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Yes. Hands down. I got it because I don't get to fish a lot and I didn't want to be wasting time throwing lures at water trying to locate fish. Now I can look and see fish before I waste time throwing lures at them only to discover they still don't cooperate....... lol
But yes. I think it adds a dimension to time on the water that I enjoy, the challenge of tweaking it to get good imaging, getting to see more of what's under the water or in the water column, etc. I have only had a couple instances of seeing a fish nail my lure on it, but that really isn't what I got it for. I got it to make the time I have more productive, and it has done that.
I saw a recent YouTube video where a pro was kind of complaining that fishing wasn't as much about "fishing" as it used to be, and now the focus was all on catching and that's what these newfangled fancy electronic fish whackers are for, people who just want to catch fish, not fish for them.
Yes sir, he's kinda catching on now. In this busy world where so man of us work 10 plus hours a day, six days a week, when we do get that time off we like to not spend it driving our boats around all day just doing trial and error. If I had all the time in the world, traditional trial and error, spending hours on the water just figuring it all out with no fish catching gizmos would be fine. But when I only get 6 hours or less to hit the water on an average week, I do like to catch fish, not just go prospecting for them.
Its not necessary if you have all the time in the world to just cruise around the lake and find locate fish the good old fashioned way, etc by searching with baits, but for those of us who dont have that luxury, it really helps. A lot.
Last edited by Toni; 06-23-2022 at 10:54 PM.
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I had an opportunity to fish with livescope for the first time last week. My friend has one on his boat and we went to his home lake for some walleye fishing. We went to a break in about 17 feet of water, put the trolling motor down, spotlocked, put the livescope down and right away found a school of fish about 45 feet out of the NW corner of the boat. A few casts later with a jig and game on. We just kept slipping with the spotlock and kept finding small schools of walleyes. We caught about 15 walleyes in a little over two hours, released most but the catch rate was about way higher than I have had on this lake with my traditional methods and sonar. I will have to see if it delivers that same results on my home lake but I think if I'm open to changing my methods it will.
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Yes, seeing fish interested in your bait, even under the boat. When typically I have thought a cast was done and would have reeled up, I'm catching fish now. Last weekend I was throwing a 3/8 jig I followed it from 45ft out back to boat in 12fow. I caught 5 fish within 6 ft of the boat that had followed my bait back. 1 fish I lifted my jig off the bottom under the trolling motor and held it there. 2lber crushed it.
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My favorite thing about LiveScope is finding crappie on isolated pieces of cover that I would have never have found without it. I've caught some nice fish on a small stump or single limb found by trolling from waypoint to waypoint.
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I'd like to think so. Going off of tournament results alone from the small club I fish we'll look at our top 3 finishes from March-June since 2017....
2017 1 (3rd place)
2018 1 (1st place)
2019 0
2020 0
2021 0
(ouch)
*livescope*
2022 5 (2 1st place, 3 2nd place)
I won't say it's all because of livescope as there are many variables and countless fish we've caught that I didn't directly see on the unit. That being said it has helped me better understand how fish are setting up and how to catch them. On top of the decent results, we've also caught our biggest bag to date (32.85), and my PB of 9.85. Add a heavy dose of luck in there and here we are. I'm a big fan of the scope.
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