Live view or 360 ?

I got enough coin to get either Hummingbird 360 or live view after I’ve upgrading to a gen 4 Helix . I assume a number of members have one or both of these. Suggestions ?

What do you like to fish for? How do you like to fish them?

What’s the purpose and what are you looking for.

Each one has its own benefit.

360 – locating struture (Rocks, Weed lines and MISC)
Live – Ice fishing, Finding out the patterns and locating where they are.

I’m in the same boat as you, so to speak. Also debating between the 2. Like these guys are saying, the more I see and read, the answer is going to be specific to how you fish. Or, how you want to fish. I don’t believe one is necessarily better than the other. But, each excel at different methods of fishing. Would really like to hear from those that have both, or have used both. Ultimately, having both would be the ticket.

I have both now. I bought the livescope first and if I were starting over, I’d buy the livescope first again.

For the most part livescope can give you the same information as 360, you just have to remember that you are looking at a very small piece of information with livescope. I compare livescope to looking through a rifle scope. 360 would be more like observing your surrounding with your own eyes.

This feedback is coming from a multi-species angler, if I was a shallow water bass fisherman then I think the 360 would be first.

I fish primary walleyes. I have concerns about mounting a live view on my Ulterra since with spot lock the trolling motor is on constant motion. I’ve seen the pole mounts and that seems cumbersome. How are you guys mounting the units?

As for how I fish, rigging, trolling and last year more of an effort to throw jigs. I use side imaging and wonder if 360 is a substantial improvement. Very little bass/ shallow water.

joemama wrote:

I fish primary walleyes. I have concerns about mounting a live view on my Ulterra since with spot lock the trolling motor is on constant motion. I’ve seen the pole mounts and that seems cumbersome. How are you guys mounting the units?

I wouldn’t be able to stand the constant motion of the live view moving with the trolling motor so I rigged both the 360 and the livescope on a separate deployment system.

Here are couple pics of mine, took an old cable steer trolling motor mount, mounted that to my boat and use that to deploy my livescrope and 360 transducers. This was my prototype effort, I’ve made some upgrades since but the basic idea remains the same.

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joemama wrote:

As for how I fish, rigging, trolling and last year more of an effort to throw jigs. I use side imaging and wonder if 360 is a substantial improvement. Very little bass/ shallow water.

360 would be a substantial improvement in all of those because with 360 you are looking at what is coming at you or currently around you. With side imaging you are looking at what you just went past. Think of it in terms of staying on the actual break line because you can see it before you are over it. Or see a pocket in the weed line before you get to it. Or see a solitary log/boulder/stump on a flat before you get to it.

Different tools with different applications. Being from a construction background I look at fishing technology the same way I look at building tools…will they make me more effecient?

You can get by on a jobsite with a circular saw, but you will be more efficient if you have the correct saw for each specific task. Reciprocating saw, jig saw, miter saw, etc…

Technology for fishing is the same thing, you can get by with nothing or just a basic 2d sonar. Side imaging is a better/faster way of locating fish/structure. 360 is a better way to break down the structure once you find it and it allows to you see things (fish/structure) around you in all directions. Live lets you focus in on a certain fish, watch how they interact with a bait.

I see the benefits of mega live.
However I will stick with my 360 imagery. I run a Minn Kota Terrova with a 60” shaft and a 360 mount from Cornfield Crappie. I have used it down to 20’ will throwing jigs for walleyes and bass.
I have used it down to 35’ of water while rigging for walleyes but didn’t see a whole lot of benefit to it other then way pointing some structure as I found it. Now casting jigs or blades etc I have used it down to 25’ of water so far.
I always have mine set on 180 degree forward scan area. So I am not reading the full 360 degree of information.
Not the best picture to see the mount but you can kind of get the idea.

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As mentioned above I like Mega 360 for a number of reasons, First is open water fishing finding and staying on schools of fish much easier. Trolling I can see fish coming up and swing the boat to troll thru the fish. Fishing a wingdam I can use spotlock while in front of a wing dam and pick out structure or fish using 360 using 180 sweep towards the rear of the boat. Fishing sunken structure seeing if there are fish there and where they are in relation to the structure. Casting a flat I can see if there are any stumps rocks or any other structure that may hold fish before I get there.