Bought my first "real" bass boat 4 years ago, a 2008 Ranger Z520. Really love this boat, but I've put all kinds of top of the line electronics on it, each year and have been disappointed somewhat until this year. So here goes the story....
I began by reading and asking a million questions on here about Garmin units. I had just about decided 100% on Echomap Ultra 126 sv's, but when I ran into a connection issue with UHD transducers, I decided to bite the bullet and just go ahead with 8612 xsv's which bypass those issues I was running into. I put one on the bow with Livescope LVS32 and one at the console with a GT54-UHD and a GT15-IH for depth at speed.
I searched for a great installer here locally, but no one could answer some questions that should have been simple, and some guys even said, "Heck yeah! Bring 'er on down, we ain't dun one of dem type installs, we could use the practice!", which meant there was no way I was going to take it to them. So the search was on. I contacted Jason Cassell at Bass Boat Electronics in Knoxville (Louisville, just outside Knoxville), and I could tell he knew his stuff on boat electronics. He listened to my needs and wants, made excellent suggestions, so I made arrangements to take my boat the 4 hours one way to him for the install.
We discussed options, and got a great game plan, and he went to work. After it was all said and done, he removed at least 75 pounds of old wiring and cables from all the previous installs, and added a Lithium Pro 36 volt battery for my trolling motor, removed the three Odyssey Group 31 AGM's, added a house battery and smaller but potent starting battery. All in all, I lost about 250 pounds by changing my setup, and I could not be happier.
We put the Livescope on the Ultrex, and so far I like it just fine. I think with the right setup, I would like it on a separate pole, but for now, it is fine. Last Friday night was the first time I had been able to get on the water this year with the exception of a trip to Okeechobee in late April, but I did not have my Garmins then. So I was excited to say the least.
I fire up the new units, and they power up fairly quickly. Maps are awesome and I set the shading depths and that was excellent for safe running at night. We are on the water at 8pm, and fish until 6am Sat morning. I played with a bunch of settings, and found the Garmins super easy to use and navigate the menus, and I've not used Garmins on a boat before. Some things take a few tries to remember where they are, but overall I got the hang of it pretty quickly. They are FAST in processing speeds. Love that.
Now on to Livescope. I know I've watched nearly every video on Livescope I could find, and all I can say is they pale in comparison to using it in person. I thought on the videos it was pretty cool, but after staring at the screen all night (absolutely loved how low you can dial the brightness down on these things, perfect for us night guys!), I am blown away! I was watching bait fish swirl back and forth, and then would watch a decent striper zoom in and suck one down, and zip back down to the deep. We found brush piles we have never seen before, and could let a worm or jig down into the brush and watch the fish react to the bait. We could size up the bait by dropping a swim bait of different sizes, and see which one was closest to the bait swimming around. It was so cool to watch your lure, and see how the fish around it would react. I was also amazed at the amount of fish swimming around constantly. I guess I pictured them just hanging out and not moving much, but these fish were moving all the time it seemed. most were bait fish, but even bigger fish were coming and going from cover quite often. It was the coolest thing I've ever used on the water, bar none.
So if you need a top quality install, call Jason at Bass Boat Electronics. He knows his stuff. He also took me out on the water after the install to show me how to use the units. THAT WAS HUGE!! And I'm hooked on Garmins for sure. The other guys are going to have to kick it up a few gears to catch up to this tech. It's super cool, and I see me using this in a lot of ways. I can't wait to get back on the water! And Livescope is the bomb, just amazing. This whole experience was really cool. I feel like I have a brand new boat! I could not be more pleased, and even though this was not cheap at all, I cannot be happier with everything. So far with boat electronics, I had top of the line Lowrance two years ago, sold them and moved to Hummingbirds Solix's last year. Both of those units did good, but were harder to understand to me than the Garmin's. The Garmin's are simple, fast, and Livescope is a secret weapon it feels like. I'm glad to be a part of the brotherhood!
Reply With Quote
