Fellows as soon as I can find either a pontoon or bass boat in stock (which seems impossible sigh) . I will be needing to outfit both with the newest and best electronics. I have waited a great many years to do this so I am allowing a fairly healthy budget.. how would you rig a bass boat?.. what size screens etc etc?.. I do plan to crappie fish as well as bass fish. so live scope or the latest version should be included.. I will have an auto deploy trolling with spot lock on both craft.. I plan to have the raised scope mounts such as" beat down".. does anybody still sit in a regular seat on the front deck? I have one chance to buy into the market so I need to make this count.. I do know this is partly a matter of opinion all I ask is your best version.. thanks

My Humble Opinion: I'm a big fan of 2 12's at the dash. Gives me lots of options and big enough screens to see everything all at once or the ability to set up any combination of map, 2D, down and side I want.
Bow needs 2 12's as well. One unit dedicated to forward. Its happening real time, and I need to focus on just that screen.

Not sure you will go wrong with 'Bird, Lowrance, Garmin. I have the least amount of recent experience with 'Bird, and the most with Lowrance, and more recently Garmin. I've had zero issues with either and like the Lowrance mapping(Navionics), side and down image. I now have Garmin Live scope.

Having said that if I were to buy just one manufacturer it would be Garmin. The interface is just easier and better than Lowrance. Is Lowrance hard, no....But its just not as easy. Seems like I'm always searching for "how to change that". Garmin is simple and straight forward.

Again, no recent experience with 'Bird, but hear mapping is great, and I think Mega 360 would be really useful at times. Forward technology is late, but close with 'Bird so there is that to consider.

I know 4 12's may seem like a lot, but you will absolutely use them.

Fun process, hope it helps and good luck.

Been fishing for 40 years, most of this time I've had Lowrance. I switched a few years ago to Garmin because of the Livescope. No experience with Hummingbird.
So Garmin all the way if it were me.

another garmin vote, get the force trolling motor with 2 front 10" and one 10" on console on the bass boat, pontoon, livescope and a 10" on bow with a 9" on console.

the force tm is not self deploy but is super easy to deploy/stow, it also has a slot in the mount for a livescope ducer, no need to put on a separate pole.
tm comes with the 54 uhd ducer which is a nice plus, same as the graphs so you end up with a spare.

I was fishing LOP during the crappie spawn in April.. I was bass fishing but everyone of those crappie fisherman had livescope on their boats. I went and bought livescope also and it is good.. Garmin is ahead of the game with panoptix so I would go with garmin. The 106sv is really good along with livescope.. I saw someone selling livescope on here yesterday for $1200. That is a good price.

I have had livescope for a month and use it a couple of times. My son and I were fishing some trees and we saw some fish on it.. My son threw a crankbait at it and caught a 3lb bass... We had never targeted fish in front of us like that before..

https://texasfishingforum.com/forum...32/gonew/1/nib-livescope-panoptix#UNREAD

Humming birds are my vote, go 2 10s, get mega 360 and add garmin live scope if money isnt a problem

The only electronics I've ever owned has been Lowrance. But if you fish for crappie, that livescope that Garmin has looks awesome.
That other fish you mentioned, I don't know how much electronics you need for bass. Especially if your one of those bass fishermen that only fish for those things in the shallows.
So I would focus your selection of electronics around crappie fishing.


As far as a screen size I went with the biggest that Lowrance offers - the 16in. For me, this way I can see what it is that I'm wanting to look at.
I say go with the biggest screen size you can afford.