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The BEST Fishfinder for Garmin Livescope

August 12, 2021

I'm going to tackle what is, without a doubt, one of the most frequently asked questions we get here at Russell Marine Products. That is... what's the best fish finder for the Garmin Livescope? At first, this seems like a loaded question. But if we dissect the question to its exact meaning, it's quite simple. Just about for every Livescope application, the 10's and 12's of the Echomap Ultra family or the 1022's and 1222's of the GPSMAP family are more than sufficient. And which way you go between those two families depends on your exact setup. But "sufficient" is not what's being asked here. The keyword here is, "best". Not "best for the money", not "best on a budget", quite simply "THE BEST". And if someone wants the best unit to display Livescope on, cost no object, we point them towards Garmin's flagship chartplotter... the 8600 series. Garmin literally throws everything they've got to this unit, it's their baby. As Brett puts it, "If you want to contact NASA in outer space, you buy an 8600." Out of the various different models of the 8600 series, the 12's and 16's are by far and away, the most popular. The biggest benefit of what sets the 8600 series apart from the Ultra's and 1022 / 1222's is the screen. The screen resolution comes in at an "otherworldly" 1920 x 1080 on the 12's and 16's. This dwarfs the screen resolution of the Ultra's and 1222's (1280 x 800) and flat out embarrasses the 1022's measly 1024 x 600. Another big feature of the 8600 series is its extra-wide viewing angles. With the other units, the farther away from dead center that you view them, the darker the screen gets. The 8600 series pushes the limits of those angles with an extremely high-quality screen. I can't stress enough that all of these units I'm writing about are excellent choices for Livescope (depending on application). But for those select few that want the best and are willing to pay for it... just like Garmin, the 8600 is your baby.