Never been so dissapointed(so far)

[dricha21]

Got my livescope and 2 new echomap 93sv. .Been out about 10 times. I have found it extremely difficult to get a good picture consistently to see my lure and fish. Fish I can see usually but lure rarely. Today I was able to find my lure clearly for the first time just below the transducer. i have spent hours messing with the settings trying to get a good picture. My best deal is to start with factory defaults and then trying to improve from there. eventually I am back to factory settings. Watched so many youtube vids that I am suspecting an issue with my equipment. It looks so easy on YT. I have tried swapping 93sv's but still no help. Also when I pull up fishing charts I can barely see the contour lines. Is there anyway to adjust something to see the lines better? There are so many screens to get thru to get to the settings to change the live scope. Why dont they have a page with your most used settings on one page for livescope? I hope today was a breakthru for settings for me as I am ready to chuck this crap in the lake. VERY frustrated and majorly disappointed. Me and my buddy both got livescope at the same time. He hasnt got his boat out of storage yet but I cant wait to see his reaction to his units. Right now I would never recommend anyone to buy one of these things.

[Spot-a-saurus]

I had the same frustration at first but after some time spent with the unit it gets much easier to find your lure. I like the fact I can see that I’m around fish instantly just as much as like being able to throw a bait at an individual one. Keeping the lure in the beam angle is definitely a learned skill in my experience.

[grout-scout]

Best thing I have ever bought fishing related.

[Fishysam]

It's a skinny beam, takes a lot of practice to aim it at your lure.

[troutspinner]

Start with factory default settings and find a tree or structure that you can easily and quickly become familiar with. Throw in your offering and get familiar with what you are seeing. Then, adjust your transducer. Not your settings, your transducer.

Make sure the top of it is parallel with the top of the water and consider your boat lean as well. As a cheat, aim your transducer a couple degrees upward and see if your results are better. If not, try down, just get a better feel for where the sweet spot is. IMO, transducer placement is WAY more important than settings. Also be sure to change your transducer depth offset, you’ll see how that changes the view angle from side to under boat. When the transducer is placed correctly, the settings actually respond as expected and you’ll find it much more composed.

[LWINCHESTER2]

Dead on. I see a lot of people who take such care to make sure the transducer is mounted correctly, relative to the trolling motor shaft but totally ignore that their trolling motor is leaning back 15-20 degrees. It does take some time and practice to see your lure, but if your transducer and trolling motor is mounted properly you will see the splash of a top water lure.
Here is some more info:
http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread....1#post11787695

[PMantle]

Make sure it's not pointing backwards lol. Mine was installed starboard by my boat guy and it took me going to a sloped bank to see it was shooting under the boat.

[Greenwing1]

Post some pictures of your installation and screen shots of what you're seeing. There's plenty of guys on here that can help you figure things out. Have you tried setting your forward range to 35-40 to try and see your bait? Have you tried setting the depth within 5ft of the bottom?

[TroyBoy30]

that's why i still prefer the original panoptix

[dricha21]

This is my best setup. Gain in hi 60's to low 70's. color gain 100 in amber color. Tvg off, noise reject hi. Range from 15 to 40 ft out. Focus 183, if I don't use this I have no chance of seeing bait. Anything within the ghost tree has to be substantial to see it. I just updated the units a couple days ago. Why do some people have ghost tree and some don't. If I turn up ghost tree reject it seems to dull returns (not positive on this one) although I may make it less visible it seems to still block my returns in this zone where the tree used to be visible. (not positive on that statement) Why doesn't garmin fix this? I am hoping it is just my inexperience and it just takes time to learn it. Didn't think it was gonna be this difficult. I have pulled up to a bridge pier and made casts to it so i know my bait was in the beam but still can't see it. Really nice today with temps in low 60's but sustained 20 mph winds so it will probably be a few days before I can post pics as it is turning colder for a few days.

[CowboyRulz]

Gain in hi 60's to low 70's. color gain 100 in amber color. Tvg off, noise reject hi. Range from 15 to 40 ft out. Focus 183, if I don't use this I have no chance of seeing bait.

I've never taken my color gain to above 80...gain is usually in the 70s. I'm not sure what the focus setting is?? You may be casting beyond your range. It is surprising to me how close 50' is from my boat. Start easy...get an AL rig and start seeing where you are casting relative to where you think you are casting. Give yourself time to learn this stuff. As soon as you watch a fish attack your bait you'll be feeling a whole lot better. My LVS32 is on a pole because I didn't want to have to deal with the TM mount. I can scan 360 degrees while spot-locked and absolutely love doing just that! I can also play with the pole angle on the fly.
I want to be able to point my LS like I'm playing laser tag...can you imagine having to aim using a TM foot control? I shoot from the hip, brother!!!

[PMantle]

I want to be able to point my LS like I'm playing laser tag...can you imagine having to aim using a TM foot control? I shoot from the hip, brother!!!

I love it.

[dricha21]

My livescope is mounted to a low pro rod rack mount which mounts parallel to my trolling motor shaft. I am having trouble seeing my tube very close to the boat consistently let alone 40 ft out. dealing with the ghost tree doesn't help either trying to see a lure thru that image. I will keep trying till I get it or sell it. There comes a point when the agrevation just isn't worth it. If anyone on here has the livescope and lives in the Alpena Michigan area I would appreciate some assistance. just shoot me a PM.

[Fishysam]

I've never taken my color gain to above 80...gain is usually in the 70s. I'm not sure what the focus setting is?? You may be casting beyond your range. It is surprising to me how close 50' is from my boat. Start easy...get an AL rig and start seeing where you are casting relative to where you think you are casting. Give yourself time to learn this stuff. As soon as you watch a fish attack your bait you'll be feeling a whole lot better. My LVS32 is on a pole because I didn't want to have to deal with the TM mount. I can scan 360 degrees while spot-locked and absolutely love doing just that! I can also play with the pole angle on the fly.
I want to be able to point my LS like I'm playing laser tag...can you imagine having to aim using a TM foot control? I shoot from the hip, brother!!!

Focus should be on auto fresh, it has to do with water density and composition as sound travels at DI speeds between fresh and salt and cold and hot water. Go on a big clear flat and take focus to the extremes and you will see the stitching/splices won't match up.

I have no issue pointing my trolling motor at fish or structure and landing my lure on it or behind it. That's easy for me vs casting and looking for the lure.

[bassman6805]

How do you change the angle only a few degrees? I took mine out for the first time yesterday and it was ok I think. Like the other post, mine was shooting behind the boat. Figured that out. I could see my bait very well straight down. When I was throwing a swim bait I could just barely notice some lines when far out but the closer it got the better the detail. Another question, which color pallette do you prefer. I started on amber but had trouble seeing so I switched to the blue and was able to pick up detail better.

[troutspinner]

How do you change the angle only a few degrees? I took mine out for the first time yesterday and it was ok I think. Like the other post, mine was shooting behind the boat. Figured that out. I could see my bait very well straight down. When I was throwing a swim bait I could just barely notice some lines when far out but the closer it got the better the detail. Another question, which color pallette do you prefer. I started on amber but had trouble seeing so I switched to the blue and was able to pick up detail better.

I guess it depends on how you have it mounted. For me, I use a fishing specialties pole and use the transom mount that came with the transducer so tilting it is very easy.

[vandamit]

what did you do to change that? When i tried mine the cone on the little boat icon was pointing backwards. I finally got pissed and gave up. I guess I need to recalibrate the compass again.

[CowboyRulz]

I built the PVC pole on SouthernReelsFishing and it's secured to the boat with a RAM mount. Lots of play with the angle and I've got my hand resting on the cap for quick adjustments. I did notice that it wanted to lean back if I started trolling too fast so I added a little L-bracket to my boat's rope bumper strip and now it can't lean too far. SRF also made an adapter mount for both perspective/FWD view in one which also keeps the ability to use Downview. One could just do a slight tilt on the Downview axis to be sure they are not looking behind the boat. For me, it's never been an issue.
You give up the convenience of just deploying LS with your TM but being able to use LS and spot-lock at the same time is a game changer.

[LWINCHESTER2]

How do you change the angle only a few degrees?.....

What I did to experiment with some different angles was to add a thin plastic washer between where the notches interlock.

[dricha21]

Made it out today in the snow flurries. It worked surprisingly well today for the first time for me. I could see my tube out to 45 ft. I don't know the remedy. Maybe just getting used to the adjustments I guess. I even got to see fish come up to my tube and the rookie in me was setting the hook when the two returns came together instead of waiting for a bite. I guess i will keep it. I just need to get better with it for sure. Couldn't find many fish today with it. I fished a small body of water that was protected from the wind. It was a learning day with livescope and i wasn't expecting much with hi temp in the 60s yesterday and today in the mid 30s. ghost tree still very annoying. I read on here to go to an older update to try but I do not have a clue where to find an older update. Any ideas?