Help...advice needed on setup!

[clemsondds]

Ok, so I have been out of the electronics game for a few years.  I have a 21' bay boat that I use mostly for bass fishing.  Right now I have two 7" humminbird mega SIDI. At the console, the 7" is the biggest that will fit in that spot.  So I'll probably need some sort of ram mount there at the console to have a second display.  Up front I have another 7" helix on a ram mount for easy removal.  I have a minnkota riptide with i-pilot that has a quick disconnect..  I like being able to remove everything for when we are just family boating.  I am looking to upgrade all my electronics this winter.  Can any experts share what you would do if this was your boat?  I am open to either livescope or mega 360.  I wish I had a solid installer that I could trust but I just haven't found them yet.  I live in the triad area of North Carolina and there's just not many options.  I have heard there are issues with spot-lock and livescope...have those been resolved?  Is there a way to have livescope, garmin unit, and a separate humminbird unit on the front deck and have it all removable?  Or should I just stick with one large humminbird unit up front and use 360? I included a photo of my boat.  Thanks for your thoughts.  

[clemsondds]

Anyone?  doesn't have to be expert...just what are your thoughts?  

[WRB]

Beautiful boat!

Using a TM with spot luck you don’t want forward looking TD mounted on the TM motor head. It needs to be mounted separately so it isn’t constantly moving.

Tom

[GaryH]

You can go with your 12” bird on the bow and add mega 360 then mount the live scope to the mega 360 pole. 

 

 

 

[Tennessee Boy]

I have two Humminbird Solix with MEGA 360.  I have MEGA Live on order and hope it ships by Christmas (next year ).   

 

I'm planning to mount the MEGA Live on my Ultrex .  This is the most common way to do it.  There is a problem when using MEGA Live when SpotLock or autopilot is on since the trolling motor will be driving itself and therefore will be pointing the MEGA Live transducer where it wants not where I want.  Mounting MEGA Live on the 360 pole is not an option since it does not turn.  Having 360,  I don't expect to use Live as much as some people do.  When I want to look at something when SpotLock is on,  I plan to just turn the trolling motor to point the transducer and then turn Spotlock back on when I'm done.   This will be a pain to some degree and I might look for other options at some point if it ends up being too much of a problem.   I don't like any of the other options on the market right now.

 

I really like MEGA 360.  At this point I would say if I had to choose between MEGA Live and MEGA 360,  I would choose 360.  My opinion might change after I get MEGA Live.  Mounting 360 on your trolling motor might be a challenge so you will want to look into that if you decide to go with 360.  Considering that you want to be able to disconnect everything easily,  live would make more sense.

 

Here is a video of Chris Zaldain showing how he has MEGA Live and MEGA 360 installed on his Ultrex.

 

 

[clemsondds]

5 hours ago, GaryH said:

You can go with your 12” bird on the bow and add mega 360 then mount the live scope to the mega 360 pole. 

 

 

 

Thank you all!  So do you think I should just start with mega 360 and then see if I want to add to it down the road?  I’ve got one 7” at the helm. What additional screens would you get?  Two 10” helix or solix? Or would you go with at least one 12”? Those things are expensive lol. 

[Jig Man]

I have 3 Solix units 10, 10, and 12.  I had a 360 but sold it.  My Ulterra didn’t function well with the weight.  I have a Mega live and a mount which arrived this afternoon.  I have been waiting on Mega live for over a year.  I watched a guy last week going down a bluff and not casting until he saw a bass.  It looked efficient to me.
 

I don’t want anything smaller than a 10 and would prefer 12 and 15 if I had the room.  

[clemsondds]

49 minutes ago, Jig Man said:

I have 3 Solix units 10, 10, and 12.  I had a 360 but sold it.  My Ulterra didn’t function well with the weight.  I have a Mega live and a mount which arrived this afternoon.  I have been waiting on Mega live for over a year.  I watched a guy last week going down a bluff and not casting until he saw a bass.  It looked efficient to me.
 

I don’t want anything smaller than a 10 and would prefer 12 and 15 if I had the room.  

That's interesting. Did you not want to use the humminbird universal mount for the 360?  I don't think I want two new systems up front so trying to decide between 360 and garmin livescope.  So if you could just go with one, it would be forward facing sonar? 

Any other thoughts?

 

Thanks again

[clemsondds]

anyone have both livescope and 360?  If so, which would you go with if you had to just pick one? Thanks

[Jig Man]

Why are you wanting a Garmin live scope instead of the Humminbird Mega live which can be Ethernet linked to other Humminbird units?

 

 

[Tennessee Boy]

I want to make sure you understand that you do not need 

11 hours ago, clemsondds said:

That's interesting. Did you not want to use the humminbird universal mount for the 360?  I don't think I want two new systems up front so trying to decide between 360 and garmin livescope.  So if you could just go with one, it would be forward facing sonar? 

Any other thoughts?

 

Thanks again

By systems do you mean fish finders?   You do not need two fish finders to run both 360 and MEGA Live.

[clemsondds]

1 hour ago, Jig Man said:

Why are you wanting a Garmin live scope instead of the Humminbird Mega live which can be Ethernet linked to other Humminbird units?

 

 

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? 

 

[Tennessee Boy]

5 minutes ago, clemsondds said:

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.  

 

Who knows if you could even get MEGA live in less than 6 months.  Right now TW has a ship date of 12-30-2021 but it was 09-30-2021 at one point.

[Jig Man]

It might behove you yo watch a bunch of videos on all three and see how much difference you see.

[WRB]

I posted a thread on forward looking sonar.

Forward looking live scope etc is the future of fresh water fishing. 360 sweep sonar+has been around for decades in salt water fishing. Unless you are trolling looking behind the boat isn’t functional to fresh water bass anglers, history is always behind the boat. 

Forward looking live scope is a game changer.

Tom

[clemsondds]

21 hours ago, Jig Man said:

It might behove you yo watch a bunch of videos on all three and see how much difference you see.

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.