Im a weekend angler at best, don't fish tournaments. Ive got an old hummingbird down/side imaging unit currently, but tossed around the idea of getting foward facing sonar/livescope/active target.... I dont know much about this at all. What the most affordable unit to get into the FFS game?

If you like catching fish buy one if you don't then don't.
I won a tournament yesterday and fished the first 3 hours not using ffs caught 2
Fished the next 1.5 hrs with ffs and caught 12
Fished the final 4.5 hrs without ffs caught 2

Just an example but if I were fishing all day with ffs I would catch 50-100 fish most of the days I go fish
Compared to 5-10 a day without it
With that said I spent a lot of time learning how to use it and when to use it so it does take a lot of work to figure it out but hire a guide foe a day or two and you will be miles ahead

You can get a 9" garmin for a little under $2k. They go up from there. Youll likely have to spend a little more on however you mount it. My son just loves it. I could live with it or without it. It will help you catch fish. To me the big deal is knowing where a fish is right now.

Just another tool to use, with a learning curve as with any technology. Definitely can help you catch more IF you learn how to use it.

Some folks losing their minds about it were among the first to jump on paper graphs, sonar and everything else that came along. I'm sure a lot of them laughed at the "You should just use a flasher, you'll ruin fishing!" crowd and enjoyed their newfound tech. Same thing, different era.

As jwalker said, though, you still have to be smart enough to know where the fish are and then get dialed in.

Worth every penny. I enjoy chasing fish around then watching them check out or eat my offering. I saw a school of fish in 3' of water Friday around noon. 1 cast with an a rig had 2 lm's over 3# each. That was amazing to me.

If you think you want one, you might wanna go ahead and buy the older model before they are all sold out and there is nothing left except the new ones. The newer models are about twice as much as the older ones.

Here's the 12" fish finder that was $2600 when I first started looking at them:
https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/gar...ter-combo-with-gt54-transducer-101385035

And here's the LS transducer that used to be $1600:

https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/garmin-panoptix-livescope-transducer-system

So that will get you in business with a really good quality unit for 2600. That seems like a lot, but this system would have been 4200 a year ago, and a similar new system will be close to 5k once they sell all the older ones. I'm sure the new system is better, but if you fish for the fun of it like I do you I think you will be very happy with this one.

I just looked at BPS, but you might find them even cheaper if you look around. You can also save by going with a 9" screen, and that will work ok if you can set it up close to your eyes. The 12" sure is nice.

Don't forget the power they consume, upgrade your batteries or run your front units off their own power source. I have a 10" Garmin, black box & a 9" bird running off a 14.8v lithium. My consol unit is on the cranking battery.

Just use dynamite. Same outcome.

Go to bed you're drunk

Wasn’t trying to be an a hole But….

I've always thought dynamite would be a lot of fun. The problem is, it ain't legal. It's also a bit dangerous. When I was in college, I used to fish below the dam in Tallasee some, and there was a guy there nearly every day with one arm. He had a nub on the other side, and he had figured out how to do a decent job of fishing despite the handicap. I finally asked him one day what had happened, and he said he got drunk on the river while dynamiting fish and held on to a stick too long.

I've never been telephoning either. I'm sure it's fun, and at least not so dangerous. But alas, it too is illegal. I'm gonna enjoy my LS until they make it illegal too.

From what I understand you’ll go from fishing to catching. Learn it and it’s awesome.

Yeah almost like a good spotlight and you can go from hunting to shooting.

Most of us were catching the chit out of them before ffs was even a thought

This guy gets it. Well said and absolutely true!

Not even close. Spotlighting is way more difficult than fishing. And the deer do not get to decide if they are gonna take the bullet the fish still have the decision to make. FFS is like shining a spotlight in 30 fields until you find the deer then Casting some corn on a hook toward the deer. If he decides to eat it you then try to reel him. If it spooks him he leaves if he does not like that type corn he leaves, if he bites you have to get him in the boat.

I think someone needs to point out in this thread that Ben and Beadle are 2 of the best fishermen in the state and were catching boat loads of fish long before getting a LS. Combine the knowledge they already had with the LS technology and the result is that they catch even more. But don't get the idea that all the average yahoo needs to do is to buy a LS and he will immediately become a master fishermen. I can promise you that it doesn't work that way.

For the average fisherman, somebody like me, live bait is a miles more effective technique than using a LS. You don't have to know much at all to land a bunch of bass if you have a bucket of spottail minnows. But give that average guy a LS and he will likely catch fewer fish with it than he would without it. The reason for that is he will waste a lot of time trying to catch fish that won't bite. And a lot of times they won't even be the target species. I've had a LS a couple of years now, try to fish once a week on a 4-6 hour trip, and I am not sure I have yet learned enough that I catch more bass with it than I did without it. I am certain that I catch smaller fish; the bigger ones don't run in the schools that are chasing bait, so I'm not fishing where they are when using the LS. The last few trips we have done a lot better by ignoring the LS and just fishing, but I still can't resist wasting time when I see one on the screen.

The real controversy about the LS is it's use in the major tournaments on TV. Watching someone else fish with a LS when you can't see their screen is about as boring as it gets. If they ban them, it won't be because they are catching too many fish, it will be because people quit watching the show.

I fish for the fun of it, and fishing with a LS is a lot of fun to me. I've always enjoyed any sort of sight fishing, and while it isn't exactly the same, it's still very interesting to me. It's definitely more effective for me for crappie fishing than for bass; I can see the schools and catch them at times besides the spring now. I don't keep any more fish than I ever did, but now I carry home more crappie instead of bass. I would think most would consider that a good thing.

To show how accomplished I've become with it, I was bass fishing around bait last fall and we kept seeing big stripers swim by the bait I wasted a lot of time trying to catch one and finally hooked one on a BFS reel with 5 lb line. Fought him for about 20 minutes and my partner finally netted him. He weighed 18 pounds, but maybe I am not so good at identifying the species.

Perhaps one of the coolest things you can see while having one is the unsolicited displeasure shown by those who dont have one towards those who do.

I've got mine on order, ready to start the learning process

Last week on Lay Lake I caught the following fish over 4 lbs.
8.17
6.32
5.75
5.25
5.11
5.02
4.87
4.75
4.37

All but one of those which was the 4.37 were caught without looking at livescope. But that was in 18 hrs of fishing.
I livescoped for about 2 hours last week and caught probably 20 2-4.5lbers. Livescope allows us to be so much more efficient but you can still catch them without it but it just takes a lot longer