Finally gonna pull the trigger on forward facing sonar. I currently run 2 Lowrance Carbon 12’s but want a stand alone unit for the forward sonar. For those of you have used them both what are your preferences as far as head unit size 9”, 10”, 12”? Is one brand better than the other or are they about the same? I missed the Carbon 12 sale at BassPro so I’ve really been thinking about just getting a Garmin 1022 and livescope but I hear all the talk about ghost trees so not sure. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Ford vs. Chevy, their both very similar. I have a Garmin 1222 with livescope. Its great at letting me see all the fish that won't bite,

This is what I have now, my new boat will have Lowrance active target, nothing against Garmin, just a lowrance guy, and the videos I have seen look really good.

Jacob Wheeler has a video about it, in the end, he said “each has its pros & cons and you can’t go wrong with either one”.

Live scope no comparison. Just better a better image

I'm a Lowrance guy so I got the active target and a 9 live, I also have a 12 gen 3 at the bow, and I have no trouble seeing fish flee when my lure gets near them. Would a 12 be better? Of course, but the 9 is pretty good.

I also got the aluminum bracket from RMP for the 9, the plastic one that comes with it is very flimsy.

I’m a Lowrance guy as well, but really like my Garmin 126sv & 1222. As stated, I’ve seen and fished in a buddy’s boat with active target and it looks great! I’m just used to the detail that Garmin provides, so it’s all about personal preference.

Just out of curiosity have you had both the Garmin and the new lowrance Live Target ? Everything I am reading and watching does not show me that one is way better than the other, I guess if the LT is that bad i will get me another Garmin.

I have live scope and my buddy has active target, one works equally as well as the other at frustrating you to no end. All I can say is I hope you have a lot of time and patience, out of all the stupid purchases I have made for bass fishing this is my biggest regret so far. If you’re not planning on using it for crappie in brush piles then don’t waste your money.

Sounds like me!

Mines a really cool depth finder that shows other “stuff” on the screen.

Like someone else said, I can see fish hauling azz the other direction, now I need a stronger trolling motor to try and keep up with them.

What I like the most is the constant gain, depth and other settings that you have to make.

You dont have to be a crappie fisherman to utilize what it has to offer. People who understand it use to determine the mood of fish, are they active and feeding, are they even in those areas. Where most of us get in trouble is finding fish and expecting them to bite just because we dropped our baits down and can see them. You dont hear people complaining about 360 sonar.

I like the perspective mode for finding structure that I didn’t see before. I bought. 10” screen doe garmin so I can see it better while standing a fishing. I mainly uses the auto gain feature and it’s good for me.

I think Livescope has ruined me for fishing forever. I was crappie fishing today and finding small trees, pulling up to them and if there was fish, I dropped down. Caught a 7.27lb Bass (yes I threw it back) and a buffalo that was over 30lbs. It turns fishing, into potential catching and not wasting time. Such a time saver knowing wether it’s perch (bluegill) below, crappie or bigger species. Spotlock still rules for convenience, but man, livescope is right there too when fishing brush/offshore. I don’t think I could go without it.