I know virtually nothing about livescope, but am considering one. I fish areas that walleye and smallmouth bass both hang out on some of the same structure, is it possible to somewhat differentiate between the two, or will you just know that there is fish on that structure? Waters fishing would be Sturgeon bay, Door county, and over all bay of green bay.
In my experience, and this takes a lot of time to learn, but different fish school differently; when current is involved especially.
Like all fish finders, they’ll show you an object. You’ll need to discern the object is a fish. From there, you need to identify the species; if you already know how fish of different types school, that part is easy. If you don’t know yet, a camera is the best tool … next to catching the fish. There are a lot of crossover presentations for both walleye and bass, so fishing for them to identify them isn’t a poor choice. But a camera will tell you when you aren’t catching the species you properly identified or visa versa.
With SI, a lot of fish characteristics are revealed. The shade of return is an indicator of the species. Catfish vs carp i.e. scales vs skin. Thickness…Is it a whisper of a line – it may very well be a shovelnose sturgeon. Are they stacked close and in a line as well as being more whispery of a line than solid – they may be quillback. etc.
To be GREAT on whatever technology you utilize means you must use other outside information to interpret what the technology is displaying. The tools are available to connect as many dots as you can plot if you are willing to spend the time. Most will stop at buying the tech and identifying a fish, and then simply fishing. I cannot tell you how often people are fishing for a species that isn’t the one they are actively fishing just based on how the fish are schooling. Some are a dead giveaway in comparison to others.
I am highly considering that tech too. Since i can already readily identify a fish species using SI, the ability to cast directly to, and see the behavior of the fish in real time in relation to your bait – would be a whole new learning curve of fish catching information.
It seems to me though if you utilize this technology to present a lure to the fish with a higher efficiency than ever before. You’ll be able to watch the behavior of the fish, change tactics, and either catch or understand it is not going to bite faster..Therefore accelerating your learning curve and putting more fish of the right species in the boat.
GO for it man.
Check out YouTube videos demonstrating Livescope. Good luck.
you’ll totally be able to tell the difference between Smallies and Walleyes, Smallies will look like footballs, Walleyes will look like a footlong Subway sub or “subs” if you’re lucky 
Until the 1st time you see a very large Pike or Muskie appear on screen you won’t have a true idea of what fish size looks like yet…
And sometimes you can see the dorsal fin of a walleye, especially if they’re close/shallow. Don’t own livescope but have watched lots of vids…. so yeah I’m kind of an expert…
Thank’s for all your suggestions. Looks as though I need to search out some vids. At best, I guess I was thinking that I possibly might be able to see a somewhat different shape of a smallmouth vs walleye. Seems as though that could be a maybe. It’ll give me something to do tonight, checking out some vids. Going Salmon fishing for the first time this year, out of Sturgeon Bay. Been a long winter waiting for that to start again. Little early yet for here, but we’ll see how it goes.
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