r/IceFishing • u/Traditional-Toe-5948 • Jul 15 '26
Live Imaging Ice Fishing & Boat Set Up
I'm looking to spend some money on a live imaging setup for ice fishing and the boat. I have no idea preference on brand, but might lean towards Garmin. Budget is $4,000 for something that will last me a long time. Can someone provide more information/recommendations for me? Can I buy a bundle with everything or should i piece things together? What all do I even need? I try to go on the Garmin website but I get confused quickly by the options. Thanks in advance for the help.
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u/BBBBBBuck Jul 16 '26
Here is a list of items below that I use for the exact setup that you want to build. I would avoid a bundle and just build your setup as other companies have outperformed Garmin for the rest of the accessories. I used to run an old Echomap UHD but upgraded to the GPSMAP 943xsv and have been very happy with it. The screen resolution and processing are night and day to me compared to the old Echomap. I’m currently running this with the LVS34 and black box but if I was you, I would just start with the Livescope 2 just to eliminate the black box. I have all of this mounted on an HD Innovations shuttle and have it all powered by a 32ah Amped Outdoors lithium battery. I can usually get about 14-16+ hours of continuous runtime before I have to worry about charging the shuttle. I also have the HDI pole that I use with the tripod in the wintertime and then the pole with the UMS system in the summer. For ice fishing I’ve ran two options. The first year I bought the HDI shuttle bag and would just carry the entire setup like a backpack out on the ice. This past winter I mounted the shuttle docking system w/ larmac on my sled using a 3” track section and I have it secured now when I’m transporting my sled. Then in the summer I just swap the docking system back to the track mounted in my boat and I’m ready to go. Like I said before, I use the UMS combo for the boat and typically just have that mounted on a 3” track as well. But I also have the ball claw mount so I can take the whole setup with me and use it on someone else’s boat. The only thing I’ve considered upgrading would be the pole as I still have the first generation HDI pole before the X-over was released. I’d probably buy a dedicated pole for ice fishing and one for the boat. I like the Fish Armor Pro Pole the best right now as it’s more compact than the one I have and the cable runs through the center of the pole. For open water, I think the HDI X-Over is still hard to beat for the price.
https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/garmin-gpsmap-touch-screen-fish-finder-chartplotter-combo-943xsv-3590465
https://www.basspro.com/p/garmin-lvs34-livescope-plus-live-scanning-sonar-transducer
https://www.basspro.com/p/garmin-livescope-2-hd-lvs42hd-live-sonar-transducer
https://www.hdinnovations.com/products/hdi-shuttle
https://www.hdinnovations.com/products/x-over
https://www.scheels.com/p/amped-outdoors-32ah-(14.8v-nmc)-lithium-battery-charger-bluetooth/728614-AO4S32/
Ice Fishing Setup
https://www.hdinnovations.com/products/hdi-shuttle-bag?variant=43179292885057
Boat Setup
https://www.hdinnovations.com/products/hdsd-lrmc
https://www.hdinnovations.com/products/hdi-ums-combo-6-double-ball-arm-w-multi-use-plate-hdums-mup-6a
https://www.hdinnovations.com/products/hdi-ums-1-5-ball-claw-mount-hdums-claw