LiveScope on Upper Red

Kind of a long post but sharing what I learned with LiveScope.
When I fish Red Lake early in the year, I usually jig/troll (move along slowly with the bow mount and work a jig and minnow behind the boat.) I fished it the week before Memorial Day and it was the first time fishing it with LiveScope. I started out jig trolling in 6-7 feet with the LiveScope in forward view pointing deeper with a 60 foot range. If I saw a fish on the LiveScope I would Spot Lock and cast to the fish. If the cast was accurate the fish would bite about 50-60% of the time. I then would look around with LiveScope for other fish in the area and fish them. If none were seen, I would continue jig/trolling.

I also Spot Locked on the break (5.5-7 feet) and scanned around with the LiveScope. If no fish were seen, I would start fan casting and then look again in a few minutes. If I saw a fish I would cast to it. In this scenario, the bite to cast ratio went up to 60-80%. If the cast was within 5 feet of the fish, it would almost always bite or at least follow it for a ways. If the jig and fish were in the cone during the retrieve that was fine but it was more important to get the cast close to the fish. When the retrieve/fish were in the cone I observed:

-The majority of the fish that bit, picked the jig/minnow of the bottom. A few times I casted, set
the rod down to get food or drink out of the cooler and a fish would be on when I picked up
the rod.
-Some more aggressive fish would bite on the drop.
-The fish on LiveScope look like a vertical line when they are off the bottom. As they started to
follow the jig, the vertical line would lower into the bottom. You could see the fish following
the jig with the dithering of the top layer of the bottom image.
-Sometimes a fish would be following and another fish would rocket in and bite.
-Some decent fish 18-20” were caught within 10 feet of the boat.

I went through ~3/4 scoop of fatheads a day. In the first half of the mornings I had several short biting fish and dropped some on the way to the boat. Throughout the rest of the day they got the 1/8 oz jig further in their mouth. I kept no fish day 1, four on day 2, one on day 3 and ate it that day, and one on day 4.
The Amped Outdoors lithium battery I got during the winter easily lasts 8 hours.
Can’t wait to get back up there.

Great report. Thanks.

AK Guy wrote:

Great report. Thanks.

X2! Even though I’m kind of anti-livescope in some ways, it is still interesting to hear the detailed observation reports from its users! Do it for science

Excellent review ! Lets one observe fish behavior for sure .

I am a retired scientist.
Another thing I learned when I was spot-locked on the break was the fish tend to come into the break in specific areas. We all know fish tend to approach structure a certain way due to depth, bottom content (maybe some gravel or scrub weeds), etc.
The first summer I had it I learned quickly not to spend time on fish that don’t want to bite. Spent 40 minutes on a Mille Lacs flat throwing a slip bobber trying to get a fish to bite (changing live bait, jig color). It would come up an snif it and not bite. Finally caught it, a 23 incher. But if I would have lindy-rigged the edge I probably would have caught at least 2 fish. Live and learn.

in my opinion if you use one of every fish you land should have to be released but thats just me