Garmin Livescope - forward and prospective veiwing distance

[Tuggle]

??? I spoke to a Garmin support rep because I was not able to see clearly further than about 25' in front of my boat (becomes unclear, like out of focus). I was maybe in 12' to 13' of water. He said the rule of thumb for forward veiw was only 2.5 times the depth of water you were setting in. For prospective in is about 3 times the depth of water you are that you can see clearly.

Wasn't sure what the limitations were?????

Has anyone noticed this? Is this normal?

Thanks for any input!

[Jbass2]

Interesting to hear what the Garmin rep said. I had always heard the factor was 4 feet ahead for every foot of depth, but after thinking about what the garmin rep said, my real life experience is a lot closer to 2.5 feet out per foot of depth. I can still make out stumps and debris further out, but the image is not clear. I also think the deeper the water, the better off the image is further out. My picture is at its best in water 14 feet or greater.

My experience with perspective is different. It is a different deal, and a lot of the picture depends on the relationship of the angle of the lake bottom versus the direction of your transducer. If I am looking up a ledge, then I can't see much close to the boat because the gain washes out the screen on the first third . I can see good from 30-70 feet in 5-6 foot of water. looking up a ledge. I think I have discovered that the angle of your transducer is incredibly important to your perspective view. It can't be pointed down to much towards the bottom, but level is not great either. Different but similar mounts create totally different images. I have to experiment this more.

[BigBry]

25 ft is about right. As Jbass mentioned, deeper works better. I normally fish deep and use manual depth and then manually set forward range to where the arc you are seeing (transitions from clear to fuzzy) hits the bottom. There are exceptions to that but that seems to work well for me. A 12” screen really helps too.

[Tuggle]

Thanks guys! I will play around with it. Just wanted to make sure I was getting it close to right.

[minnowlimo]

Interesting to hear what the Garmin rep said. I had always heard the factor was 4 feet ahead for every foot of depth, but after thinking about what the garmin rep said, my real life experience is a lot closer to 2.5 feet out per foot of depth. I can still make out stumps and debris further out, but the image is not clear. I also think the deeper the water, the better off the image is further out. My picture is at its best in water 14 feet or greater.

My experience with perspective is different. It is a different deal, and a lot of the picture depends on the relationship of the angle of the lake bottom versus the direction of your transducer. If I am looking up a ledge, then I can't see much close to the boat because the gain washes out the screen on the first third . I can see good from 30-70 feet in 5-6 foot of water. looking up a ledge. I think I have discovered that the angle of your transducer is incredibly important to your perspective view. It can't be pointed down to much towards the bottom, but level is not great either. Different but similar mounts create totally different images. I have to experiment this more.

First off I know nothing about garmin but would really like a garmin unit just for perspectives view. How sensitive is the transducer angle? Is it so sensitive that having a partner on the back deck/ front deck or fishing solo is going to mess with the view ?