LiveScope review

[Sluggo]

Great info. I have questions:
1. Do you feel confident you can tell which direction fish are traveling?
2. Has anyone thought fish were scared by it?
3. How many feet away from you can you confidently see fish?

 

[Allen]

Great info. I have questions:
1. Do you feel confident you can tell which direction fish are traveling?
2. Has anyone thought fish were scared by it?
3. How many feet away from you can you confidently see fish?

1. Yes, you can figure out the direction the fish are traveling. For example, in the house I can see all four lines on the LS in the down perspective. It won't take but a few seconds to figure out if they are coming from the left or right of the lines. As they leave, you can put it into forward facing and watch them swim away. We had numerous schools of perch come through and it was really fun to do just that.

2. Not that I've noticed, but we are always worried about something spooking the fish. In reality, jigging the bait in the fish's face ran them away several times, so you can see how aggressively to jig pretty easily.

3. I'm sure my limits will expand as I am new to this, but I could very handily pick out fish from 15+ feet off to the side. My buddy was fishing about 40 ft away, and even when I knew he had fish under them I couldn't see them the couple times I tried to look. I am sure I have some tweaking in the head unit's settings to do that will improve things. I used it out scouting for a while and thought I saw fish at 30, or so feet out from me. But it could just have been trees as I was scouting an underwater forest and only in 5-7 ft of water. In the 21-22 ft of water we ended up fishing in with a pretty smooth bottom, there was no mistaking them as they approached both hugging the bottom and when well up off the bottom out to at least 15 ft off to the side.

Even with just a little practice, it was really easy to discern size of the incoming fish. I quickly got to the point where I could/would pull my bait out of the way of smaller perch, and this allowed me to target the bigger fish in a given school. The one walleye (21-22 inches) I caught, was easily 5X the return signal of a 10 inch perch.

 

[buckhunter24_7]

Great info. I have questions:
1. Do you feel confident you can tell which direction fish are traveling?
2. Has anyone thought fish were scared by it?
3. How many feet away from you can you confidently see fish?

1- yes you can tell what way the fish are moving. Can almost always tell what kind of fish they are also.
2- I’ve never noticed that it bothers the fish

3- lots of variables but figure 60ft with the lvs34
I’ve seen fish well over 100 feet before. I have had problems picking up fish on certain bottoms when they are tight on the bottom

 

[shorthairsrus]

My goal is to be DC straight from the boat ramp. Put 3 busch lites in me and i will sound like Connell

Battery - i would like to get one i can use in the boat and use ice. So 30 amp min?

 

[CatDaddy]

Great info. I have questions:
1. Do you feel confident you can tell which direction fish are traveling?
2. Has anyone thought fish were scared by it?
3. How many feet away from you can you confidently see fish?

I've been running my LVS34 for 2 years now, both open water and ice.

1. Yes, you can absolutely tell which way fish are moving
2. I can confidently say there are times they skirt the beam, specifically on forward mode pointed right at them.
A. Last weekend I watched a school of crappie come straight at me from 50 feet
away. They got to 20 feet away and I watched them swim around me, staying
20 feet out, until they got past me. They then continued on the same line as what
they were on before the skirted me.
B. A friend was on Winnipeg recently and said his friends without Livescope
outfished him noticeably, especially bigger fish. He'd see them come in and stop
20 feet out, never coming in. The last day he experimented and didn't use LS,
caught more and his biggest than his days with Livescope.
C. Another friend of mine was talking with a guide in MN on a trip he recently took.
Allegedly they "herd" panfish to clients by using multiple livescopes away from
where the clients are fishing and they push the fish to them. Said they aren't the
only guide doing it and it's upped their catch so much that they can actually turn
more clients per day because of it.
3. With the LVS34 model I can see fish confidently at 150 feet, tougher but possible out to 200 feet as long as there aren't major humps or dropoffs - this is in 30 feet of water. Distances go down the shallower you get as Allen mentioned.

 

[CatDaddy]

Livescope beam explained. The second one was especially helpful to visualize and understand limitations with what you're looking at.

 

[Allen]

My goal is to be DC straight from the boat ramp. Put 3 busch lites in me and i will sound like Connell

Battery - i would like to get one i can use in the boat and use ice. So 30 amp min?

Yes. There's a nifty little chart of battery size in amp-hours with an estimated runtime for the various electronics. The 10 inch Echomap with a 30 AH (Amped Outdoors version) is expected to run it for 10 hours. Not even I average more than 10 hours on the water to catch (or, sometimes not catch) my limit.

 

[CatDaddy]

Just a quick update. I am not always the swiftest when it comes to jumping to new tech, but Livescope is the bomb.

As you may recall, I bought the Black Friday Scheels offering of a 10 inch screened Garmin Echomap with the LVS-34 transducer. Wanting to make sure I went the right direction the first time, it took me a little while to select the HD Innovations carbon fiber ice-fishing pole to mount the transducer on, and I went with the FishArmor Pro Extreme shuttle. A couple of notes, while I like the HD pole, it comes with zero instructions. WTF? So, you will find yourself searching for videos on how to mount the transducer. Horseshit customer service, IMHO.

The FishArmor shuttle is good, but it also comes with pitfalls. 1. The battery storage area is limited in size to about the 30 AH Amped Outdoors battery (at least, it seems designed around it). I originally bought a larger 50 AH battery from a different manufacturer and it didn't fit well because it rested against one of the toggle switches, so I ended up picking up the Amped Outdoors 30 AH battery. 2. The FishArmor shuttle, while overall pretty nice, is NOT setup nice to recharge the battery. If you were planning on hooking up a charger after every fishing outing, it will annoy you to learn that you will need a 1/8 inch Allen wrench to remove the back panel to hook up the charger.

I eventually modified the shuttle to hold an Amped Outdoors battery charger on the exterior of the shuttle to avoid having to remove the back panel on each outing. That too was a problem in that the Amped Outdoors charger has an indicator light for battery voltage, so I also had to add a toggle switch to control the circuit so the damn charger doesn't drain the battery when storing the unit.

Also, the FishArmor shuttle's manufacturer sells accessories to enhance your fishing experience. I bought the top mounted pole holder, it seems OK...but makes the setup kind of wide with the pole laying sideways, but the other mount with a vertical holder and transducer protecting box would make it really tall. Oh well, choose your poison, I guess. Their accessory LED lights are great though, although it wouldn't take a genius to find lights for less.

I should have (and probably will) added the rod holders to the shuttle. I think it would be nice in the house, and on the ice when hole jumping.

So, here's the rough total damage for the setup I have"

Advertised 10" LiveScope with LVS-34 transducer ~ $2,600 and change including tax.
FishArmor shuttle with pole holder and LED light accessories ~ $450
HD Pole ~ $150 plus tax from Scheels
30 AH Amped Outdoors battery plus charger ~ $260 including tax (again from Scheels)
Toggle switch to separate charger from battery ~ $30.50 from Mac's in Bis (including velcro straps, etc)

In the end, I am far more invested in LiveScope than I anticipated, but the son and I really enjoyed the hell out of it the other day as we watched the fish come in on a small pothole lake. Good times!

I am thinking it will probably cost me at least $500 to get a pole and mounting system that will let me use the LiveScope on my boat and pontoon for the upcoming open water season.

Congrats Allen!

I have a Summit pole - there are better out there but I have it now and it works. I use it for summer and winter, just have to remove the "tripod" portion that keeps it from going down the hole. I added an longer handle for in the boat and it's been nice on ice too.

My mount in my boat is cheap but it works great. I wanted stability for when moving (trolling speed) and found a DIY'er that used a bench mount for working on bikes. It revolutionized my boat experience and was cheap. I put a sleeve around the pole that the clamp could grab yet allow the pole to rotate still. Makes it so easy to pull in and out of water and really stable when moving. If looking to do it on a budget I'd suggest trying this and going from there.

Amazon product

 

[Sluggo]

I've been running my LVS34 for 2 years now, both open water and ice.

Wow to your #2. Very interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Allen]

The fish armor pro extreme shuttle is, in my opinion, the best shuttle available for an all in one livescope. I ended up using the vertical pole/transducer storage on mine and while it is bulky it seems the most secure and protected option I have seen. I went with a 32ah norsk battery and still had a fair amount of room to go with a larger battery if I need to in the future.

For charging I figured out what size barrel connector my charger had and Amazon'ed a thru mount connector the same size and mounted it above the battery on the right side of the shuttle. I'll get pics of it if someone needs visual explanation.

Just went and looked, and saw the charger port you mentioned. I suppose I didn't consider it initially as I had a different battery and charger than an Amped Outdoors combo to start with (I had bought some 50 AH Chinese battery that was too wide). I wish I had remembered the AO charging port, it would have served the same purpose but cost a little less. As is, my charger is velcro'd to the outside of the case with the charging cord run through a grommet I installed. Then I had to install a toggle switch to break the circuit since the Amped Outdoors charger has an indicator light that I don't want to drain the battery between uses. Oh well...my buddy who is considering upgrading to the same shuttle will benefit from this tidbit.

 

[CatDaddy]

I want to build a turret from an old trolling motor for both open water and ice. Pair it with the glasses in the second video and BOOM! Use your flasher to hop holes but Livescope to remotely pan for fish. YIKES - adult video games!

The third video is just ridiculousness.....

If you want some advanced DIY - check this out:

 

[CatDaddy]

Wow to your #2. Very interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing.

All that said, there are more days that I smash fish using Livescope and it doesn't seem to bother them. I'm guessing that there are days they are more sensitive much like they are to changing weather. Would be interesting to see if I can identify the variable that correlates i.e. high pressure, low pressure, sun, etc. I've really only seen this phenomenon on ice - maybe because I'm stationary?

 

[Rowdie]

I've seen the video about glasses accessory before. I sent it to my buddy, but not sure if I posted it on another thread here? I think they would be nice.

 

[CatDaddy]

And if you've got deeper pockets than me, here's a fun attachment to add to your arsenal. I could see this being useful in windy conditions. Second video is a DIY "target lock" that makes sense too....

 

[Kentucky Windage]

I’m glad y’all are figuring out what the rest of us have known for several years now…..losers……

 

[CatDaddy]

I’m glad y’all are figuring out what the rest of us have known for several years now…..losers……

Could be read as "glad y'all are figuring out what the rest of us overpaid for several years ago"....I know you're being sarcastic lol. But I'm glad others are getting to experience and learn from what we've been seeing. It is a GAME CHANGER to understanding the fish world.

 

[CatDaddy]

I've done all the things TJ's Guide Service shows in this video......Worth watching and learning from.

Biggest mistake I made when I first got my Livescope was talking myself into "it's a crappie" but it was actually a school of perch or small sunfish. I'd spend a bunch of time on them until I learned how to figure out what I was looking at and how they behaved. For example, I can now tell just by what I see on the 'scope whether it's a herd of white bass, school of crappies, or perch by the way the school looks or how they react and swarm my bait.

I have also used TJ's technique to either wait them our or more aggressively "chase them back to the hole".....I see them at 50 feet away so I drill a hole at 70 feet away and I chase them back towards the hole I'm fishing. Works 75% of the time. Longest I've chased them back to me was a school that was hanging at 85 feet. As soon as I drilled at 100 ft they moved towards the hole I started in. We ended up catching fish in a nice window when we weren't even marking for an extended time before that.....

 

[shorthairsrus]

. Another friend of mine was talking with a guide in MN on a trip he recently took.
Allegedly they "herd" panfish to clients by using multiple livescopes away from
where the clients are fishing and they push the fish to them. Said they aren't the
only guide doing it and it's upped their catch so much that they can actually turn
more clients per day because of it.

Who hires guides 4 sunnys. Take em take em all

 

[Allen]

I have so much to learn about my new toy....

 

[wslayer]

What other than just the drilling of holes is supposedly the spooking agent associated with livescope? Is it the sonar waves ? I'm still lost on half this stuff.
Did go out to the neighbors house last evening and watched a bit. Was interesting, just pike while I was there..