Livescope left me feeling nothing

I have been a lifelong ditch pickle fisherman. Fished every tournament I could up until Covid hit and shut em all down. I sold my boat and spent time with the family and worked in the deer woods constantly. Kids wanted to start back fishing so I bought another boat and have the livescope/FFS sonar on it. We decided to strictly white perch fish since we could all do it together. It took me a while to get it figured out but I finally have it down now. I am worried about the future of our fisheries with these FFS units. We are catching fish that would have been pretty much otherwise untouched. I hear a lot of people saying just because you can see them don’t mean you can catch em. That is somewhat true but I’d say it bumps the odds up pretty good when you can sat a jig or shiner on his nose. You can’t tell me that in 10 years the fisheries aren’t going to suffer. No way around it!

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Originally Posted by West Monroe

I have been a lifelong ditch pickle fisherman. Fished every tournament I could up until Covid hit and shut em all down. I sold my boat and spent time with the family and worked in the deer woods constantly. Kids wanted to start back fishing so I bought another boat and have the livescope/FFS sonar on it. We decided to strictly white perch fish since we could all do it together. It took me a while to get it figured out but I finally have it down now. I am worried about the future of our fisheries with these FFS units. We are catching fish that would have been pretty much otherwise untouched. I hear a lot of people saying just because you can see them don’t mean you can catch em. That is somewhat true but I’d say it bumps the odds up pretty good when you can sat a jig or shiner on his nose. You can’t tell me that in 10 years the fisheries aren’t going to suffer. No way around it!

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Very true. I've had ffs for 3 yrs. I caught plenty fish before I got one. Undoubtedly, I catch more now with it, and the bad days now aren't as regular as they were before. Having said that, I don't keep near as many fish as I used to. I hope others are following suit, keep what you need, and release the rest.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

I agree with 20Watt. I really just started crappie fishing two years ago. Bass fished 60+ years. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s nearly impossible! The Livescope is a fantastic learning tool. I totally understand the feelings of those who have worked their whole lives to learn crappie fishing. That said, there is so much said about fishing that is totally false. Mostly from people who catch fish but don’t at all understand why they caught them. So the learning where the fish go, and what they prefer is quicker and more accurate. So the learning curve is quicker and more accurate.
Some days it seems too easy, and some days it still seems almost impossible.
To me, the best part is having at least a feeling that I understand some of what is going on!
I don’t enjoy cleaning fish, so I keep a few, sometimes, but never a lot. We do have limits, to protect the population.
Leave some for seed!!

You could have caught them just as good without live scope if you had found them with 2 D ,down image, or side image !
I’ll guarantee you it will not be like that every trip ! As said already it’s a great tool , it’s here to stay if you don’t like it don’t use it
I wasn’t going to buy it but I upgraded boats 2yrs ago and it was there and I was glad it was! I do not use it every trip but it’s nice having it for when I want to. as far as it ruining the fish population I doubt it those that abuse the resources we’re already doing that prior to live scope .everybody that uses it doesn’t always catch limits and most that do could already do it prior to live scope! I have caught hundreds of crappie many a day prior to me having live scope by just being in the right places at the right time no electronics just casting jigs also I have caught hundreds of a crappie a day long lining. So to me use what ever method you want as long as it’s legal keep what you need and release the rest . :twocents