Garmin panoptix livescope ice bundle

Has anyone had any experience with this bundle that came out this year?

Yes, I have it.

How do you like it brian? Is everything included that you need? I know last year a lot of people spent 1800 only to learn they needed to spend another 1500 to get livescope.

I don’t have the ice bundle, but I made my own using my open water hardware. So the Garmin 1042xsv, my livescope transducer (which has a bulky power supply in my case) some batteries and a home engineered transducer mount.

Its not ideal for hole hopping because Its bulkier than the ice bundle, but I already own a little over 3500 in garmin electronics and I wanted to use panoptix on the ice before I went nuts. It has proven it’s worth a tenfold in open water. I pretty much ignore my side imaging nowadays.

I love it. I can find break lines easier, transitions easier, it can see every line in my fish house if I put it in forward view, which my friends and family appreciate. I definitely see more.

I still use a Vexilar in my jigging hole. As cool as the Garmin is, I get better target separation on my vex when the fish are right on me. Since I try to monitor both/all lines, my garmin isnt focused on any 1 line, thus I will occasionally mark a fish on my vex that the panoptix cant quite see because it’s off to the side.

I’ll consider getting the ice bundle next year for the ease of pretty much everything. My setup is great for a fish house, but its heavy, burns batteries and doesn’t travel the best.

In the end it doesn’t matter when you buy your fishing tech, or any tech for that matter theres always something newer and more advanced right around the corner.

I like what the LS does, though like everything it has both pros and cons. And, yes, it has everything you need. Just turn it on and go.

Cons: Expensive, heavy (15lbs?), bulky, slow charging, and is unusable in temps less than 5F. After many hours/days of use, watching hundreds and perhaps thousands of fish, I’ve come to the conclusion that fish can/do sense and avoid the sonar signal in shallow water situations (<10’), though realize this is debatable.

Pros: Amazing imagery, ability to see fish/fish behavior/holding depth well outside the normal range of conventional sonar in down orientation, ability to ID species, and ability to see/locate/follow fish at quite a distance in forward orientation. Haven’t ran out of battery juice while fishing yet.

Did I say it was expensive?? ha. I do plan to use the unit on the bow of my boat using a Low Pro transducer mount, which helped me justify the cost.

Lemme know if you have other questions.

I have one and agree with Brian that there’s something happening that the fish can sense. This has made me a little more reluctant to use it at times.

Thanks guys. I see that they are on sale for 2300 at a few places. So would you guys buy one again?

Sorry, just started writing and this got long, hope it helps someone.

I just got into the livescope world myself, I put off the regular panoptix as I didn’t see the value for the way I like to fish. The detail of the livescope changed that for me. I’ve only used it twice so far for ice and haven’t had it on the boat yet which is the real reason I bought it. It’s already a tool that if it broke I’d immediately get another one, similar to how I feel about a quality side imaging graph to find structure/fish and a good spot lock trolling motors.

The first time I took livescope out I was just learning the technology and my ultimate goal was not catching fish. In 27′ feet of water I scanned around and saw what looked like a small fish 20′ away, I proceeded to punch a hole over that fish and get it to interact with several baits (from large to small) until I finally caught that 4″ perch. I was sold right then. If I can see a 4″ perch on the bottom then crappie roaming around a basin or in a brush pile are going to light up the screen.

Second trip was for fishing purposes. Went to a local lake that I’ve been catching basin crappie on all winter. Drilled one hole, dropped the livescrope in and picked up a school 70′ away. Left the livescope in that first hole and used it to continuously track schools of crappie and I’d jump around with the auger and marcum catching 2-8 crappie per hole before they moved on.

In the downvu mode I can see a plain 3mm tungsten jig in 30′ of water with no problem at all. In forwardvu mode I could see my buddies 4mm tungsten and plastic at least 25′ away and the fish interacting with it. If you prefer fishing in a house or are confined to it do to the weather, in downvu you can easily see multiple baits and which baits the fish are reacting to.

I’m heading down to Kansas in March to fish some reservoirs for crappie and I can’t wait to use side imaging to locate structure and then livescope to fish said structure if there are fish. Also can’t wait to use it for shooting docks for crappie and for vertical jigging walleye in Canada, similar to the Uncut Angling Muskie Video.

I’m hoping to pick one up shortly.
I watched a video of a Southern boy catching crappies with live scope – He called it “video game fishing” LOL.

Great review. I appreciate it

there is a facebook group called Garmin Ice Fishing that has a ton of examples of custom build options for LS.

in short, if you purchase an Echomap plus (73 or 93) and the live-scope you have all the core items you need from Garmin. all you need then is something to mount it too, a battery and a pole to mount the transducer.

if you watch the sales, you should be able to pick up a echomap 93SV plus for around $600, and that will give you a side imaging ducer for your boat too!

After hours and hours of research on the livescope, watching hundreds of youtube videos and a couple uses myself, here are a list of tips I would give to anyone that has it or is planning on buying it:

1. It is nothing more than another tool in your arsenal, it will not make the fish bite.

2. Learn the tool, use the tool to it’s maximum advantage. I see so many reviews that say set it up and use the auto settings for everything. I could not disagree more with that sentiment. If I’m searching for fish/structure I’ll be using different settings than if I’m sitting 15′ away from a brush pile. I want maximum detail or clarity on the screen so I will constantly be messing with forward range, down range, gain, color scheme, etc… I’m from the construction world, using a tool on auto settings would be like having a compound miter saw and only making 90 degree cuts because that is how it came out of the box. Learn the tool and maximize its effectiveness.

3. Just because you find fish, does not mean they are active. Have a system in place to keep yourself moving if you can’t get them to bite. For me that means I have 4-6 rods ready to go for the target species, varying in degrees of aggressiveness and profile. If I throw them all and get no reaction I move. If I get a reaction to a certain profile then I might change colors or baits with that same profile and re-evalute. Most of the time if you find fish you can catch fish but not always so don’t waste time on them, go find the active fish.

4. Screen size matters, I picked up the 93sv because I got a good deal on it and I’m glad I did. Buy the biggest screen you can afford that fits your style of fishing. I wanted a screen that I could use in the boat and on ice, the 7″ was going to be to small for me in a boat but a 12″ would be to big to haul around on ice, so I settled on the 9″. Maybe I’ll decide to get a bigger screen for the boat at some point but right now I’m happy with the decision I made.

5. Livescope is not a necessity, just make things simpler and more efficient. Instead of drilling 20 holes in an area to find the fish I can drill one hole and look 100′ in all directions now. If the fish are in that area I will see them. In work and in fishing, I believe efficiency makes you better. Either makes your more money or allows you the opportunity to catch more fish.

6. The thing that finally sold me was when I started noticing the livescope transducer on the boats of tournament guys that are in no way associated with Garmin. To me that is usually the best way to tell if something new is gimmicky or legit.

How is the battery life?

I built this livescope caddy out of a 6’x12” piece of 3/4 Azek trim. The transducer is mounted on a short piece of 1” pvc for transporting, then attached to a longer piece of 1” pvc to use it on the ice. This was thrown together quickly so I’ll probably redo it this summer.

The biggest things I wanted were impervious to moisture which the Azek trim is, as light as possible and cord management since the transducer cord is long and bulky.

This caddy will be used in the boat as well so I can move the livescope around the boat depending on style of fishing.

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James J John wrote:

How is the battery life?

That’s a good question that I can’t really answer yet. I bought the 18ah lithium from Amped Outdoors. I have not been on the ice for more than a couple hours each time.

I’ll know more in March when I’m using it all day.

Ryan,
Thank you for the info. That for sure put me into a livescope set-up. I’ll be picking up the 93sv, GLS10, with the LVS32. For the summer I’ll have to figure out a mounting pole for the pontoon.
I looked at the 126sv but the price does a little jump.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Ryan,
Thank you for the info. That for sure put me into a livescope set-up. I’ll be picking up the 93sv, GLS10, with the LVS32. For the summer I’ll have to figure out a mounting pole for the pontoon.
I looked at the 126sv but the price does a little jump.

EPG, glad I could help. It’s a big decision because of the cost.

As for mounting, search up transom Mount trolling motor brackets, I picked one up for $25-$30. Then I picked up a 60” trolling motor shaft for $25-$30.

In my boat situation I have a gunnel track system that runs from bow to stern. I have downrigger base plates that slide into the track so I’m mounting a 2 ply chunk of 2×4 to the base plate and then clamping the trolling motor bracket to it. This way I can move it anywhere in my boat depending on technique or species.

There is a guide in Texas who uses a pontoon and has his livescope mounted right next to the drivers seat.

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I’ll look up the pontoon guy.

BTW – Carpenters can figure anything/everything out!

I think there is rebate coming sometime in Feb on the livescope. 200 off if I heard right.

I got a 73CV plus on black friday for 399. I built my own box too… out of a couple 1/4″ 12×12 HDPE sheets. The whole thing is still a heavy B. You’ll want a lithium battery for sure. 18AH or better. I use the 30AH to make sure I can go awhile.

For open water, I have a vantage on my boat that rarely use to move around. That works quite nicely as a panoptix/livescope viewing tool too.

Its definitely a fun tool, but you can waste time with it too. I am surprised at times how much basin crappies move after using it. I could drill, scan, pace off the right distance, drill again, only to find they moved another 30′ away. I got frustrated after an hour of chasing and drilled a grid of holes and steered them that direction… and then caught a bunch. That’s basically what I did prior to the Garmin.

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Yeah I think some days the crappie don’t care if a hole is drilled on top of them and some days they spook.

Next time I’ll have to watch the screen while a buddy is drilling the hole to see what they do.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

I’ll look up the pontoon guy.

BTW – Carpenters can figure anything/everything out!

Found it, Greg Fenn Camo River Guide Service, not sure if the link will work but this is the one I was thinking of.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NCP34lnTqwI

Anyone find any good deals on the icefishing bundle? Thinking of buying one

Check Hodges Marine and thegpsstore.com

Thanks! If one buys the icefishing bundle is there other accessories that need to be purchased seperatly for icefishing?

Has anyone purchased from the above places? Good or bad experiences?

Maybe something to ease the pain when you start seeing all the fish that don’t want your lure!

As previously mentioned, you’ll likely want to upgrade to at least an 18ah Lithium at some point. The one from Amped Outdoors is the same size at the 12ah SLA that comes with the kit.

If you plan to use it on open water you might want to buy the pieces separately so you have the option to buy the head unit with a transducer.

FYI, there is a $200 rebate on all Livescope units right now, including the ice kit.