I’m a Garmin user so slightly biased, but I’ve had a chance to use my buddy’s ML2 this winter. It is a significant upgrade over ML1, but that’s only because ML1 was so poor. The mega live 2 has an image quality somewhere right in between Garmin’s LVS32 transducer and the LVS34 transducer.

A few of the downfalls I noted: It barely fits down an 8″ hole. You have to angle the transducer perfectly to get it in. When you first put in the water it takes at least 5-8 seconds to register since it stops transmitting when out of the water. Not a crazy issue, just annoying when trying to move fast.

It doesn’t really move the needle past the latest Garmin products, but it does provide an upgrade to the hardcore Humminbird users.

Wonder if he tried to “revive” it for an hour before killing it for the record like he claimed happened with his Musky.

LabDaddy1 wrote:

I forgot what they call those in meteorology.

Generally called a squall line. There’s different type of “lined storms” but this one fits the definition of squall line quite well.

Youbetcha wrote:

Old thread but finally getting out of my power fishing ways. Where are you throwing drop shots? Mainly off shore humps/points? Rocks and weeds?

The nice thing about the drop shot is you can fish it well in multiple depths and multiple structures. The only place I won’t throw a drop shot is thick weeds (can do it, but gets bogged down with weeds easily and there’s better options for that). Just off the edge of a weedline however is very effective. As a power fisherman by heart, I usually burn structure with a moving bait while watching side imaging for pods of fish. If I locate a pod, spot-lock or slow down, grab a drop shot and pick apart the pod of fish. Since it’s not a technique that covers a lot of water, you want to fish it through pod of fish or a high percentage piece of smallish structure that is likely to hold fish.

If you’re fishing it in heavy rocks, I would suggest switching to lead weights instead of using tungsten. You can burn through a lot $$$ fishing tungsten drop shots through rock piles. Match your weights to your depth. I use 1/4oz or 3/8oz for most applications. You also want to be able to feel your bait at all times, so if it’s windy, that also can call for heavier weights.

X2 on the Berkely Maxscent product line. They just flat out catch.

mahtofire14 wrote:

The good thing about Lewis is the Twins have one of the top prospects in baseball ready to fill in for him at St Paul.

Nope, Lee’s out for the first few weeks with back spasms apparently. Likely a combination of Castro/Farmer at third base until Lewis’ return.

Karl Hungus wrote:

Basically, it was a swing and a miss prediction wise for our area. Yesterday morning they were perdicting I think 6-8″ of snow. Then again, who knows how mnany inches of “precip” we got in this area?

They don’t forecast snow by how much is left in your driveway after the storm. Odds are most of it melted/compacted on contact. Officially 8.1″ up at the NWS in Chanhassen, in line with what was forecasted. 1.2″-1.7″ of precip has fallen across the southern 1/3 of MN as of 6am this morning.

Pockets of rain today then another shot at snow tomorrow as temperatures come back below freezing.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Oh I know what you are saying. I have one of these official rain gauges that I leave out all winter. It holds 12 inches. I often see FAR more snow in it than what is actually on the ground which is exactly what you are getting at.

Yup! That’s a great example! You can also measure that and melt that snow down to find the water equivalent and subsequent snow ratio. If you have 8″ in the gauge, and melted down it comes out to 0.5″ of water, that means your snow:liquid ratio was 16:1.

CaptainMusky wrote:

There is no frost here in the first 6 inches, but a little bit further down. It will have to come down dang hard to accumulate quickly and I have seen things where they thought rates of over an inch an hour which is pretty dang impressive.

Surface temperatures don’t single handedly drive snow ratios. You need to look at an atmospheric sounding with the main player being the dendritic growth zone (DGZ). Melting and compacting once the snow hits the ground doesn’t effect the ratio at which it has fallen. Official snow measurements are taken frequently snow board to limit the amount of melting/compacting and gain an accurate reading. If 12″ of snow falls, and 6″ of it melts and compacts by the time you measure, 12″ of snow still fell.

College of Dupage Weather is another good weather model site. A little more user friendly than Pivotal, with fewer models overall.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Where are you seeing this? I havent seen it reported anywhere lately, but I had seen it like on Monday. Now it seems totals have been trending down. No way it will be a 10:1 ratio of snow either.

Directly from the weather models. Pivotal weather is a great tool. It’s only trending down in snow totals because the confidence is increasing that more precip will fall in the form of rain overnight Sunday into Monday. 10:1 is the gold standard used for most model interpretations and current forecasts call snow starting at 12:1 Sunday and decreasing to 8:1 into the evening.

A large swath of MN is basically a lock to get 2″-3″ of precipitation between now and the end of next week. It’s just a matter of how much of that is snow at a ~10:1 ratio (20″-30″ if pure snow) or mix of snow and rain (most likely scenario).

The analog years for this upcoming El Nino transitioning back to year 1 La Nina tend to favor above average precipitation across the central plains up to the north into Minnesota. Unfortunately, this is not a guarantee, but history is our best indicator this far out.

Interesting to note as well, the strongest analog years, also contain several strong to violent MN tornado’s (my interest).

Never look at simulated reflectivity maps 240 hours out. The best you can do that far out is to look at ensemble models (GEFS, EPS) to monitor trends. Operational models are only good for broad upper air patterns at that range. If anybody (including broadcast meteorologists) show a map of precipitation beyond 4 days out they’re just asking to be wrong.

With that said, upper air patterns and ensembles are showing signs of an active end of march in the precipitation department. Last night’s 00z GFS run even dropped 40″ of snow over MSP between now and March 30th. Book it.

Riverrat wrote:

Annie Battle is a swimming lake in the middle of Glendalough park. I was aware the motors were banned but not electronics, but its a pond as much as anything.

I’d have a hard time calling Annie-Battle a pond. It’s 354 acres and 51 feet deep. That is well above the average lake size of 202.5 acres/lake across Minnesota. This makes it a good case study when talking about fisheries in general because it’s representative of a good chunk of lakes across Minnesota.

topshotta wrote:

As I said earlier, fishing is only as good as the habitat available to the fish. I want the agencies to protect and enhance the public’s habitat, not reach in my boat and tell me what transducer to use.

My point exactly, people like to think limiting technology and reducing limits is a cure-all.

Jimmy Jones wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>BigWerm wrote:</div>
How about if you use FFS you can only catch and release?

Ultimately, I believe this will be the answer. For those that want to have a meal, just learn to fish.

I think the most likely scenario is they require a live imaging “stamp”, because when push comes to shove, they’ll settle for taking more $$$. That way they can still get money from big companies pushing the product and from the consumer to even be able to use that product.

Here’s a case study for y’all. Annie Battle Lake in Ottertail county has been classified as a “Heritage Fishery” since 1997 which bans the use of ALL electronics and gas powered motors, including augers. Another part of this regulation is that bass and pike are CnR only, and bluegill/crappie limits are 5/piece. Wow, what, no technology and reduced limits?! This lake must be chalk full of 10″ bluegills, 15″ crappies, 22″ bass, and 40″ pike! Well, not exactly. If we use the most recent 2019 DNR lake survey as a point of reference: the bass still average 13″, the pike still average 18″, the bluegill still average 6-7″, and the crappies still average 9″.

fishthumper wrote:

You care to share the link to that Creel survey? I’m having no luck locating anything on such a survey.

I’ll see if I can get my hands on it. It was recently being presented at a conference earlier this year and not sure it’s released to the public yet. You can listen to Hutchinson Area Fisheries Office Supervisor Scott Mackenthun talk about it on the Jan 15 episode of the Paul Bunyan podcast if you’d like.

Ripjiggen wrote:

And even if you argue that let’s say live sonar “only” increases the fish kill by some single digit %. Well if the lake is already in a population decline, then 3% greater fish kill per year isn’t going to be a good deal in 10 years, is it?

Care to cite your sources that livescope increases fish kill? Because the only creel survey I’ve seen that addressed FFS was done by the Glenwood Area Fisheries Offices this year and actually showed reduced fish harvest numbers by livescope users when compared to non-livescope users.

There’s about to be a new player as well soon with OnX Fish getting ready to release. From what I’ve seen, this could be a one stop fishing shop, if done right. Lake mapping, GIS data, current satellite imagery, and fish survey data all rolled into one mobile app. Allegedly rolling out in the next few weeks.

gim wrote:

I can’t find anything on it dated in 2024. The most recent information I can find is still from 2023. This is what it says.

Thanks! Looks similar to the article I read. I guess we’ll wait and see what the 2024 regulation book has to say.

gim wrote:

Just a note on state records, at least here in MN. The DNR is re-classifying every single state record that pre-dates 1980 as a “historical record” since the rules for entering a state record prior to that were very loose. You didn’t even need a photo, a witness, or certified scale to receive credit. They are also adding new species every year for the next four years to the C & R Length category starting this year.

Have you found any actual information on this? I saw it got some newspaper coverage last year in May and then it has been quiet since.

gonefishin wrote:

Without FFS that fish would not have been caught, there would be less dead fish from barotrauma without FFS.

There would also be less dead fish from barotrauma without cozy wheelhouses, tungsten jigs, flashers, 1ft contour map chips, and the internet, where do you want to draw the line?

biggill wrote:

Aaron, for your next study, put those fish in the minnow traps and lower them to 30’ next time. Check them 48-72 hours later.

Aaron mentioned in the on-screen text that it would be better to observe them “at depth” and that he applied for an exception permit to do so, but was denied. It said the law required him to work within the constraints of a realistic “angling livewell.” Guessing that prevented him from doing something to this effect.

Youbetcha wrote:

Waconia puts out 19″s there are bigger than 16.5″ in the metro

Most those 19″s wouldn’t make 17″ on a bump board with the mouth closed…

Very few lakes in the metro have targetable populations of 15″+ fish. Many have them, but actually being able to target the big ones (ex: Minnetonka, Waconia) is nearly impossible. You’re searching for a fish that that is in the 99.99th percentile of all the crappies in the lake. It just becomes a numbers game at that point and you hope for the one lucky bite.

My recommendation is to upsize your lures. 15″+ crappies become predators at that size. Walleye sized spoons with a minnow heads. This selectively filters out the bottom 50th percentile size of crappies within a lake and increases the likelihood of getting the big bite.

grubson wrote:

The crappie chronicle guys on you tube have been promising to show us a giant from metro waters for 3 or 4 years now. Still waiting…….

I mean, is 16.5” not big enough for you? That’s a big crappie. Any bigger and we’re talking a near once in a lifetime fish up here in Minny.

bigstick56 wrote:

When I put it in my cart and used the code SAVENOW, the total went to $467.99. I figured there might have been a glitch or something and continued with the checkout process, still not believing that would be the final price, but I just got it delivered to my house today and my CC was charged that amount!!! Maybe I got lucky, I also just went to the website and see they are out of the FLX30’s…

It was a legit deal, they had an extra 20% off all fishing stuff which expired yesterday. I got the same deal you did. They sold-out mid-day yesterday. “Special price” of $609 – 20% off – SAVENOW code = $467.

Joe wrote:

Any recommendations on chameleon tech lens color for open water fishing? Primarily want to see muskie follows. They have buy one get one free on black friday.

I have the freshwater green lenses and they would work well for your application. They also have a “What lens is right for me?” section on the website that talks about the best application for each lens.

Thanks for the info xplorer. Had not heard that before and seems illogical that a fish would be assigned a weight for state record. Glad this new Coho eliminates any debate.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Technically, a new state coho record had been submitted to the DNR days earlier on Sept. 2, according to the Duluth News Tribune. That 10.06-pound coho was also caught from Lake Superior. It was a potential state record because the DNR is currently revising its record fish program by reclassifying some records caught before 1980 as “historic” and opening the door to new certified weight records.

I’m confused. Are we just assuming all pre-1980 records are ‘historic’ now and submitting fish on the fly to replace them? I know there was debate/action about removing pre-1980 fish last year, but they have to at least formally open that door… right? Anybody hear anything more on this?

Add in his Blackfish Classic win on Minnetonka this year. Noah is a hammer.

I’ve had a pair of RLVNT sunglasses for almost two years. I went with the Navigator frames with chameleon lenses in Freshwater Green. I am in love with them. They have been an all-around glasses for me during every day as well as in the boat and on the ice.

The chameleon tech seems like the real deal, low-light, bright light still just as comfortable wearing them.

My only complaint would be the navigator frames don’t come with a rubber nose piece. I had to get an adjustable strap (which I now love) to keep them snug. I think the new Triton frames come with a rubber nose piece.

If mine broke, I’d buy another pair tomorrow. Also, bonus for supporting a local MN company.