Thread: Has anybody noticed?

When water is calm my TM will scare off crappie down to about 12' and about 10-15' before I get to them. Tactic i use when calm is to stop 20'+ and cast to them. With some chop they do not seem to be bothered and I can get on top of them. My LS is not spooking them. My water on Lake Conroe is not heavy stained in sections I fish.

One of the lakes I fish Crappie in the spring once Ice out happens they spook easily with a boat as summer goes on and more boats come out they don`t seem to mind. Just walking on the ice will move Crappies as I have noticed using Mega 360 on the ice, then it seems to depend on conditions. it has to be dead quiet under that ice, especially with a good snow cover so any sound can affect them...

IMHO .... there's just too many things that can spook fish to blame it all on TM noise or LS pings. Fish can see, feel, & sense things in their world that can set them off ... even when our boat, TM, shadow, pings, wave slap, or dropped item vibrations aren't even present.

I also think that fish can get accustomed to such noises, and absent other factors don't always react negatively. I've seen people ram a pontoon into a standing tree, big motor running, then tie up to that tree and fling out half a dozen or more bobber/minner rigs and proceed to catch fish. I've seen cases where kids are swimming in front of a private dock, while the adults are fishing around it and catching fish. On more than one occasion I've had the TM & Depth Finder running in <5fow and caught Bass & Crappie within 5ft of the boat. I've trolled for Hybrid Stripers & Crappie, while boats were running in both directions by me, pulling skiers & tubers, just boat riding, or blasting down the lake to the next honey hole ... and caught fish.

Maybe they have been spooking all along, difference now is u can see them

Could just be the climate and the fish. Sunday, I located a brush pile in about 8 feet of water just outside of the marina at the end of a no wake zone right were everyone likes to lay the hammer down and get on plane. I spotlocked and vertically jigged some crappie with my mega live and they did not seem to care. Maybe there just used to getting propwash in there faces. Lucky for me it was early and no one else was coming by at the time.

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I jumped on the Mega Live bandwagon in November and have spent a lot and I mean a lot of time on the water learning about the live view approach to fishing. I’ve caught bigger fish with this addition and love targeting those bigger marks and not chasing numbers.
Here is my .02 and what I’ve noticed since I’ve installed this upgrade.
I can target those schools of 10” fish all day long around brush piles and structure with no issues.
If the fish are deeper than 15’ I can vertical jig right over the top of them and only spook them with TM.
If a large and really good mark is scanned forward of the transducer at the 30-35’ distance, I can cast to them with no spooking.
If a large fish is marked within the 25’ distance and they are open water suspended, they will move away or drop to the bottom 7 out of 10 times. I’ve noticed this multiple times on my trips and have played with the sensitivity to turn down the signal strength. It did not make any noticeable difference.
If a large slab is nosed up on a tree, I can cast to them if the tree is between me and the fish.
If the fish is on the side, it will relocated to the back of the tree to get out of the ping of the transducer or has simply dropped off the tree and leave or drop to the bottom.
Now, I’m not bashing this brand and just simply stating my opinion. But it has been so noticeable that I’m currently installing the Garmin LS and it’s not what I wanted to do since all three of my graphs are Humminbird Helix.

Originally Posted by brush pile

Maybe they have been spooking all along, difference now is u can see them

You are probably right. I got Garmin Livescope earlier in the year. I did some long lining with the transducer facing forward. I noticed fish would dive to the bottom when I got somewhere between about 10 to 20 ft of them. I just assumed it probably was happening before as they hear or see the boat and trolling motor. I did not think about the LS affecting them, but I guess it is possible. I can't think of any way to know since you need the LS to see them.