I hate livescope

[UpstateSC_Bill]

There is a reason they have bag limits, one lake I fish back in the early 80`s Crappie was 50 late 80`s it was lowered to 25. Early 90`s it was lowered to 15 and has fluctuated between 15-10 over the years.

Yep. Bag limits are a tool they use. Doesn't it seem coincidental that those reductions you mention pretty much correspond to the increased use of various technologies to catch more and more fish. But even at reduced bag limits if more and more people are limiting out due to use of technology it still impacts the fishery. I expect most people here are probably pretty responsible fishermen and pay attention to conservation and catch and release and other issues. But I wonder how many joe average fishermen take their limit whenever they can.

But I never have cared much for the whole idea of livescope. It doesn't seem much different than fishing in a big aquarium. You look at the fish and drop your jig somewhere near it trying to get it to bite. You know exactly where the fish are and just hope you can entice them to bite. What's the fun in that?


Sent from my Pixel 6 using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[happycaster58]

That’s true, but most that I’ve seen kept them especially the big ones.


Sent from my iPad using Crappie.com

From what I've read, harvesting the biggest ones in a population whether it be deer, turkeys, or fishes, makes more room for a greater number of medium sized animals to move up into the largest range. Think of it as a pyramid, with the biggest animals being on the top. The alpha fish consume a greater percentage of forage relative to the number of their group. By harvesting more of the largest specimens, it makes more room for a greater number of medium fish to get bigger and move up to the top ranks. Over time, there will be a greater number of bigger fishes in the body of water- assuming you are dealing with a good sized body of water.
Most biologists agree that with crappie especially, they can breed in such numbers that it is almost impossible to fish out a larger body of water.
I also think that the decrease in populations is more a factor of more people fishing and not better technology exclusively. 5 years ago, I could go to the smaller lakes in my area, and see maybe 1 boat in a particular cove. Now, there are 2-3 in said cove. All us boomers are retiring and have both the time and income to purchase expensive new tech. Before LS or even DI and SI, I saw populations of fish and quality of them decline slowly.
LS just makes locating fish more efficient, and it does not make them bite. We are becoming more educated as to crappie habits with LS. As to people keeping more limits, over the 60 years I've been fishing, I have seen that the poorest folks usually keep the most fish. That's OK. Fishing to eat was the thing you had to do in the old times. Poor folks cannot afford LS or other modern electronics to bring home the catch. Fish your own way of fishing. As long as it's legal, I'm OK with it. Now someone else can use the soapbox.

[Grainraiser]

A really large crappie has already passed their genes among the pool. They are likely at the end of their lifecycle so throwing them back really does little good. Crappie are prolific breeders and overfishing them on a decent body of water is just about impossible. Your fishing license in part pays for wildlife biologist to monitor fish populations in our area lakes. They will adjust the limits base on their research.

[UpstateSC_Bill]

A really large crappie has already passed their genes among the pool. They are likely at the end of their lifecycle so throwing them back really does little good. Crappie are prolific breeders and overfishing them on a decent body of water is just about impossible. Your fishing license in part pays for wildlife biologist to monitor fish populations in our area lakes. They will adjust the limits base on their research.

I have always felt I understood all of what you said and it makes sense. What causes me to question your comment on overfishing is that I have read a fair number of comments on line about waters that used to be very crappie productive that are not so productive anymore. An isolated comment or two is one thing but reading a fair number of such comments makes me wonder. I can't say I have experienced it personally because I just don't take a lot of fish at a time anyway. There's times I go out and don't spend as much time "fishing" as just paddling around enjoying time on the water and observing nature. That's hard to do if you're staring at a screen.

[Eagle 1]

REPLACED MY 1222 WITH A 8 INCH HELIX FOR MAPS . GARMIN 93 WITH A 56 TRANSDUCER TO LOCATE TOPS . THROW OUT MARKERS AND FISH . LIVESCOPE NOT FOR ME .

[fredo]

But I never have cared much for the whole idea of livescope. It doesn't seem much different than fishing in a big aquarium. You look at the fish and drop your jig somewhere near it trying to get it to bite. You know exactly where the fish are and just hope you can entice them to bite. What's the fun in that?

That’s my complaint with it. It replaces the magic and mystery of fishing with computer pixels. It’s the difference between an eight-year-old waking up on Christmas morning and finding presents under the tree and that same eight-year-old ordering presents off Amazon and getting free 2-day delivery.

If that’s what you like to do, more power to ya. Personally, I’d rather stick needles in my eyes.

[justinp61]

I hate compound bows and centerfire rifles, one of these days' folks using them will wipe out the entire deer population.

[Slab]

I hate compound bows and centerfire rifles, one of these days' folks using them will wipe out the entire deer population.

I know there's lots of different feeling out there about live scoop! My opinion is, as long as you follow the laws, and have a healthy respect for mother nature (in other words, don't waste your harvest), fish how you want. My point is that Live scoop is great, but it just takes away from being in nature cause all I'm doing is looking at that darn screen. At least for me it does. I know, it's my choice to use it or not, and that's exactly what I do, sometimes I use it, and sometimes I din't.

[justinp61]

I know there's lots of different feeling out there about live scoop! My opinion is, as long as you follow the laws, and have a healthy respect for mother nature (in other words, don't waste your harvest), fish how you want. My point is that Live scoop is great, but it just takes away from being in nature cause all I'm doing is looking at that darn screen. At least for me it does. I know, it's my choice to use it or not, and that's exactly what I do, sometimes I use it, and sometimes I din't.

I completely agree. This discussion has been going on for hundreds of years, not live sonar, but new technology, it probably started when Thor invented the wheel, LOL. I'm old enough to have seen the arguments when compound bows really started taking off and they were the same as what I read on forums regarding live sonar. If this technology brings young people to lake, I'm all for it.

Live sonar doesn't make you a better fisherman IMO, it does make it easier to see the fish and where your baits are. I can find fish with my down and side scan and then target them with live sonar. Honestly, I'm not catching any more than I did before though, but I've never claimed to be a good fisherman. Finding fish is one thing, catching them is another. For the most part guys that are consistently catching limits with live sonar were catching limits before live sonar and for some guy's live sonar put the final piece of the puzzle in place to make them good fisherman, I'm not one of those guys.

As far as keeping more fish than a person should, those guys were doing it before live sonar. Live sonar has nothing to do with a person's morals.

Technology marches on, each of us choose our level of participation.

[fredo]

Golf WITHOUT Livescope