Does livescope make a difference?

[Mud Creek]

For most people, it's not something you can just throw on the boat and instantly become a dominate crappie fisherman.

I understand and agree with a lot of your post but if I could pick this part here. I feel like this is where my worry with it comes into play. Lots of people are buying it trying to do that. I swear if it wasn't so impressive I'd say it was almost gimmicky but the problem with that argument is that it can and does work/help. It may not put fish on the hook but it's going to put a lot of people on fish. It will be interesting to see where it takes us going ahead.

I'm all for people fishing and catching fish but the more I saw of it over the winter, heard from others who had it or fished with it, and read about it online I've just changed my about it. I try not to complain and will always congratulate someone on their catch I just think big picture wise it will do more harm than good.

 

[bluball]

Mud Creek -- I have had Livescope on my boat for about a month now and fish about 3x a week. I'm still learning it but I can tell you that a lot of your worries about it can be put to bed. Just because more people have it on their boat, don't mean they can make fish bite. It also doesn't ID the fish either, although after a while you might get better at what you are seeing. The beam on it is very narrow...so narrow that casting just a few inches to the left or right of it, means all the difference in seeing your jig/bait and not seeing it. You have to nearly have perfect boat control to get a great image and to be able to sit there and cast to it while watching the screen. Be it a brush pile, stump, etc. And if it is a moving school, you are constantly having to swivel your mount to look for where they went (again, the narrow cone thing makes this a little tricky). If you have a spot lock trolling motor, that takes care of SOME of the boat control but then you will need a pole mount for the Livescope transducer, or other wise it will be moving everywhere if it is mounted to the trolling motor shaft while in spot lock. I can honestly say I've not caught a fish with it yet that I wouldn't have caught without having it. I tend to waste more time trying to figure out what species the fish are that I'm seeing on the graph. I had some that I was convinced were crappie or white bass...they were bigger fish than what I had been seeing and a lot of them. I fooled with them for the better part of an hour, dropping jigs and spoons in their face. I finally got my cast net out of the boat and lobbed it out in front of me just to see what the things were...and they ended up being big 8-9 inch gizzard shad or some kind of shad....they weren't skipjack but I was surprised to see that's what I had wasted my time on trying to catch.

For most people, it's not something you can just throw on the boat and instantly become a dominate crappie fisherman. Especially if you didn't already have a background in being able to catch them, knowing their patterns, etc. My background in fishing for them is all that has saved me the last several trips, of not having the skunk on the boat. The crappie on Watts Bar and Hiwassee are in no danger of becoming extinct from me with Livescope. After putting the Ultrex trolling motor on my boat...for me, the biggest "well worth the money" I've ever bought for my boat is 110% the Ultrex. You can take the graphs and Livescope away, just as long as that trolling motor stays.

Mud Creek -- I have had Livescope on my boat for about a month now and fish about 3x a week. I'm still learning it but I can tell you that a lot of your worries about it can be put to bed. Just because more people have it on their boat, don't mean they can make fish bite. It also doesn't ID the fish either, although after a while you might get better at what you are seeing. The beam on it is very narrow...so narrow that casting just a few inches to the left or right of it, means all the difference in seeing your jig/bait and not seeing it. You have to nearly have perfect boat control to get a great image and to be able to sit there and cast to it while watching the screen. Be it a brush pile, stump, etc. And if it is a moving school, you are constantly having to swivel your mount to look for where they went (again, the narrow cone thing makes this a little tricky). If you have a spot lock trolling motor, that takes care of SOME of the boat control but then you will need a pole mount for the Livescope transducer, or other wise it will be moving everywhere if it is mounted to the trolling motor shaft while in spot lock. I can honestly say I've not caught a fish with it yet that I wouldn't have caught without having it. I tend to waste more time trying to figure out what species the fish are that I'm seeing on the graph. I had some that I was convinced were crappie or white bass...they were bigger fish than what I had been seeing and a lot of them. I fooled with them for the better part of an hour, dropping jigs and spoons in their face. I finally got my cast net out of the boat and lobbed it out in front of me just to see what the things were...and they ended up being big 8-9 inch gizzard shad or some kind of shad....they weren't skipjack but I was surprised to see that's what I had wasted my time on trying to catch.

For most people, it's not something you can just throw on the boat and instantly become a dominate crappie fisherman. Especially if you didn't already have a background in being able to catch them, knowing their patterns, etc. My background in fishing for them is all that has saved me the last several trips, of not having the skunk on the boat. The crappie on Watts Bar and Hiwassee are in no danger of becoming extinct from me with Livescope. After putting the Ultrex trolling motor on my boat...for me, the biggest "well worth the money" I've ever bought for my boat is 110% the Ultrex. You can take the graphs and Livescope away, just as long as that trolling motor stays.

Im just the oppisite,give me a hand control trolling motor but dont take my livescope.

 

[MickThompson]

Reread this whole thing but replace "live scope" with "turkey decoy"

 

[WTM]

Reread this whole thing but replace "live scope" with "turkey decoy"

naw my favorite is the asian carp is eating all the bait and baby crappie. better be quiet theyll have another meeting and cut the limit another 10 fish.

 

[bluball]

I understand and agree with a lot of your post but if I could pick this part here. I feel like this is where my worry with it comes into play. Lots of people are buying it trying to do that. I swear if it wasn't so impressive I'd say it was almost gimmicky but the problem with that argument is that it can and does work/help. It may not put fish on the hook but it's going to put a lot of people on fish. It will be interesting to see where it takes us going ahead.

I'm all for people fishing and catching fish but the more I saw of it over the winter, heard from others who had it or fished with it, and read about it online I've just changed my about it. I try not to complain and will always congratulate someone on their catch I just think big picture wise it will do more harm than good.

I agree,lots of your old timers are gonna quit building structure to.I drove 10,750 steaks in 2014-2015

naw my favorite is the asian carp is eating all the bait and baby crappie. better be quiet theyll have another meeting and cut the limit another 10 fish.

They eat way more bass than crappie just ask a bass fishermen

 

[Speedwell-Hunter]

I have learned more about fish this year than I have the rest of my entire life.
Watched a small school of crappie absolutely scatter like a covey of quail yesterday.
My buddy went to step down into the bottom of the boat and kinda tripped.
He hit about twice as hard as you normally would.
They were about 8' deep and 10' from the boat and they were GONE!
Another time I bumped my trolling motor on just to adjust my position a little bit. It was on the lowest speed and BOOM they exploded out of there.
Anyway....

We went fishing yesterday.
Talked to a guy this morning that I saw out there and asked him how they did.
Him and his wife went. His wife didn't catch anything and he caught one small bass and a chain pickerel.
He said he talked to an elderly couple that had not gotten one single bite.
Another couple said they had caught 3 crappie all day.
I did notice that I only saw one person catch a fish while we were there.
Granted I was staring at the screen most of the time.

My buddy and I caught 33 crappie in about 3 hours.
Granted we only had 5 keepers but it sure was fun.
I still consider myself the worlds worst crappie fisherman but game changer is putting it mildly with this thing.

It just amazes me you can look around and absolutely know whether fish are there or not.
It absolutely will not make them bite for sure. Had SEVERAL fish swim up to my bait and turn away.
Should have probably tried different colors but I wasn't that tore up about it.

Just wanted to share as @gasman says it's cheating and more and more I am learning, it honestly is almost.
I am still yet to use it bass fishing but it won't be long.

Can you explain or link a video how it works

I watched YouTube on it . Confused . Just yellow dots . Made no sense to me. You came see your lures on it? Fish

How when it all looks like just data

 

[RUGER]

Can you explain or link a video how it works

I watched YouTube on it . Confused . Just yellow dots . Made no sense to me. You came see your lures on it? Fish

How when it all looks like just data

You can see fish
Determine the size of fish and put your bait in their face

 

[beefydeer]

I have learned more about fish this year than I have the rest of my entire life.
Watched a small school of crappie absolutely scatter like a covey of quail yesterday.
My buddy went to step down into the bottom of the boat and kinda tripped.
He hit about twice as hard as you normally would.
They were about 8' deep and 10' from the boat and they were GONE!
Another time I bumped my trolling motor on just to adjust my position a little bit. It was on the lowest speed and BOOM they exploded out of there.
Anyway....

We went fishing yesterday.
Talked to a guy this morning that I saw out there and asked him how they did.
Him and his wife went. His wife didn't catch anything and he caught one small bass and a chain pickerel.
He said he talked to an elderly couple that had not gotten one single bite.
Another couple said they had caught 3 crappie all day.
I did notice that I only saw one person catch a fish while we were there.
Granted I was staring at the screen most of the time.

My buddy and I caught 33 crappie in about 3 hours.
Granted we only had 5 keepers but it sure was fun.
I still consider myself the worlds worst crappie fisherman but game changer is putting it mildly with this thing.

I can say it 100% makes a difference. We crappie fish Reelfoot often and we catch enough for a limit and everyone else we talk to out on the water or at the ramp will have caught less than 5. It definitely helps when you can see the fish.

 

[woodyard]

Ruger. You know there ain't any crappie in that lake! Lol

i was crappie fishing before most of this stuff came along. Didn't have a depth finder other than a sinker on the bottom of a double hook rig. Didn't have a map of the lake. Didn't have but a 14 ft semi v boat with a 7 1/2 hp Sears motor. Back when we were allowed only 3 rods or poles. We fished KY lake and we caught crappie. I fished more in the summer after the spawn because of planting season on the farm. Lots of people caught fish, some didn't.

Then we started making advancements. All sorts of depth finders, fish finders, color selectors, bigger boats, bigger motors, gps, foot controlled trolling motors more lures and every thing imaginable to catch the fisherman's money. Then allowed more poles, then tournaments and more hype. We put out more crappie beds. Then more and more people on the lakes. Funny thing crappie still being caught , some people did and others didn't.

Several years ago I got burned out on crappie fishing. Spent more time after trout and saltwater fish, bluegill, bass, even did a little catfishing. More advanced stuff for the fisherman every year or two. More people fishing. Crappie still being caught.

Decided I might get back into it a little in 2017 , bought a new boat. Didn't get too cranked up on crappie until the last year or so. Now I have more stuff on the boat than I ever had before. Livescope, big motor, depth finders, Talon anchors, foot controlled trolling motor, fancy rod holders and more lures than can count. Still got to get me a spot lock tm though. Still catch some crappie.Does all this stuff help-yes. Nearly every trip I see people catch fish and a lot of others that don't. Same as it has always been.

Biggest thing I see that can affect the fishing is the number of people doing it now. The wildlife agencies have adjusted the limits and sizes accordingly and will probably have to continue doing it as the number of people fishing increase. All these "things" have helped to some degree of more fish being caught by some fishermen, but they have never ruined it in all of these years. Still some catch fish and others don't.

 

[CliffordN]

LS is really good for teaching you how spooky the fish are. What you need is a longer rod to mitigate some of that.

 

[RUGER]

LS is really good for teaching you how spooky the fish are. What you need is a longer rod to mitigate some of that.

Another really strange thing I saw was when we were fishing an attractor that had a school of probably 50 small crappie in it.
My buddy got hung up and we basically beat and banged the pole sticking up and moved an entire cedar tree, literally, to get him free.
Got back settled and looked at the screen, knowing they were gone, and they were all still there and we continued to catch them.
Made no sense. LOL

 

[BuckWild]

My cousin fished one of the Natchez Trace lakes about three weeks ago.
Using the livescope, he caught over 100 crappie and kept 20 nice keepers.

He said there was a man out spider rigging and a girl fishing from a kayak.

The girl said she had caught 2 small bass and a catfish.

The man spider rigging said he never got the first bite all day.

 

[WTM]

Another really strange thing I saw was when we were fishing an attractor that had a school of probably 50 small crappie in it.
My buddy got hung up and we basically beat and banged the pole sticking up and moved an entire cedar tree, literally, to get him free.
Got back settled and looked at the screen, knowing they were gone, and they were all still there and we continued to catch them.
Made no sense. LOL

the larger the fish the spookier they are. some of the tournament pros figured that out when they went to livescope and started targeting bigger fish. garry mason and steve welch figured it out a long time ago.

 

[RUGER]

the larger the fish the spookier they are. some of the tournament pros figured that out when they went to livescope and started targeting bigger fish. garry mason and steve welch figured it out a long time ago.

That is cool.
Makes sense.

 

[TheLBLman]

Reading all this just helps me understand why I most enjoy top-water bass fishing on back-water sloughs. No electronics. Just throw my lure like a golfer hits a golf ball, enjoying the simple game.

 

[Crow Terminator]

LS is really good for teaching you how spooky the fish are. What you need is a longer rod to mitigate some of that.

I'm amazed at how many spook when you are trolling. Trolling has long been one of the easiest ways to find and catch fish for me. After seeing how many fish spook from the boat and trolling motor, I don't see how we catch any at all trolling.

Also amazed at how fast the "wolf pack" schools of fish can swim. Particularly the white and yellow bass...those are really the only ones I have observed but watching them work a school of shad under the surface is pretty crazy. They can be here one minute and 500 yards away the next.

 

[woodyard]

LS is really good for teaching you how spooky the fish are. What you need is a longer rod to mitigate some of that.

They have the rods now. Tenkara fishing. I think I have seen some listed as 40 ft or maybe longer. Weigh only a few ounces. Amazon has some of them and I almost ordered one just to see what it was like. I read where Capps and Coleman may be using some of them now when livescoping.

 

[RUGER]

They have the rods now. Tenkara fishing. I think I have seen some listed as 40 ft or maybe longer. Weigh only a few ounces. Amazon has some of them and I almost ordered one just to see what it was like. I read where Capps and Coleman may be using some of them now when livescoping.

Yep, need more STUFF !

 

[woodyard]

Yep, need more STUFF !

Wife has asked me several times lately if I need a bigger boat. Lol

 

[TheLBLman]

They have the rods now. Tenkara fishing. I think I have seen some listed as 40 ft or maybe longer.

A 40-ft rod just doesn't seem very "practical".
I guess on strictly very open water, could work.

But picture Ruger brim fishing on Reelfoot from a 15-ft boat
trying to figure out what to do with his 40-ft rod,
surrounded by lily pads taller than his boat,
and Cypress tree limbs overhead.

Even on open water, imagine two guys in a boat,
even one of them with a 40-ft rod.