Products to Accelerate Your Livescope Learning Process
The term “game changer” gets thrown around a lot in the fishing industry, but in my two decades on the front lines I’ve seen few products or accessories that have made a difference comparable to the footprint established by forward facing sonar. Not everyone likes it, not everyone can afford it or justify the cost, but there can be no doubt that there are certain situations where if you don’t have it you’ll at best be an also-ran. From the trophy hunters at OH Ivie to the “Livescopers” on the major tours, those who are good with it have located and exploited populations of fish that would not have been catchable before.
I’ve bought into it – literally – by placing Garmin’s Livescope system on my 2022 Bass Cat Puma STS. After talking to many pros, and fishing with some, and consulting with a friend who was formerly a Luddite, but now is an evangelist for the technology, I knew that I wanted it.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had enough time to dial it in as I would’ve liked. I’ve messed around with it some, and intend to do so quite a bit more in the coming months. I know that “screen time” is the best way to get better. Thanks to Chad Morgenthaler’s advice I’ve settled on some settings that I like, but I’m still working to consistently locate my bait and judge what the fish in front of me are doing. For the former, I’ve realized that an Alabama Rig is an exceptional breakthrough tool, but not surprisingly the creatives in the fishing and boating biz have developed some others. Here are a few you might consider:
If you have Garmin like I do, and you’re struggling with the picture, be sure to update your software. If you’d like it to be even clearer, and have a few bucks to spend, consider the updated LVS34 Transducer.
If you become addicted to scoping in front of you, to the exclusion of flipping, pitching and everything else, the only other things you might need are a neck brace, ibuprofen and a new prescription after staring at the screen for too long.
