Best saltwater Sonar for inshore

[Duck Tape]

What is the best inshore saltwater “livescan” sonar?

[SouthernWake]

What are your goals with it inshore?

[Duck Tape]

See fish and bait

[scdiver]

Simrad.

Lowrance.

[Whackumstackum]

Eyeballs

[SouthernWake]

Eyeballs

Yep

[theoldblackdog]

Eyeballs

That’s what I was thinking. When I was fishing the inshore tournaments and had a boat I only cared about the GPS and depth reading. If you’re that worried about finding fish that way you’re probably too deep.

[Gregory]

I like Lowrance.

[Mldalton]

Me personally have never used them. Only reason I’d see use in em for inshore is depth, drop offs, or chasing bulls in deep water.

[Chessbay]

I just replaced my Garmin with a Simrad GO9 XSE.

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[Catdaddy]

Whoever has the most accurate mapping would be my choice. Downscan, sidescan, and sonar are fairly close.

Personally I would look at Simrod or Lowrance.

Sent from my motorola edge plus 5G UW (2022) using Tapatalk

[MDman]

Are you wanting forward facing sonar?

If so, go with the Garmin LiveScope XR for saltwater.

[PharmHunter]

Those two things do seem like Oxymorons..

[scdiver]

Me personally have never used them. Only reason I’d see use in em for inshore is depth, drop offs, or chasing bulls in deep water.

Inshore means so many different things to so many people.

Tarpon/big red drum and bait with side scan is totally different to sight fishing them.

Boat size makes a difference on what makes the most sense.

Skiff or Jon boat? Use a pole to see how deep it is, bay boat sonar can be an effective tool.

Chasing cobia off the beach? Looking for bait when they aren't up is effective way to locate.

[Saltydog235]

The one you’re use to using.

[Palmetto Bug]

The only reason I've though about getting a better sonar is for finding deep hole shrimping spots. Other than that, all I use mine for is to know where the bottom is.

[SouthernWake]

Most of the guys I’ve talked to with livescope inshore said it wasn’t the game changer they thought it would be and a bit of an inconvenience to use.

I will use sides scan in specific situations but for the vast majority of inshore fishing sonar isn’t useful.

[WatereesWatson]

Ive got a skiff style and have been going through this same question for a while. I think I've basically decided to go cheap and skip all of that and just get a Lowrance Hook Reveal with the map card. Im not crappie fishing, so forward facing and even side scan wont help most of the time. I just need good maps and a depth finder as much as anything.

[Southernduck]

I don’t understand the live scope sonar thing. It seems like an unfair advantage to the angler and removes skill and hard earned knowledge. More about the kill/catch than the sport. I feel the same way about cell game cameras so I guess I am just a weird one.

Go fishing, figure it out.

[ecu1984]

Navigation - Garmin for ease of use and simplicity
Bottom looking - Simrad or Lowrance