Active Target Transducer Pole Mount Installation Guide | DIY

The ActiveTarget 2 mounts on a pole with the supplied clamp, a 5 mm Allen key, and cable routed loose enough to rotate freely.

Mounting a live-sonar transducer is the step most anglers rush, and it decides whether the picture holds together on the water. Bolt an ActiveTarget to a pole without care and you get a tangled cable, cracked bracket, or images that cut out when the trolling motor turns. Install it once, the right way, and the bracket’s detents switch between Down, Forward, and Scout views with a twist. This guide follows the official Lowrance sequence, matching the factory manual rather than a forum shortcut. If you haven’t picked a shaft yet, the best ActiveTarget pole mounts we’ve tested give you a rotating base that makes this install simpler.

What You Need Before You Start

You need four things: a clean shaft, the supplied bracket kit, a 5 mm Allen key, and a Lowrance display setup that supports the system. ActiveTarget runs as a complete setup: the transducer connects to the sonar module by sonar cable, the module links to the display over Ethernet, and both boxes take their own power.

• A pole or trolling-motor shaft, wiped clean and dry.
• The bracket, molded spacers, and mounting hardware that ship in the kit.
• A 5 mm Allen key for the shaft clamp.
• A compatible display — HDS Pro and HDS Live are the ones most often cited — plus the sonar module, Ethernet cable, and power wiring.

The molded spacers click into the shaft clamp when the pole is thinner than the clamp opening, so fit them first and the bracket sits snug instead of forced. This guide covers pole and shaft mounting, which is how most anglers run ActiveTarget off a trolling motor; transom mounting follows different water-flow rules.

How Do You Install The Pole Mount Bracket?

The bracket clamps to the shaft, the transducer bolts onto the bracket, and the whole assembly rotates on detents. Follow this order and you won’t be redoing it after the first trip.

1. Click the molded spacers into the shaft clamp if the pole diameter needs them, then slide the clamp onto the shaft.
2. Set the clamp with the top tab facing upward. On a trolling-motor shaft, point the pivot pin toward the nose cone.
3. Tighten the clamp with the 5 mm Allen key, alternating sides, and stop at snug. Overtightening is the most common way to crack the mount.
4. Attach the transducer with the supplied knob or low-profile hardware, leaving the pivot loose enough to aim the nose.
5. Route the cable at the back side of the transducer body, toward the propeller end, with enough slack to swing through every detent.

When it’s right, the bracket won’t slide and the transducer moves through its full range without the cable pulling it off-center. Lowrance’s ActiveTarget 2 installation manual shows the same bracket sequence with diagrams, including spacer placement for different pole sizes.

Set The View, Then Route The Cable

ActiveTarget 2’s bracket uses alignment marks and detents instead of guesswork. Line the white marks up for the view you fish most, then click back once for Forward. Scout sits at the detent shown in the manual’s view diagram, since the nose angle differs by model. In every mode the cable has to enter from the back side of the transducer body, or the sonar beam points the wrong direction.

Leave generous slack in the cable. Tight routing is the quiet killer: it kinks the line, binds the pivot, and eventually breaks the connector. Secure the run so it can’t tangle the trolling motor and check it before every trip. A spiral wrap or a few loose ties along the shaft keeps the run tidy without pulling on the connector.

Height matters too. Installers typically set the transducer 6-10 inches above the trolling-motor foot for better shallow and topwater visibility. Lower risks impact damage on rocks and timber; higher degrades the image in rough water.

Finish by connecting the transducer’s sonar cable to the module, the module to the display with Ethernet, and powering both. Test Down, Forward, and Scout at the console before leaving the dock, then re-check the clamp after the first trip — hardware beds in, and a quarter-turn of the 5 mm Allen key keeps everything tight.