[manuka]

It's getting banned in bass tournaments because they use forward facing sonar. For the life of me, I can't understand why that isn't the standard practice here in the PNW? I have a Garmin Livescope sitting in my garage waiting to be installed. I'll be installing it facing FORWARD because it makes no sense to me why I'd want to watch fish I've already driven by?

Can someone help me understand? I've ask multiple guys who have these about this and every one of them says "Oh man, it's so cool to watch the fish hit your gear".....why? I mean, if I'm dropping $5000 on a livescope unit, I want it to noticeably improve my catch rate. Rear facing sonar doesn't seem to do that.

I have seen the back bouncers use it effectively, but they use it as "forward facing"....since they are back bouncing. They pull up to a hole, scan it, if no fish then they move on. When they find one with fish they drop the gear to em. Seems like this will work with trolling as well, but it'll need to be mounted facing forward, so that's what I'm planning to do.

I recently went with a guide, to learn a fishery that was new to me. He had a Livescope. We were pulling skateboards and he had the livescope looking backwards, fishing for kings.

When he got a fish following the bait, he would vary speed. He also had the guy with the line being followed let out some line to put the bait right in front of the fish. He induced several bites with these techniques.

It was pretty amazing. He would sometimes call bites before the rod went down, which just blew my mind.

The fishery was crowded that day, and we came in with a much bigger load of fish than most.

He made a believer out of me. I came home and ordered a Livescope. Hope to have it on the boat for the fall season on the Reach, which is imminent.

 

[ET]

I just started using it. Extremely powerful in seeing fish that don’t show up on traditional fish finders. Fishing in 20-30’ of water, we could see fish sliding by the side of the boat. It gave us confidence to keep working an area that other fishermen abandoned. When the bite turned on, we were all alone. And seeing the fish come in, sniff and peel off, or come in and hammer it, is a hoot. Reminded me of top water bass fishing in lily pads…”here he comes”

 

[GreshamFisher]

I've only had my livescope for about a month and probably only been on the water less than 10 times with it. So far I'm loving it for knowing exactly what depth my gear is trolling at. Now, instead of dropping my gear and feeling for the bottom I drop the gear and stare at my LS and watch it go down to the depth I want it at. I'll also adjust depth as I see fish.

Another thing I like is validating fish marks. Sometimes there are so many marks on the 2D screen that I've found myself questioning if any of them are actually fish or just grass. With the LS I can better understand which are fish (big or small) or which are nothing-burgers.

Last night I was tired of getting skunked on salmon so I pulled out the bass rods and used the LS for targeting smallmouth. Again, I'm new to it, so I didn't have supreme confidence that what I was seeing on the screen were fish or not, but seeing what I thought were fish convinced me to stay in the area and keep working on my presentation. Sure 'nuff they were smallies and we did well on them. It was nice to feel a fish on the line!

My opinion, I don't think Livescope will make a big impact on salmon fishing. I think I'd still fish my gear in the same place, just get it there differently. Seeing a fish bury its nose in my baits is cool, and I like knowing that at least I got a sniff. Personally I prefer that over dragging all day and having no idea if the marks were fish or if any of them even showed interest.

Is it worth the money? I mean, come on, we're fishermen. This is hobby that is as cheap or expensive as we want it to be. Nobody complains about the guys buying a $300k boat or a bank fisherman plunking. To each their own and whatever you want to invest in your hobby is your business.

 

[Tenderoni77]

So the vibe I’m getting from those who have it is it’s a great addition to the arsenal but not a complete game changer?

 

[Newport]

I’m new to Livescope and I think there’s a lot of misconceptions about it. I spent four days messing around with it this past weekend and didn’t see one fish I could positively identify as a bass (species I was targeting). I did see some crappie and caught a few, but it’s far from a matter of just dropping your transducer in the water and getting fish to bite.

I also don’t think people realize just how narrow the beam is. 20% is what you get if your transducer and everything else is all properly aligned. I think the biggest benefit for me once I figure it out will be seeing cover and edges of grass lines.

 

[BillsFishingHole]

@the_admeral

You wanted pictures so I took a couple today

the pole is a bit flimsy for my liking. I have it set to where it will snap into Scotty rod holder brackets.

the unit is in a Summit shuttle it houses the battery the box and the fish finder.

the battery in the shuttle is a 35 amp
Amped battery

soon I’m going to get the release mount makes to hold down the shuttle to the boat. It is a Buick release the will be mounted to my center console and a Johnny Ray so that it will swivel.

 

[pearl]

I don’t have it in my boat but did learn something about live scope and how fish react on the lower Columbia this morning while in a buddy’s boat.
We were pulling spinners down on the deck when he saw a fish come in and follow the gear. Once he saw it he gassed the boat and the spinner rose about 5’ in the water column. Fish turned and then and left. He then let off the gas and the spinner dropped back down. As soon as that spinner dropped a 30 pounder whacked it.
Learned something about how salmon react to a trolled lure.

 

[BillsFishingHole]

I don’t have it in my boat but did learn something about live scope and how fish react on the lower Columbia this morning while in a buddy’s boat.
We were pulling spinners down on the deck when he saw a fish come in and follow the gear. Once he saw it he gassed the boat and the spinner rose about 5’ in the water column. Fish turned and then and left. He then let off the gas and the spinner dropped back down. As soon as that spinner dropped a 30 pounder whacked it.
Learned something about how salmon react to a trolled lure.

was that what he thought would happen , or did he think the fish was gonna grab it on the burst of speed and rising?

 

[pearl]

was that what he thought would happen , or did he think the fish was gonna grab it on the burst of speed and rising?

My thought was the fish would strike if the bait was getting away. I’m hind sight I would say it struck a bait that was wounded?
But what do I know? I just fish for stinky salmon 🤣

 

[2slow]

was that what he thought would happen , or did he think the fish was gonna grab it on the burst of speed and rising?

I'm the buddy who was fishing with Pearl this morning. I was just trying to trigger a bite. Sometimes if you gas the boat they trigger and eat it. Sometimes, like this fish they eat it on the drop. How many times have you had a drive by and when you see it, immediately strip line and have the fish hook up. Many species of fish take a bait on the drop. Twitching, jigging, pausing a plug? The advantage of the livescope is that you can change the action of the bait in some way at an opportune moment to trigger a bite. Does it work every time? No. But it works often enough to make it worthwhile when you have a fish interested in your bait. Without the livescope you don't know the fish is there and interested. So, it probably increases the number of fish I catch. Not by large numbers but by some. Who knows if those fish would have hit or not if you did nothing? There is no need to stare at a livescope screen to the detriment of paying attention to what is going on around you. A quick glance at the screen will let you know what's going on. No need to stare. 6 months after buying my livescope I described it as a waste of money. As my learning curve has advanced, I am progressively happy with it.

All that being said, it's a toy, a luxury, you can catch plenty of fish without it.

 

[BillsFishingHole]

@2slow @pearl
😲 a 30lbs. That’s a lot of stink.

seriously nice fish guys👍🏻

2slow. Thanks for the replay. The guys that have them and use/learn them, I think are going to learn a lot about the fishes behaviors. Like you trying something to get the bite. Do that enough and patterns start to emerge and it will become
Instinctive as to what can be done to intice the strike from the look-e-lew fish. Or time to change presentation all together. It’s gonna help the skilled get more skilled.

good guides/fishermen that are on the water day after day and decide to use them are just going to get better and better at catching fish.

There is no substitution for time on the water

M

 

[slackline]

There BS. If you can't catch fish without one maybe, you should basket weaving!!!!

 

[Steelhead1959]

In my buddies boat it's been a game changer for us, mainly knowing exactly where you flasher and lure are running based on current and depth at any point of the tide. Last weekend the fish were in the dirt, 80 feet on the line counter fished the bottom in 45 feet of water on the outgoing tide, we whacked em. Also we could see how the fish responded to a certain color or scent.

 

[Snopro]

Interesting, B.A.S.S. has banned FFS use for half it's 2026 events.

 

[fishbadger]

I've learned a lot about salmon behavior with LS (ocean and bay use, trolling with DR'S and jigging). It makes me more productive and fishing gets (even) more fun with it. I use it more than any other transducer or device on my boat, excluding motors and rods/terminal. It will make a good fisherman better, but probably won't help a lousy fisherman much,
fb

 

[BillsFishingHole]

@Snopro

Do you know who was pushing for that. Must have been some of the Pros? I wouldn’t think its the sponsors. Might be the fans but I doubt that they could make enough noise to change that.

M

 

[BillsFishingHole]

It will make a good fisherman better, but probably won't help a lousy fisherman much,
fb

Dam, I was hoping😑

M

 

[pearl]

There BS. If you can't catch fish without one maybe, you should basket weaving!!!!

Your advice is noted. Would you look down on me if I used YouTube to teach me how to basket weave? I currently can’t do it without an aid.
Reading through this thread I don’t see any mention that anyone needs live scope to catch a fish but do see that anglers use it as a tool to benefit their fishing experience.

Interesting, B.A.S.S. has banned FFS use for half it's 2026 events.

I chalk this up to fishing for money vs. fishing for the dinner plate.

 

[ccw]

I’d love to have 2 - one facing forward and one rearward.

There are other big ticket items I need to add to my boat first, (autopilot for kicker) and I’m just happy/lucky to be able to throw $150 at the tank repeatedly in the fall so I’ll likely never have one.

 

[eyeFISH]

Getting to see all the salmon that follow and refuse your gear isn't as big of an advantage as it may seem

The number one reason I refuse to buy into the hype. As a somewhat bitter divorcee, I'm not quite sure I could stomach that kind rejection all over again.