LiveScope Stopped by Pine Pollen

Had a crappie tournament on Falls Lake, NC yesterday and had the most perplexing day since installing the LiveScope. Midweek in central NC saw a huge pine pollen release. Everything had turned yellow, including the surface of the water. Turned on the LiveScope yesterday morning and I could not see anything. Even went within ten feet of a tree in the water and it was distorted. Twice I reset the factory default and still no luck. Checked my connections and nothing worked.

Ended up going shallow in some 2 foot water to see if any late spawners. Turned the LiveScope to perspective and did see plenty of fish in the area. Most were males, but we did catch fish. Got back to the weigh-in and found out everyone that has a LiveScope had the same problem that we did. I did not realize that the pollen was up and down the entire water column.

Moral of the story is this--if you are in an area with heavy pine pollen like we have down South, it can and will disrupt your LiveScope fishing. I thought the problem was my settings or even an electrical issue, but it was just way too much pollen at one time. Hopefully the lake will be back to normal by this coming Saturday.

Have any of you guys ever had this happen?

Have not experienced that particular event (yet), but I have had my DI unit screen become nearly useless from mass plankton blooms. :Doh:

It affects the mega 360 especially the water column, when the water is full of pollen. I can somewhat adjust the pic to get rid of some of the pollen issues.

Yep. I've had PLS over 2 years (2 springs here in GA), and pollen definitely degrades the picture. I run noise reduction on high, no or low TVG. and crank up the gain. Sometimes I can see my 1/32-1/24 jig, but it can be tough. I'm mostly looking for fish, and don't really try to watch my jig too much.

I should have suspected something in the water because the SI was not reaching out as far as normal. Now that you mention 360, we had it on, but it was not seeing as sharp as well.

Heavy pollen in water affects all..SI, DI, and sometimes even 2d.

I know the OP was about pollen effects on LiveScope but ...

Pollen effects on SI or DI can sometimes be mitigated by trying a lower frequency ...

Rickie

Same thing here on Kerr/Buggs Island. I know the pollen is bad but I thought the issue was more algae related. My unit was ok in the morning but once the sunlight hit the water it got bad quick. I could be sitting in 15+ fow and my Livescope depth would read 3 feet. On my HB in places it was blanked out as deep as 20 feet.

I was panicking on the water because our whole strategy for the day was to snipe spawned-out large females with the LiveScope. That plan was thrown out the window. I thought for several hours that it was my fault in the setup. It's just one more thing to learn about using new technology. The successful teams all went back to just plain tightlining and did fairly well.

Pollen in the spring. Algae in the summer heat.

I lived in the pine forests of S.Carolina. That pollin will trash a swimming pool overnight. I can only imagine what it is like on a natural body of water.