Livescope Open Thread

There are a lot of discussions in other threads on how people are using livescope. I thought it would be a good idea to have a spot to throw in tips/tricks/results/settings and for guys to be able ask specific questions on how to use it to catch fish.

I’m a newb ice fishing with it. I’ve used it on 2 crappie lakes. I was surprised how effective it has been in shallow water. Yesterday I was in 4’ and in down mode I could effectively see about 10’ around me.

I was running the gain about 65%, noise reduction high, blue color palette. Water was pretty clear.

I have been using my 73SV from the boat. Too small so I just bought a 93 that I’ll get hooked up this week. I run the summit pole and bag, 18ah marcum monster battery.

I do wish there was a shorter cable available for the black graph to ducer. So much extra to drag around.

Matt Moen wrote:

I do wish there was a shorter cable available for the black graph to ducer. So much extra to drag around.

I can’t believe they didnt make the LVS32-IF with a shorter cable… i wrap up about 14’ of the cable super tight to the Garmin shuttle handle and secure it with velcro cable ties and then loosely wrap the remaining 6’ at the top to actually use….

Got out today…not a good day with the cold front, especially fishing shallow backwaters.

We marked tons of fish…no takers so I’m assuming these are bait fish. It was school after school of them roaming through. Anyone with thoughts? When I’ve marked decent panfish in shallow water there is more definition and certainly more size.

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How do the fish marks size compare with the size of your lure on screen, thats a good way to interpret marks… looking at your screenshot i’d remove the onscreen buttons and set your depth to only be 1’ deeper that the actual depth, this will give you the most screen real estate to look at.

The frustrating part about Livescope is that it shows you ALL of the fish below you that have ZERO interest in biting…

That’s my bait right below the zero mark so I think I have my answer.

Good call to remove the buttons. Thanks for the tip.

Livescope is awesome so far but you realize how many fish are near you that aren’t biting. Drives you a little crazy.

Matt Moen wrote:

That’s my bait right below the zero mark so I think I have my answer.

Good call to remove the buttons. Thanks for the tip.

Livescope is awesome so far but you realize how many fish are near you that aren’t biting. Drives you a little crazy.

Those are likely very small sunfish or perch, it takes months of use to get comfortable with everything, feeling a bit overwhelmed early on is part of it. The first time you see a 30” Walleye or 50” Muskie swim across your screen you get an appreciation for scale on screen.

I’ve been plenty happy with my 73sv. Probably won’t upgrade unless there’s a killer deal on a 93.

I’ve found that auto gain does a pretty good job. I have the color gain somewhere around 75-80. TVG off, noise and ghost reject where ever it gets me the best image. I don’t mind the buttons on the screen, if fishing gets slow I’ll futz around with it. Try to set the depth so the bottom is just above the buttons.

Pic shows the school of 7-10″ panfish that were swimming through my spot on Saturday. Few times you would see them scatter and a pike would swim through. Couldn’t get him to commit to anything, though.

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About 14 minutes in, Jay talks about the different settings.

Jay does great videos. I’m going out tomorrow and plan to keep getting things dialed in.

For anyone looking for the 7 or 9 inch echomap, Scheels has them on sale with the GT54.

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Here is a quick clip from this weekend. Almost dropped my phone in the lake!

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Brandon Meyers wrote:

Here is a quick clip from this weekend. Almost dropped my phone in the lake!

You’re not kidding about your phone drop. Thanks for sharing the video.

I’m slowly getting things dialed in. I find myself using forward view almost exclusively but I’ve mainly been chasing roaming panfish this winter.

Here’s a pic of a big school of crappies. Without LS I would’ve drilled in the wrong direction and never been on the school. Didn’t mean I could get them to bite with much consistency but at least I knew I was on them.

The biggest advantage so far has been eliminating water. I hole hop even in the coldest weather and it’s great to know very quickly where the fish aren’t.

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Just before ice up, Livescope showed me something I’da never seen while fishing blind. Crappies stacked at the surface late in the fall in ice cold conditions. Here’s a vid of me failing to get one on video, but you get the point. Why were they up that high? Turns out they were targeting little 1” long translucent minnows, species unknown to me, which were right at the surface.

Anyone running a Livescope setup in their wheelhouse and connect the unit to 110V a 110V outlet for power? If so, how’d you go about it? Currently I just run off the Dakota lithium battery but it’s not large enough to give me more than 6 hours of run time.

Nodakk wrote:

Anyone running a Livescope setup in their wheelhouse and connect the unit to 110V a 110V outlet for power? If so, how’d you go about it? Currently I just run off the Dakota lithium battery but it’s not large enough to give me more than 6 hours of run time.

Not exactly what you are looking for but I wired my power cables to a male 12v cigarrette outlet (link below) and plug into a female cigarette outlet. Works well.

Not a bad idea. I could easily add a 12V outlet by the floor where I set the Garmin. Thanks!

You just need an inverter if you already have the outlets. You get one off Amazon for pretty cheap.

FYI, for those on the fence and do not know yet about purchasing Livescope. Seems everywhere has $200 or more off the price right now. No rebate. Straight up off. Looks like Garmin is reducing stock for some reason.

Henpecked wrote:

FYI, for those on the fence and do not know yet about purchasing Livescope. Seems everywhere has $200 or more off the price right now. No rebate. Straight up off. Looks like Garmin is reducing stock for some reason.

I’ve heard rumors they are wanting to burn through their inventory of old double-barreled cord LVS-32 transducers, but to me it’s a signal that something new will be released this year, but iCast isn’t until July and there’s no way they are going to release before that imo…

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I’ve heard rumors they are wanting to burn through their inventory of old double-barreled cord LVS-32 transducers, but to me it’s a signal that something new will be released this year, but iCast isn’t until July and there’s no way they are going to release before that imo…
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I’m of the same persuasion. After checking around everywhere has the new single cable ones, something else must be shakin’. Rumor of price increase in March, but don’t think that is the reason.

There will for sure be a new Livescope version released this year, Garmin needs something shiny & new to stop angelers from switching over to Humminbird and Lowrance. The unknown is if it will be an entirely new generation platform “Livescope 2.0” (requiring all new head units, shuttles, bags, transducer, etc) or if it will simply be a versioning/branding update “Livescope HD” or “Livescope MAX” that likely includes features Livescope 1.0 always had available, but Garmin ran out of time incorporting before the original release. I’m sure their engineers found ways early on to improve the range or clear up the screen clutter (which to my surprise they included in the recent update) and kept it in their back pockets to release if competitors forced their hand, which none did UNTIL this year with MegaLive and Livesight 2.0

With all the chaos covid caused in the world supply chain the past 2 years, it wouldn’t surprise me if Garmin goes with the simpler versioning/branding release vs the full blown generation upgrade. They’ll wait to see where Humminbird/Lowrance goes with their current platform to determine when they invest major $$ in new platforms…

Rest assured Livescope 2.0 is ready and waiting for conditions to be right for release, Garmin is likely working on/developing Livescope 3.0 right now…