Lowrance Active Target Review: A Sonar Revolution

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Lowrance Active Target Review Feature Image

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When you’re out on the boat in unfamiliar water, having a good active target sonar system can help make your trip and fishing experience much more enjoyable.

Having a good fish finder means you can not only find where schools of fish are hiding with high resolution views, but you’ll be able to see sunken vegetation, logs, rock piles, and other debris that might snag your lure.

Lowrance is an extremely well known brand in the world of revolutionary sonar systems for both casual weekend fishermen and professional anglers. If you’re looking for a fish finder that offers an extremely clear, real-time image of the water around your boat, look no further than Lowrance.

What is Lowrance’s Active Target Live Sonar?

Image technology like this has come a long way in the past few years. Lowrance ActiveTarget live sonar is Lowrance’s way of producing crystal clear live images to show you a wide range of details in the water around and below your boat.

In the image, you’ll be able to see your lure, as well as bass fish swimming nearby, in addition to a wide range of underwater vegetation and weed beds that some traditional sonar may miss.

One of the best uses for Lowrance active target live sonar is so you can see how many bass fish are reacting to your lure or bait. The active target live sonar image will show whether or not the fish are intimidated and scared by it, or if they are showing some curiosity.

You’ll also be able to see a fish strike your lure with the HDS live Lowrance ActiveTarget view and know exactly when to start reeling it in.

Using the Lowrance ActiveTarget live sonar can definitely help with following fish movements, finding bait balls, and increasing your overall catch rates.

The Lowrance ActiveTarget system also helps by letting you know if dropping a bottom rig into the area is a good choice, or if it might end up getting hopelessly snagged in weeds and grass with the advanced vegetation and structure imaging capabilities.

Compatibility: Which Fish Finder Models Does it Work With?

Lowrance has made sure that their Lowrance ActiveTarget unit live sonar transducers are compatible with a wide range of active target fish finding and chart plotting displays including the HDS Carbon, HDS Live, and Elite FS series.

If you have a display from any of these lines, it should work perfectly well with the Lowrance ActiveTarget live sonar without needing any additional adapters or equipment swaps on your boat.

What Transducer is Required?

The Lowrance Active Target live sonar system includes a transducer which can be mounted on your trolling motor in a variety of ways to get you the best views possible.

You can easily mount the active target transducer on the trolling motor mount shaft for all three views, or mount it to the motor itself for forward/down and scout views.

Lowrance Active Target System: Review

Lowrance ActiveTarget Live Sonar

Lowrance ActiveTarget Live Sonar

Lowrance ActiveTarget Live Sonar
Our Score

If you’re an angler that loves getting a real time, crystal clear and ultra wide or scout view of the water around your boat, this ActiveTarget live sonar system is the perfect answer for you.

Offering three views from a single transducer, you can mount it to offer down view, forward view, and scout mode views of the water around you.

The ActiveTarget live sonar system includes trolling motor mounts so you can get this transducer installed and ready for use right out of the box. There’s no need to order additional parts or mounts in order to make it work in the location you choose.

Lowrance Active Target Features In Detail

Active Imaging

The included ActiveTarget live sonar transducer offers three active imaging structure and fish activity views which all offer a crisp and clear, real-time view of the movement of fish activity around your boat.

Depending on how you choose to mount your active target transducer, you can enjoy down and forward scans, side scans, or scout mode views to give you the best combination of images to track fish and decide where to drop your lure.

Active Mapping

Lowrance’s ActiveTarget transducer offers three viewing options including scout overhead view, down, and forward views.

Another great feature added to the Lowrance ActiveTarget live sonar is the active mapping abilities.

This feature allows you to make note of the contours of the bottom of the water area around you and chart a path around or through it.

In addition, it’ll give you depth contour overlays so you can decide which locations might offer the best fishing success.

If you’re targeting a fish that likes to stay deep or under cover, active mapping can help you locate prime fishing spots for that species.

Side-Scan and Lowrance Technology

Created back in the 1950’s, side scanning technology is not new. However, once it made it to the public market and into the fishing industry by Lowrance, it took on a whole new life. 

Side scanning technology can offer 360 degree views of the area around your boat, giving you a very detailed view of fish that might be hiding on either side, or to the rear of your vessel.

Multiple View Options

Lowrance’s ActiveTarget transducer offers three viewing options including scout overhead view, down, and forward views.

For anglers that love getting the biggest advantage with technology, these multiple viewing options can make a huge difference in the success from your next fishing trip.

  • Scout view is an overhead imaging view in an ultra-wide format. It’s great for deciding which direction and distance your next cast should be.
  • Down view offers a great image for depth checking, as well as using it for monitoring rig drops and jigging off the side of the boat.
  • Forward view can give you a heads up on big schools of fish in the area as you are trolling into new areas. It’s also great for using in combination with Scout overhead view sonar to see where your next cast should land.

Upgraded High-Performance Processor

Included in the Lowrance transducer sonar is a high performance, dual core processor. This high quality processor provides real time active target imaging with zero lag and a crisp and clear picture. 

This processor uses less than 1.5 amps at 13.8VDC and includes shock and vibration protection at 100k cycles.

The active target processor has an effective temperature use range of -22 degrees Fahrenheit to a scorching 158 degrees Fahrenheit making it perfectly suitable for ice fishing as well as summertime fishing.

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AUTHOR
Jeff Knapp is an expert fisherman, guide and outdoor writer whose work is widely published across a range of sites including Tackle Village. Jeff is based in Pennsylvania and loves exploring the waterways of that state in pursuit of smallmouth bass, largemouth, panfish and trout.
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