Biologists Research LiveScopes

Can LiveScopes (or other live-imaging sonar brands) actually harm crappie populations? That's been a subject of much discussion and some controversy since the technology came out.
Now, i In an effort to answer questions raised by many anglers, Kansas biologists developed a unique research project to measure the potential impacts of live-imaging sonar on crappie populations - to my knowledge it's the very first effort at scientific research on the technology. Read the results of this first-of-its-kind research on CrappieNOW: Live-Imaging Sonar Research - Crappie Now and share your opinion on the matter.

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Not sure about the livescope but the 27 rods in front of him need a study also!

I read the article with the findings. I'm not buying into it, though. I'll tell you all this.......I don't own a livescope, but some of my friends & cousins do. I have been with them in their boats when they saw the fish and we casted to them at that one certain spot where they were and BAM....in the live well they go. Without the electronics, those fish would have eluded us.

Just yesterday, as a matter of fact, my cousin and friend went to a lake in Arkansas, where we live, and the two of them kept 47 big fish, mostly females.......following the schools of shad & casting to them and picking them off. They said there were NO fish on our condos & brush piles, so they went hunting for them & found them out in open 30 fow. A few years back, those 47 fish would still be out there swimming today. Nothing wrong with keeping fish, though. Don't get me wrong. Just a 100% fact that those fish would not have been found and caught by the same two men years ago before the livescope technology.

I'm not knocking the livescope and the technology that it brings into the equation of fishing. There are some, though, who will use it and limit out day after day, and that hurts the fish population, in my opinion. I know of one fellow who gives fish away to just about everyone he knows. Nothing wrong with doing good deeds for people. I've done it too, ya know, share the wealth of a great trip.......but catching 30 and giving them away today so you can go again and do the same tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day.......something about it just don't seem alright. How about turning some loose every now and then?

My friend P.R. went one day this week and every other angler he saw was out there looking straight down at their screens instead of sitting upright with their heads up. We're gonna end up with carpal tunnel of the neck.........crappal tunnel is what they'll call it.

P.R. spoke with an Arkansas Game & Fish Biologist not too long ago and the biologist told him that livescopes would be just like every other new thing that comes along.....fish figure it out and get wise to it. I'm no genius and I don't have an Animal Science & Biology degree, but how are the fish gonna figure it out? How are they gonna know they're being spied on? It's too late if they figure it out after they're in somebody's live well.

Just my 2 cents on it. I think the daily limit should be fewer fish if you have livescope technology on your boat. GTT

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Originally Posted by GoTennTitans

My friend P.R. went one day this week and every other angler he saw was out there looking straight down at their screens instead of sitting upright with their heads up.

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Interesting you mention this. That is the EXACT reason I recently sold my LiveScope. Wrote about it here: Opening Cast, March 2022 - Crappie Now

not really for it or against it, but in the hands of unethical fishermen, they could clean the lake out. 47 breeding females all in the livewell, not good for the population

everyone I see using it is looking straight down all day..to each his own

I don't own a Live Scope....probably won't due to the way I fish. But I have learned to not use the word "never". The problem of unethical fisherman has nothing to do with Live Scope or any other sonar unit. Folks don't suddenly become unethical because they bought a sonar unit. My son and I boated 150 legal crappie yesterday...did not keep a one. Had we wanted to we could have kept 60 crappie to take home. If we were unethical people we could have taken home 150. Funny this post came up today. I was thinking about 2 boats I ran into while loading yesterday. They both had Live Scope.....one caught 2 crappie and the other a big skunk. The boat that had the skunk made a stop at one of the cribs we had been fishing all day. In about a 1/2 mile stretch there were 5 crappie cribs. We would flsh one until the bite slowed then move to the next....we did this for 6 solid hours. We were on one crib watching the Live Scope boat fish it and they caught zero. When they pulled off we moved back over to it and pulled several crappie out of it. I have no clue why they struck out...maybe they really did not have experience with the LS...maybe they did not use the right color or type of lure...who knows. Yet a gentleman I know who fished the day before used his Live Scope to limit out and head for home in about 2 hours. Just too many variables as to why some folks catch and others don't. I would be more worried about the unethical fisherman depleting the crappie than I would Live Scope.

Regards

I think live scope don't hurt the fishing PEOPLE do. Just because they catch them don't mean they have to keep every single one. I have had a live scope for 3+ years and I keep the same amount every year. I keep 25 or 30 a year. I caught thousands every year before live scope and I still catch thousands every year with live scope. How many more fish do people catch after side imaging? Nobody ever did a study on that I don't think. How many more fish did people catch when a depth finder first come out? How many more fish did people catch after the rod and reel came out? I think there is no difference in any of these things. It is all about PEOPLE keeping every fish they catch than it is the electronics they use...Just my thoughts on it....

Most of the folks I know that use Live scope no longer keep fish.

Other than the high price of LS keeping a lot of people from owning it. It's going to be up to lake fishing limits and game wardens doing there jobs to protect the fish population. What I see hurting crappie and other fish using sonar is hardly no one is putting fish habitat out anymore they just look for what they can find. Fish habitat "build it and they will come" :twocents

If it hurts or is hurting the population change the limits, that's what limits are for!

No different than spider rigging. I don't do it, never have and never will (yes I used never and intended to). It's just not my thing but I guess it didn't hurt anything people are still doing it and it don't bother me a bit.

Interesting read and opinions. Thanks.
Bob