Yes another live scope question

My lowrance flasher died that I turned the transducer up and used forward facing for the last 25+ years. So I’m debating about another flasher or take the high price dive into modern technology.

I get the fact that live scope is more “idiot proof” with the imagery. What I’m trying to figure out after watching a bunch of vids, is the angle of cone of live scope consistently circular? Looking at the 34 model, is the angle of height the same degrees as the angle of width? All the vids I watched and forum info I’ve read doesn’t address the angle of height.

So as an example, (hypothetical) if the cone is 18′ wide at 50 feet out, and the transducer is set level at say 2 feet below surface, am I only seeing about 8-10 feet down?

Currently with the flasher, I get surface clutter or minimal at the top of the cone and I’ll get another mark at maybe 80′ that signifies bottom (distance of transducer to bottom return. Any marks between the two are fish or something causing a signal return. Rather than my transducer aiming 100% level, I angle it downward slightly to minimize the dead space beneath the cone.

Does what I’m asking make sense to the livescope users out there and understand flashers??

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Randy I copied this but I know its correct: A Garmin LVS 34 LiveScope transducer typically has a beam angle of around 20 degrees wide by 135 degrees long; meaning the sonar beam is narrow in the vertical plane (20 degrees) and wide in the horizontal plane (135 degrees)

And yes you seeing the correct depth to what ever you set it at and the width of the 20 degrees will widen the deeper you are and when in forward facing you are seeing out as far as 150′ at that width.
Hope this make sense.

This might help to explain : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4gwntUFpd0

James Almquist wrote:

Randy I copied this but I know its correct: A Garmin LVS 34 LiveScope transducer typically has a beam angle of around 20 degrees wide by 135 degrees long; meaning the sonar beam is narrow in the vertical plane (20 degrees) and wide in the horizontal plane (135 degrees)

And yes you seeing the correct depth to what ever you set it at and the width of the 20 degrees will widen the deeper you are and when in forward facing you are seeing out as far as 150′ at that width.
Hope this make sense.

That’s exactly what I was trying to find. the 135 degree long (vertical) by 20 wide makes more sense for the astronomical price. That dual angle eliminates a lot of the current dead space I currently get with a traditional cone.

how shallow are guys able to run this and have reasonable separation?

I have fished for panfish in 10′ of water and could tell the size difference and when a northern or bass was coming into the picture. You might have to turn the head around to get a feel for the weeds and other structure. This was with a LVS32. I would like to think the 34 should give you even better separation.

In down view I have used it in 8-9′ ice fishing walleye on Red. You can tell if it’s a walleye or just dink perch. You could also tell what line the fish was looking at jig vs deadstick

When fishing in less than 8’ of water, it is best to reposition the transducer into “perspective” mode. This is a physical rotation of the transducer from it typical vertical orientation into a horizontal orientation. When in “perspective” mode the angler gets a 135 degree horizontal by 20 degree vertical view…which works much better to see over the tops of weeds and track moving fish up shallow.

Randy, I don’t know about the geometry/math of the cone angles, but from practical experience can tell you that with LS on forward view, you will see both straight under and a little behind the transducer if mounted 2′ down. The dead-zone I’m most familiar with is the 12″-16″off of true bottom. You won’t often see bottom hugging fish that are literally belly on the bottom, until they rise up a foot or so.

My experience is that LS isn’t great on forward view in water under, say, 6 feet. Perspective mode may be the answer though. Can’t say, I don’t use it in that mode since I run a HB360.

Before you dive in to the expensive world of FFS, just know that some folks, including me, believe that the powerful LS signal seems to turn-off alot of shallow fish when ice fishing – and even a fair amount of deep fish. From my experience, the range at which fish begin to sense and respond negatively to the LS signal is around 40′ from the transducer, so this is not as much of a problem in open water when making +100′ casts, if that’s how you fish.

On ice, I have had significantly better ice fishing success with my Vex and, when stubbornly sticking with the superior imagery of LS, will routinely get my butt handed to me by my fishing partners using a Vex or Humminbird, with all the other variables eliminated. Wanna clear a hole you just drilled over a big school of fish? Drop your LS in there and wait a minute or two. With a Vex or HB, you can sit over those fish and pound on them for a lot longer.

Just go into any purchase with your eyes wide open. LS does have a lot of pros, but fishing in shallow water on ice is not one of them IMO – from a catching perspective.

My $.02…

Good to know

BrianF wrote:

Before you dive in to the expensive world of FFS, just know that some folks, including me, believe that the powerful LS signal seems to turn-off alot of shallow fish when ice fishing – and even a fair amount of deep fish. From my experience, the range at which fish begin to sense and respond negatively to the LS signal is around 40′ from the transducer

I have heard this before and have tried a little to see if it is true, my very limited experience with LS it hasn’t seemed to make much of a difference but who knows really, maybe I could have done much better had I shut it off.

I use the Active Target system from Lowrance. Similar cone angles. I regularly fish a spot that is only 5.5 to 6 foot deep. I do not experience any issues with driving fish away from the sonar signal. I am able to watch and identify between Bluegills, Crappies or Northerns within the cone.

I also have a Marcum LX-6 to use. The LX-6 is faster to set up and easier to hole hop with. I can pick everything up (display unit and transducer head) in one hand and move.

The Active Target (with a 9 inch display) is more bulky and heavier. It takes two hands to move, the display unit in one hand and the tripod/pole/transducer head in the other hand.

I still choose the Active Target most often, simply because it gives me more information and I believe my catch ratio is better when using the Active Target.
YMMV

I’ve used LiveScope on Upper Red in the early open water season. Spot lock in 5-6 ft and scan around until you see a fish. Usually hanging off the break. Didn’t really see any spook but they were in shallow to chow so maybe that over rode any discomfort from the LiveScope cone.
Take the dive, Randy!!

Take the dive, Randy!!

Sure, and most definitely if I can spend your money

I have a 32 and 34 did not notice any
spooky fish just many fish that came to the bait and stared at it . Many came in looked and just swam away . Many times they would spook from my jigging stroke .

I would look into buying lightly used LVS32 (get the single cord version) with an EchoMap93UHD (Scheels has a 93UHD2/LVS32 shuttle bundle for $1,800 brand new), that setup can get down to around 18 lbs and run all day on a 20AH battery. you should be able to find really good deals with all of the folks who just upgraded during the black Friday sales…

This gets you to about 80% of what the top of the line LVS34 FFS setups can deliver for a fraction of the price…if it turns out you like using FFS and want to upgrade, then you’ll be ready for when Garmin/Lowrance release their 2.0 versions in the future and you won’t take that big of hit when upgrading like the LVS34 owners will… or maybe you’ll be happy with the LVS 32 and just keep it…

if you end up not liking FFS, then you should be able to sell it for decent price to somebody else looking to get into the FFS game…

Don Meier wrote:

I have a 32 and 34 did not notice any
spooky fish just many fish that came to the bait and stared at it . Many came in looked and just swam away . Many times they would spook from my jigging stroke .

i have 2 of the 34s and only open water fish now but notice the same thing that there are a lot more lookers than takers. and yes a lot of times jigging it really spooks them