmin GPS Map high-tech offshore sonar screen. Matt has opted for a rail-mounted transducer pole-mount for now. Matt’s previous boat ran the Garmin Ghost bowmount electric motor and he ran the shaft-mounted Livescope transducer on that boat. Right now, he has ordered the electric-steered Live Scanner aiming unit with a foot pedal for aiming. By spring he'll be fully automated.

So, you can see, we’ve gone the extra mile (or extra dollar) to thoroughly examine the current market for high-tech sonar. And while we are learning, we are also catching lots of fish! The tournament guys are winning events via live-view scanning sonar. And we are learning where the hiccups are for running these systems. I’ll cover some of the key areas for research in later sections of this article.

School of "Stocker" Rainbows on Canyon Ferry Reservoir in Cold Fall Water Conditions. The Garmin Livescope is Valuable For Finding Small Fish or Forage Species as Well as Walleyes

First, a bit of “prove-it” information on the efficacy of modern scanning sonar for successful fishing.

Last May, High Country Boats General Manager, Jake Monroe, and tourney partner, Jeff Ingram, won the Crooked Creek tournament on Montana’s Fort Peck Reservoir. Jeff used the Lowrance Active Target scanning sonar in the “down” setting to video “hand feed” huge walleyes under the boat while Jake flogged the shoreline where the ‘bird 360 showed fish. Day one of the tourney they weighed over 53 pounds for their best 5 fish—a whopping 10.6 pound average! They attribute their win to the advanced sonar and the advantage it gave them.

In July, Matt Fischer and his tourney partner set an all-time record weight for the Tiber Reservoir walleye tournament—which, of course, they won. They used the Garmin Livescope in forward-scanning mode to target specific walleyes onscreen and even to follow individual fish moving down the shoreline. They got so good at reading the fish that they were able to see walleyes swimming above the weed beds and cast to them while swimming their baits above the weeds.

Then in August, Jake won a small walleye tournament on Hauser Reservoir (another Missouri River Reservoir) while running the Lowrance Active Target in Scout mode which scans a wide beam to the side (similar to the Garmin Panoptix Perspective Mode). Jake’s transducer mount is “aimable” not only horizontally but also vertically by rotating it on the rail mount until the view is best. That helped him dial in to find areas holding the most fish in some “humpy” terrain that’s otherwise almost impossible to search with sonar.

We all have to face it, live-scanning forward-looking sonar works and it works really well! Tournament victories, not only here in Montana, but nationwide, prove it CONCLUSIVELY! The following sections of this article discuss some of the issues you will want to research before jumping into the live-action sonar game yourself. And some of these discussions will help even if you already own a scanning sonar.

The Garmin Blue Screen Color Displays Strong Fish Targets in Red--a Feature I like! Here Two Large Fish Lurk on Bottom About 20 Feet From the Transducer. A Smaller Fish is Visible Directly Beneath the Boat.

Battery Power

When you start filling your boat with big touchscreen electronics, you’ll find that you need a battery power strategy. And the power requirements for the forward scanning sonar is even greater! The scanning sonar models will drain your boat’s cranking battery in 5-7 hours, so don’t connect them to your main cranking battery! If you own a big tournament-style boat solving the power problem is easy. ADD A HOUSE BATTERY dedicated specifically to your electronics. That prevents draining of the main engine cranking battery. If you own a boat with limited space for another battery or if you’d rather not add the weight of a big house battery there are options for you too.

In my research I found that lots of ice anglers using the Garmin Panoptix Livescope system carry two 10 amp lithium batteries and expect to get about 5 hours of run time on each. So, I modified this idea and added a single 23 amp Dakota Lithium battery which took up very little space and only added 6 pounds to my tiller boat. I get 10 hours of run time and my power-hungry Livescope is not connected to either cranking or deep-cycle batteries in my boat. I do have to charge the lithium battery separately from the other batteries, but that's no problem since the battery came standard with its own charger.

Another thing we are doing in our group of testers is installing a switch to shut off the separate “black box” computer module necessary for both Lowrance and Garmin scanning units. So when we aren’t actively scanning we aren’t powering up the computer. Running the whole Garmin gamut of choices—side imaging, Livescope, creating maps, etc. all at once I only get 7 hours of run time. When I selectively flip the “off” switch when not actively running Livescope but still run a bunch of other functions simultaneously I get 10 hours of run time. That switch to kill the black box definitely saves power!

Transducer Mounts

Unlike bass anglers who tend to prefer their scanning transducers shaft mounted on the bow troller, many walleye anglers prefer independently mounted scanning transducers. The selection of possible “aimable” mounts seems to grow monthly, some that you aim by hand, some that aim via electric swivel brackets. But you will definitely want to do a few internet searches to see what the market offers on the day you are searching. The choices just keep getting better and better!

The reason many of us don’t want to shaft-mount the transducer to the electric motor shaft for aiming is because that means we are forced to share duty on the electric…sometimes steering with it and sometimes aiming the transducer with it. Out here in the windy West, we commonly do not have the leeway to be swinging the bow troller back and forth to look for fish. Strong winds force the issue and require us to aim into the wind or along a structure while fighting the wind. We just don’t have a chance to scan for fish while fighting for boat control!

I’m using the fishfindermounts.com transom mounted system. I chose it because it is WAY overbuilt which is necessary for any product to survive my boating life. And I chose the transom mounting bracket because I’m typically in the back of my tiller boat (and balance problems keep me off the bow deck, darn it). The downside is it’s quite expensive…take a $1500 transducer, plug it into a few thousand dollar fish finder and then mount it with a $600 transducer bracket…well, this is not a game for the faint of wallet! Jake is using a custom system he built himself using the fishfindermounts.com bracket as the swivel and Matt is also using a combo that is customized off the fishfindermounts.com bracket. I’ve included a few photos of the systems we’re using. Not so much to convince you to do it the way we are doing it, but rather to provide food for thought while you do your own research.

Transom-Mount Transducer Aiming System That Fits Through the Trolling Motor Notch in My Wave Wackers. This Bracket and Accessories Are From fishfindermounts.com

Rail Mounted Transducer Aiming Pole Modified From the fishfindermounts.com System. Mounting Specifics in the Next Two Photos

General Impressions

There are literally dozens of comparisons on YouTube showing each brand in action, often side-by-side. I’m not trying to duplicate those comparisons, but rather, trying to discuss things you probably haven’t seen online already.

Real world, Garmin has the most experience with scanning sonar and their groundbreaking Panoptix Livescope down and forward scanning system is tremendous! It’s absolutely the mark the others are trying to match. And in reality, the Lowrance Active Target system is right on Garmin’s heels. The two systems probably have more in common than either company would prefer. They are even priced the same. So what does differ between them?

Deep Sunken Tree With a Fish Below. The Fish Doesn't Pop to Red Color Due to the Depth Weakening the Signal. Note the Bottom Barely Returns a Red Signal

Additional Scoping Shows There Are Actually Two Trees and the Fish Swam Out of View

First off, it would sure seem that the Perspective Mode (Garmin) or Scout Mode (Lowrance) would have advantages over forward or down scanning with over 120 degrees of horizontal coverage. Interestingly, neither I nor pro Matt Fischer particularly like the Garmin Perspective Mode…screen is less clear than other modes and it just isn’t as easy to interpret as the forward or down scanning modes. Plus, the Garmin is so good in forward and down scan modes that the deficiencies in the Garmin Perspective Mode are very noticeable.

On the other hand, Jake has already won a tournament using the Lowrance Scout Mode and prefers that mode over other views. I prefished with Jake for a couple days before his August tourney victory and I must say, I LOVE THE LOWRANCE SCOUT MODE! It’s quite clear and easy to interpret, but part of the reason for that is Jake’s vertically adjustable rail mount. That allows him to aim at whatever angle he wants by simply rotating the mount around the rail to “shoot” more flat or more deep. That lets him instantly dial in the view. My transom mount for the Garmin requires me to retract the transducer mount, adjust it a bit, re-set it, then assess if I hit the right angle. Slow and cumbersome! So my preference for the Lowrance Scout Mode over the Garmin Perspective Mode may really be my preference for an easily adjustable rail mount?

Also, while in Perspective or Scout Modes you get a wide view but it’s less detailed. For example, you rarely see your lure in Perspective or Scout Mode and that rules out “video game” fishing. Well, fishing like a video game where you can see your lure as well as the fish that look at your lure and hopefully bite is one of the primary functions of live action sonar that anglers love. So you may see more fish in Perspective or Scout Mode, but you don’t get to “video game” for them. Jury is still out on this type of scanning…for now, I’m mostly scanning forward or down rather than wide to the side.

For side imaging of the more traditional type without live action views,  I have to make a few observations. Humminbird really shocked the industry with their mega side imaging which translates to their 360 degree system as well. It really is fantastic. The key advantage for the ‘birds here is the mega frequency. If you want detail and easily detectable fish, run the highest frequency your unit is capable of. So my Garmin at 1120 khz (over 1000khz thus “mega”) has detail and fish marks quite similar to the Humminbird mega views. The disadvantage to these mega frequencies is the short distance of usable viewing, generally under 60 feet (manufacturer’s advertising pitches claim much farther, but not from my view). This is due to the way that high frequency penetrates water. The Lowrance side imaging at 800 khz has more range but the fish marks are tiny. While running a 16” Lowrance HDS Live side-by-side with a 15” Humminbird Solix it’s clear that the exact same “stuff” is visible on both units. It’s just easier to see the fish at the higher Humminbird (or Garmin) frequency.

Garmin's Side Imaging Shooting at 1120 kHz Shows an Old Cartopper Boat on Bottom with Great Resolution. Note the Beginning Stage of Mapping This Area in Lower Right

Screen Full of Fish on Side Imaging (Left Side) Demonstrates How Well Side Imaging Works

Mapping is another area of interest. Please note that ALL commercial maps are horribly inaccurate, especially in shallow water. Jake and I did side-by-side comparisons of Lowrance (Navionics) and Humminbird (Lake Master) while looking at Ft. Peck’s York Island. Pretty clear advantage for Lowrance and Navionics. Much more accurate and detailed than the ‘bird with Lake Master. (You can duplicate this test for yourself on the display units at any tackle store or boat dealership, or on units in your buddy’s garage.) So then we looked at a car-sized hidden boulder on Canyon Ferry Reservoir near our dealership. Lowrance (Navionics) shows the rock. Humminbird (Lake Master) doesn’t show the boulder at all. I’m betting someone else could pick other lakes and structures that are better on the ‘birds than the Lowrance. Point here, the maps ain’t perfect! (But new updates keep making the maps better all the time—all brands!)

Be aware that all three major brands—Garmin, Lowrance and Humminbird offer instantaneous contour mapping to make your own maps of your favorite spots. All are phenomenal! Key here is you can’t do just one or two passes like the advertising suggests. If you want killer contours and stupid levels of detail YOU NEED TO CROSSHATCH YOUR MAPPING PASSES by running your boat parallel along the contours PLUS running perpendicular to the contours running your boat from deep to shallow. When you take the time to do that tight and right, you’ll get contour maps from all three brands that absolutely blow away the commercial maps. I’ve now started running the mapping software hidden in the background almost all the time I’m fishing. Be sure you set the lake level or offset before mapping reservoirs with variable water levels. Otherwise, your maps won’t synch correctly from one day (and water level) to the next.

My Garmin has multiple ways to view the maps. It offers a Navigation View, a Fishing View as well as the automatically color-coded home-made maps. Never thought I’d give much brain time to mapping but having multiple ways to view great maps has made the mapping functions more important to me than they ever have been in the past.

You’ll note in the accompanying pictures that I’ve been choosing the blue screen color when running my Garmin in Livescope mode. I choose the blue (most of the time) because larger targets pop up in red which really shows well against the blue background. That bump to red also helps me determine size differences in fish. I recommend playing around with screen colors a bit to find your own preference. Most of the color choices for all three sonar brands only use lighter or darker shades of the primary color. The blue-popping-to-red color is one of those seldom discussed features that (I think) is only available on the Garmin? All I know is I like it!

No Secrets

With YouTube and Target Walleye and Walleye Central and TV coverage of tournaments with footage shot right in the boat and all the other various sources of info, there just aren’t any secrets anymore! Everyone has equal access to all the info. That means we all have equal chances to learn what used to be secrets. The only way you miss out is if you refuse to do the research and refuse to learn the secrets. Fact is, the high cost of admission to the game of live-scanning sonar may keep us back for awhile, but as scanning systems get less costly, we’ll all eventually be using this technology. I encourage you to either buy-in now or stay on top of the research because some day our children will be taking us fishing in their boats fully equipped with live-action forward-scanning sonar!